Saudi Arabia has unveiled HUMAIN, a new state-owned artificial intelligence firm, just days before the arrival of former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose Gulf tour is expected to focus heavily on technology and economic partnerships.
Backed by the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — now valued at $925 billion — HUMAIN will invest across the AI value chain, building data centers, cloud infrastructure, and Arabic language AI models, according to a statement issued by the Saudi Press Agency. The company will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Though the scale of investment wasn’t disclosed, the initiative reflects Saudi Arabia’s broader ambitions to position itself as a global technology powerhouse under its Vision 2030 economic diversification plan.
Strategic Timing Ahead of U.S. Talks
Trump is scheduled to arrive in Riyadh on Tuesday, with AI expected to be a central theme of the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, which will bring together top executives from Alphabet, IBM, and Qualcomm.
According to reports, Trump’s administration is preparing to roll back restrictions imposed under the Biden-era export controls, potentially allowing Saudi Arabia greater access to high-end AI chips and computing infrastructure.
AI, Cloud, and a Data Boom
Saudi Arabia has already committed more than $100 billion toward AI and digital infrastructure, with over two gigawatts of computing capacity currently under development. The Kingdom now accounts for nearly half of the Middle East’s total data center capacity, per analyst estimates.
Tech firms are following suit. Salesforce has announced a $500 million investment in the Kingdom, while AI-focused startup Scale AI, backed by Amazon, is among the U.S. firms establishing a local footprint.
Analyst firm Research and Markets projects that $12 billion will be invested in MENA data centers by 2027, with Saudi Arabia leading regional growth.
Sector-Wide AI Ambitions
HUMAIN aims to drive innovation across multiple sectors, including energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and finance, serving as a foundational tech hub for the Kingdom’s growing digital economy.
The launch reinforces Saudi Arabia’s push to become the Middle East’s primary AI and cloud hub, leveraging its sovereign wealth, regulatory reforms, and a wave of public-private partnerships to attract global tech players.
