The U.S. government announced expansive agreements to sell advanced AI technology and services worth tens of billions of dollars to companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, countries the previous administration barred from receiving the most powerful hardware.. Companies https://t.co/9uYjmQ41qE
Saudi Arabia seeks to use financial might to muscle into global AI industry PIF-backed Humain courts US tech investors and plans $10bn venture fund https://t.co/TId8Tzsdp2 via @ft
AI poised to advance Saudi Arabia citizen 'healthy life expectancy' https://t.co/H4Ij3D6qoP #PopHealthIT
Saudi Arabia has launched Humain, a new state-owned artificial intelligence company backed by the $940 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF). Humain Ventures, its venture capital arm, will launch a $10 billion fund this summer to invest in technology startups in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain, said the company is in talks with major US tech groups including OpenAI, Elon Musk's xAI, and Andreessen Horowitz for joint projects and equity partnerships in its data center business. Humain is seeking a US tech group as an equity partner and aims to become one of the world's largest AI infrastructure providers. Humain has signed $23 billion in deals with Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services, and Qualcomm. Notably, the company has a $10 billion joint venture with AMD to supply 500MW of capacity over five years and a $2 billion investment with Qualcomm to develop data centers and chip design capabilities, including a chipset design center in Riyadh employing 500 engineers. The first phase of Humain's data center plan will begin with a 50MW plant using 18,000 Nvidia chips, with expansion planned to 500MW. Humain targets 1.9 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2030, rising to 6.6GW by 2034, requiring an estimated $77 billion investment. The company aims to process 7% of global AI model training and inferencing by 2030. Humain will offer electricity subsidies and plans to regulate data centers under the law of the tenant's country of origin. Sites are planned in Riyadh and the Eastern Province, and the company does not plan to manufacture chips. The launch of Humain coincided with a visit to Riyadh by US President Donald Trump and top US tech executives. The initiative is part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy beyond oil.