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Saudi Arabia has launched a new artificial intelligence company that will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and be Riyadh’s prime vehicle to drive the kingdom’s strategy and investments as it seeks to become a global AI hub.
The new multibillion-dollar entity, named Humain, was unveiled a day before US President Donald Trump touches down in Riyadh on the first leg of a three-nation tour of the oil-rich Gulf.
Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg are also expected to be in the Saudi capital on Tuesday to attend a US-Saudi investment forum, when a raft of multibillion-dollar deals are set to be announced in AI, defence and other sectors.
No details were given for the size of Humain’s capital, but the company plans to build a suite of AI technologies and infrastructure, including data centres, according to a statement published by the Saudi state news agency.
It will be both an investor and an operator of AI assets, and plans to offer advanced Arabic large language models targeting users in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East.
Building a state-of-the-art AI model typically runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars, involving cutting-edge chips, huge energy demands and other infrastructure costs.
US tech companies are increasingly looking to the Gulf, which manages some of the world’s largest and most active sovereign wealth funds, to raise capital and lure investments.
Riyadh will hope that the launch of Humain, which is owned by the $940bn Public Investment Fund, will bring clarity to its AI strategy.
In recent years, Saudi officials have made numerous statements about the kingdom’s grand ambitions in the sector, but it has been unclear which entity was leading the plans.
The PIF has already launched several AI companies, including Alat, also chaired by Prince Mohammed, which has pledged to invest $100bn by 2030 in AI hardware and technology infrastructure.
Last year, US AI chipmaker Groq announced a partnership with Aramco Digital, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, to build the world’s largest inferencing data centre in the kingdom. Cerebras, another US AI chipmaker, has also announced an alliance with Aramco.
The US Treasury said on Thursday it would establish a “fast track process to facilitate greater investment in US businesses” from allies, something Gulf states lobbied for to accelerate AI investments in the US and ease access to American chips.
Gulf states increasingly view AI as a key component of their efforts to reduce their dependence on oil and develop new industries.
The United Arab Emirates, which Trump will visit this week, has established G42, which is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Gulf state’s power national security adviser, as its main AI vehicle. Microsoft invested $1.5bn for a minority stake in G42 last year, in a deal that was seen as key to US relations with the UAE.
Abu Dhabi also launched a dedicated AI investment fund, MGX, last year and has taken a strategic decision to invest in US technology.
Qatar, the other country on Trump’s tour, has also made clear its AI ambitions and is likely to announce investments in the sector during the president’s visit.
Saudi Arabia has slowed its spending overseas in recent years after a decade of frenetic activity as the government grapples with lower oil prices and the sheer scale of its domestic projects, many of which are being overseen by the PIF.
But AI is considered one of the areas where the kingdom will be looking to continue spending. In January, Prince Mohammed pledged that the kingdom would invest $600bn in the US over the next four years after a telephone call with Trump.
Additional reporting by Melissa Heikkilä
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