Saudi Arabia launches AI Company ‘Humain’… just as Trump lands in Riyadh

• Things are heating up in Saudi Arabia — and it’s not just the weather.
• Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the launch of HUMAIN, backed by their US$930 Bn Public Investment Fund (PIF).
• HUMAIN is set to deliver end-to-end AI offerings — from data centers and infrastructure to powerful AI models.

What is HUMAIN?

HUMAIN is Saudi Arabia’s new invention in the world of artificial intelligence.

It’s a fully state-backed AI company launched under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This initiative is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a national strategy to diversify the economy beyond oil.

The country is well on its way to catching up to other AI hubs.

What does HUMAIN do?

HUMAIN is here to build a comprehensive, full-stack AI ecosystem.

According to its mission, HUMAIN will:

• Build next-generation AI infrastructure, including massive data centers.
• Provide cloud capabilities optimized for AI workloads.
• Develop advanced AI models and applications, including Arabic-first large language models.
• Offer everything from infrastructure to applications; a complete, scalable AI stack under one roof.

According to their website:

“No patchwork. No vendors to juggle. Just one full stack, built for scale and ready to solve real problems.”

Focus on Arabic AI

One of HUMAIN’s standout products is ALLAM, a culturally fluent Arabic-first large language model (LLM), designed to understand dialects, regional values, and local nuance.

A leap forward in creating AI that’s tailored to the Middle East!

Who’s backing it?

Humain is backed by the Kingdom’s $940 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Who will lead it?

• Humain will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He will drive the kingdom’s AI related strategy and investments.
• Tareq Amin, former CEO of Rakuten and Aramco Digital, is heading HUMAIN.

Why now?

The timing of HUMAIN’s launch could not be perfect.

Just a day after the announcement (on May 12, 2025), tech leaders Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg arrived in Riyadh for a major U.S.-Saudi investment forum focused on AI.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s visit to the region secured $600 billion in AI and tech deals between U.S. firms and Gulf states.

And HUMAIN was at the center of it all.

Also read: Saudi Arabia sees massive surge in Data Centres

Major partnerships & deals with Nvidia and AMD

Things are moving at lightning speed in Saudi Arabia, it seems.

HUMAIN has already secured landmark partnerships with key U.S. tech giants:

• Nvidia will supply 18,000 Blackwell AI chips in the first batch of a multi-year collaboration.
• AMD is forming a $10 billion partnership with HUMAIN to expand AI compute capacity.
• Groq, a U.S.-based chipmaker has been selected for HUMAIN’s inference operations.

Saudi’s shift from oil to data

Saudi Arabia is rapidly repositioning itself from a petroleum powerhouse to a data-driven economy:

• The Saudi data center market is projected to grow from $1.33B in 2024 to nearly $4B by 2030.
• PIF has already launched other AI ventures, including Alat, with a $100B commitment to AI hardware.
• Projects like NEOM are investing billions to host one of the world’s largest AI data centers by 2028.
• The 2024 Global AI Index ranked Saudi Arabia first globally for its government-led AI strategy.

And now with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia is on a fast-track to becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence.