Saudi Arabia teams up with tech giants for a $14.9B AI expansion.

Saudi Arabia has pledged $14.9 billion to artificial intelligence (AI) through strategic partnerships with global tech giants, such as Google, Lenovo, and Alibaba, as part of its ambition to become a leading AI hub in the region.

During a tech conference held in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom unveiled a series of investments and projects worth $14.9 billion aimed at advancing the AI sector. On February 9, Saudi Minister Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha revealed that the kingdom, in collaboration with global tech innovators, would direct the funds into AI, emerging technologies, and cloud computing. Notable partners in this initiative include Google Cloud, Lenovo, Alibaba Cloud, Qualcomm, Groq, and Salesforce, among others.

Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, the executive vice president of technology and innovation at Aramco, emphasized the importance of collaboration for such large-scale projects: “Our (Aramco) business is all about scale. That’s why we need to partner, and no one company can deliver the promise of AI. It has to be a partnership, with many companies contributing the technologies we need.”

Aramco, one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization, ranks seventh, following tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google, according to CompaniesMarketCap data.

Tech giants contribute to building Saudi Arabia’s AI hub

As part of its AI ambitions, Aramco entered into a $1.5 billion partnership with Groq to develop AI-driven cloud computing infrastructure. Al-Khowaiter also mentioned plans to sign additional agreements with various other AI companies to further advance the kingdom’s AI capabilities.

Multiple AI-focused investments across the Middle East

In addition to Aramco’s efforts, Saudi manufacturing leader Alat, in collaboration with Lenovo, announced a $2 billion investment to establish a state-of-the-art AI and robotics-based manufacturing and technology facility locally. As part of this initiative, Lenovo will also set up a regional headquarters in Riyadh.

Google, Qualcomm, and Alibaba Cloud have likewise launched several initiatives to foster localized AI innovation in the region.

Moreover, Salesforce, Databricks, Tencent Cloud, and SambaNova have committed significant investments, amounting to $500 million, $300 million, $150 million, and $140 million, respectively.

In a separate, concurrent development, stablecoin issuer Tether announced on February 6 a partnership with Reelly Tech, a real estate platform based in the United Arab Emirates. This collaboration aims to streamline property transactions by utilizing Tether’s USDT stablecoin.

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