Saudi Arabia launches HUMAIN with sights set on global AI leadership

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched HUMAIN in May 2025, betting that artificial intelligence (AI) will become as strategically vital as oil once was for the desert kingdom.

The state-owned AI company, backed by Saudi Arabia’s $940 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), plans to build 1.9 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2030. That massive infrastructure would handle roughly 7 percent of global AI workloads.

“The world is hungry for capacity,” said HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin, formerly head of Aramco Digital. “Whoever reaches the end line first is going to secure a good chunk of the market share.”

The company has already signed agreements worth $23 billion with major US tech firms, including NVIDIA, AMD, Amazon Web Services, and Qualcomm. HUMAIN will begin chip procurement within 30 days following the Trump administration’s decision to lift restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to Saudi Arabia.

With this advancement, Saudi Arabia aims to develop one of the world’s most powerful Arabic language models, serving over 450 million Arabic speakers globally. HUMAIN will also launch a $10 billion venture capital arm to invest in AI startups across the US, Europe, and Asia.

HUMAIN was unveiled just one day before President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh, where Tesla’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman joined discussions about multibillion-dollar AI investments.

Musk’s xAI is already in talks with HUMAIN about leasing data center capacity in Saudi Arabia, according to reports. The discussions highlight how Gulf sovereign wealth funds are becoming critical financiers for American tech companies facing domestic funding constraints.

“HUMAIN is expected to contribute to Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem by fostering human-centered AI innovation… ethical, inclusive, transparent, and accountable,” said Youssef Saidi from the Economic Research Forum.

Saudi Arabia holds several advantages in the global AI race. The kingdom ranked first in government AI strategy according to the 2024 Global AI Index. Its strategic location connects three continents, while abundant cheap energy and financial resources provide competitive edges for power-hungry data centers.

The kingdom plans to train 20,000 AI and data experts by 2030 through partnerships with Microsoft, Oracle, and other tech giants. Women lead in AI skills penetration within Saudi Arabia, according to government data.

HUMAIN’s first facility will feature 18,000 NVIDIA GPUs in a 50-megawatt center planned for 2026. The flagship site in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province will eventually expand to host ten individual 200-megawatt plants across 2.3 square miles.

The project represents a $77 billion infrastructure investment based on current market conditions. Crown Prince Mohammed has allocated over $40 billion for AI-related investments as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic diversification plan.

This AI push comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to reduce dependence on oil revenues while competing with regional rivals. The UAE’s G42 secured a $1.5 billion Microsoft investment last year, while Qatar also announced major AI investments during Trump’s Gulf tour.

For Saudi Arabia, the question isn’t whether it can afford such massive AI investments, but whether it can afford to miss the opportunity entirely.