ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

HOMEGROWN FIRM ADVANCES SAUDI’S AI AMBITIONS

The launch of Humain, a Public Investment Fund-owned company focused on operating and investing across the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain, marks a new chapter in the technology’s growing role in Saudi Arabia. 

The company will provide a comprehensive range of AI services, products and tools, including next generation data centres, AI infrastructure and cloud capabilities, and advanced AI models and solutions. The company will also offer one of the world's most powerful multimodelArabic large language models (LLMs).

Humain will facilitate the development and delivery of AI solutions locally, regionally, and globally. It will straddle human capabilities and support the unlocking of new possibilities through the digital economy. 

The company’s launch dovetails with PIF’s broader approach to actively invest in building an AI ecosystem and fostering international AI partnerships.

These investments benefit from the kingdom’s value proposition, including its strategic location at the nexus of three continents, which enables large volumes of data to be processed, as well as the country’s economic growth prospects and young, tech-savvy population – all of which support cutting-edge AI research and innovation. 

PIF's strategy for the AI and digital economy contributes to positioning Saudi Arabia as a globally competitive hub by innovating and building capacity, in its mission to enable the development and diversification of the domestic economy.

The Global AI Index, published in 2024, ranked Saudi Arabia as the world leader in terms of government AI strategy. 

ACCELERATING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Humain will also streamline various data centre initiatives, procure hardware and accelerate the adoption of AI technologies. The company will serve as a regional and global AI hub for strategic sectors, including energy, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services.

In addition, the company will nurture local innovation and the creation of intellectual property, and achieve national AI aspirations. This will include consolidating Saudi Arabia’s position as a global leader in enabling the most advanced data and AI technologies, and in attracting investment opportunities as well as the best talents in the sector, both locally and globally. 

Saudi Arabia is also the leader in the number of data centres in the Gulf, as it builds a robust digital infrastructure. This progress is deeply tied to the rapid expansion of data and AI capabilities, spearheaded by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA). 

Established as an independent body in 2019, SDAIA plays a central role in shaping the country’s digital transformation, working closely with other sectors to advance regulatory frameworks and innovation in data technologies. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Digital Transformation in the Gulf Cooperation Council Economies, underscored SDAIA’s transformative role, and praised the launch of the National Strategy for Data and AI. 

The report also lauded the kingdom’s launch of the Personal Data Protection Law, underscoring the kingdom’s commitment to upholding global standards in data governance and privacy. 

“Saudi Arabia has embedded digital transformation initiatives in its Vision 2030 to diversify its economy,” the IMF noted in its report. “The 2030 national transformation agenda of Saudi Arabia has placed a strong emphasis on improving digital connectivity and developing the digital sector. Impressive progress has been made in this regard, as evident by the increase in the digital economy’s contribution to the GDP from 11.5% in 2018 to 14% in 2022.” 

In addition, the percentage of the population using the Internet in Saudi Arabia has gone up significantly from 68.5% in 2015 to 99% in 2023.

INTERNET USAGE SOARS

The launch of an AI company comes amid new data that shows how Saudis are embracing the domestic digital economy. Just over 93% of online purchases in the kingdom in 2024 were made through local websites, according to the Saudi Internet Report 2024, published by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST). Around 21.5% of Internet users in the kingdom also use various artificial intelligence tools and applications.

Saudis are also major consumers of digital content. The average monthly mobile data consumption per user reached 48 gigabytes (GB), three times the global average, while the annual growth in Saudi domain names reached 25%, eight times the global average. 

Additionally, the kingdom ranked among the top five G20 countries in mobile Internet speeds, reflecting the advancement and development of its digital infrastructure and contributing to broader Internet penetration and service accessibility. Likewise, mobile telecommunications subscriptions have reached 68.2 million, with an annual growth rate of 7%, CST data shows. 

Overall, the kingdom’s communications and technology market reached SAR 180 billion in 2024, with annual compound growth rate of 7.5% over the past five years.