Saudi Arabia has made a bold move in the global race for leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). The company Humain, a specialized subsidiary of the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced a strategic partnership with Nvidia to acquire 18,000 GB300 chips intended for a supercomputer, with plans to procure hundreds of thousands more over the next five years. This initiative is part of an ambitious plan to build up to 500 MW of data centers in the kingdom.
This news coincides with the recent visit of former U.S. President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, accompanied by tech heavyweights like Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia), Elon Musk, and Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), highlighting the strategic significance of this announcement.
GB300 Chips and Technological Sovereignty
The Nvidia GB300 chip, which combines the Grace Arm CPU with the powerful B300 GPU, will be at the core of this advanced infrastructure. Such chips are in high global demand, making this acquisition a decisive move for Saudi Arabia to secure a prominent position in the race for AI dominance.
In addition to the collaboration with Nvidia, Humain has inked a similar deal with AMD for an additional 500 MW of data center capacity to be built both in Saudi territory and the United States. Alliances with Amazon Web Services (AWS) have also been announced to bolster the country’s cloud infrastructure.
A Commitment to “Sovereign AI”
A central focus of the agreement is the development of a sovereign AI for Saudi Arabia. According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, “artificial intelligence, like electricity or the Internet, is essential infrastructure for every nation.” In this context, the project includes advanced training programs for Saudi citizens in areas like robotics, digital twins, simulation, and 3D technologies, leveraging Nvidia’s Omniverse platform.
The objective is not just to create data centers, but also to foster a talent ecosystem. Humain thus aligns with the national strategy to train thousands of individuals in digital and technological skills, much like Huawei’s “Future Skill Center,” which aims to train 25,000 people in AI, cloud, and big data over the next five years.
Regulatory Changes in the U.S. and Geopolitical Context
Saudi Arabia’s mass chip acquisition comes at a time when the Trump administration has announced plans to review the AI dissemination regulations established during the Biden presidency, which categorized countries into various levels of access to advanced chips and model weights. Saudi Arabia had been classified as “Tier 2,” with moderate restrictions such as the requirement to validate end-users.
This regulatory shift could further facilitate technological cooperation between U.S. companies and allied governments in the Middle East, creating new challenges in AI control and governance at an international level.
Vision 2030: Beyond Oil
These initiatives are part of the Vision 2030 program, spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which aims to reduce the country’s reliance on oil by investing in technology, digitalization, and innovation. Saudi Arabia has successfully attracted giants like AWS, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft, concentrating most of its data centers in Riyadh and Dammam.
With over $925 billion in managed assets, the PIF is deploying resources on a large scale to transform Saudi Arabia into a global AI powerhouse, focusing not just on infrastructure but also on digital sovereignty, talent training, and strategic alliances with the world’s leading industry players.
In summary, the partnership between Humain and Nvidia marks a significant turning point: Saudi Arabia is determined not only to be a technology consumer, but also to build its own, at a massive scale. The era of sovereign artificial intelligence has begun in the Gulf, and the world is watching closely.