Saudi Arabia is making a massive bet on becoming a global AI powerhouse

Saudi Arabia is channeling its vast oil wealth into an ambitious vision for artificial intelligence. At the forefront of this initiative is Humain, a domestic enterprise focused on developing a comprehensive suite of data centers, cloud solutions, and advanced language models. This initiative is backed by the Kingdom’s nearly $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman introduced Humain ahead of a state visit from President Donald Trump, and its scope became more apparent during the recent Future Investment Initiative. Tareq Amin, the CEO of Humain, has set a bold target: to position Saudi Arabia as the world’s third-largest AI market, following the United States and China. Amin believes the Kingdom’s significant advantage lies in its abundant and inexpensive energy resources, which are essential for meeting the ever-growing demand for computing power. "We have an advantage in Saudi Arabia," Amin stated in an interview. "Our country's impressive energy grid means I don’t need to spend time building substations to power data centers, saving us about 18 months." Humain aims to establish up to six gigawatts of data center capacity by 2034, forming partnerships with major players in the AI field such as Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services, Qualcomm, and Cisco. Recently, the company announced a $3 billion collaboration with Blackstone, a leading private equity firm, to expand data center infrastructure in the Kingdom. Additionally, Humain has launched Humain One, an innovative AI-driven operating system that allows users to interact with computers using voice or text, moving away from traditional point-and-click interfaces. This system has already been implemented internally to streamline various corporate functions, with AI handling most tasks in departments like HR and finance, reducing the payroll staff to a single individual. As Saudi Arabia approaches the final phases of its Vision 2030 economic transformation plan, it faces challenges from falling oil prices and delays in mega-projects like Neom. This urgency has intensified the push for AI to bolster the growth of the Arab world's largest economy. However, competition looms from the United Arab Emirates, which is also advancing its AI ambitions through G42 and has secured significant partnerships for a $500 billion data center initiative. When asked about the potential for competition between the two nations, Amin expressed support for a diversified AI landscape. "It's beneficial for humanity to have AI knowledge spread out, rather than concentrated in one area. The developments in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are commendable," he remarked. "What sets Humain apart is that we are an operating company, not just a holding entity."