Key takeaways
- NVIDIA partners with HUMAIN to deploy 18,000 AI chips in Saudi Arabia for advanced data centres.
- The initiative aims to build hyperscale AI data centres with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts.
- Saudi Arabia pledges $600 billion investment, marking the largest commercial agreement with the U.S.
- Collaboration focuses on developing sovereign AI models and accelerating digital transformation across various sectors.
- HUMAIN will utilize NVIDIA Omniverse for simulation and digital twin development in multiple industries.
HUMAIN, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, on Tuesday entered a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to develop AI factories in the Kingdom, beginning with a deployment of 18,000 NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell chips.
The announcement came during a White House-led visit to the region that included U.S. President Donald Trump and several prominent CEOs. During the trip, Trump secured a $600 billion investment pledge from the Kingdom, which is the largest commercial agreement ever between the two countries.
HUMAIN and NVIDIA will build hyperscale AI data centres powered by several hundred thousand NVIDIA GPUs over five years, with a projected capacity of up to 500 megawatts. The infrastructure will support the training and deployment of sovereign AI models and accelerate digital transformation across sectors.
“Together with HUMAIN, we are building AI infrastructure for the people and companies of Saudi Arabia to realise the bold vision of the Kingdom,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
As part of the initiative, HUMAIN will use NVIDIA Omniverse to support simulation and digital twin development in manufacturing, logistics and energy, advancing what the two firms call the “physical AI” era.
“This collaboration with HUMAIN marks a turning point, building the AI factories of the future, unlocking compute and powering the next era of physical AI,” said His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, minister of communications and information technology.
The partnership also includes large-scale workforce training programmes. Thousands of Saudi developers will be trained in AI, robotics and digital twin technologies as part of broader national efforts under Vision 2030.
“Our partnership with NVIDIA is a bold step forward in realising the Kingdom’s ambitions to lead in AI and advanced digital infrastructure,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. “Together, we are building the capacity, capability and a new globally enabled community.”
Meanwhile, following several days of speculation, the U.S. Department of Commerce has officially withdrawn the Biden administration’s Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule, just before it was scheduled to take effect.
Originally announced in January by then-President Joe Biden, the rule was intended to impose new export controls on U.S.-made AI chips to a broader set of countries, while strengthening existing restrictions. It was set to be enforced from May 15.
NVIDIA is not Alone
Oracle has reaffirmed its support for Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, announcing a $14 billion investment over the next decade. The company stated that the investment will expand access to advanced cloud and AI technologies in the Kingdom, contributing to innovation and economic growth.
Similarly, AMD and HUMAIN have announced a strategic agreement to develop what they describe as the world’s most open, scalable, and cost-efficient AI infrastructure.
The initiative includes a planned investment of up to $10 billion over five years to deploy 500 megawatts of AI compute capacity across a global network of AMD-based data centres, stretching from Saudi Arabia to the United States.
AMD will provide its full AI compute portfolio, including the ROCm open software ecosystem, while HUMAIN will oversee end-to-end deployment, including hyperscale data centres, sustainable energy systems, and global fibre interconnects.
“At AMD, we have a bold vision to enable the future of AI everywhere—bringing open, high-performance computing to every developer, AI start-up and enterprise around the world,” said Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD. “Our investment with HUMAIN is a significant milestone in advancing global AI infrastructure.”
HUMAIN has also chosen Groq, a US chipmaker and Nvidia rival, to handle its inference operations, according to a report by Semafor.
AWS announced a $5 billion-plus investment to create a groundbreaking “AI Zone” in the Kingdom. This first-of-its-kind AI Zone will feature dedicated AWS AI infrastructure, advanced semiconductors, UltraCluster networks for enhanced AI training and inference, and AWS services like SageMaker and Bedrock.
