Several U.S. tech companies announced AI-related partnerships in the Middle East on Tuesday, coinciding with U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Gulf countries, where he secured $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia for American companies.
Among the significant announcements, Nvidia revealed plans to sell hundreds of thousands of its AI chips in Saudi Arabia, starting with an initial batch of 18,000 “Blackwell” chips for Humain, an AI startup launched by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. Additionally, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) revealed a $10 billion partnership with Humain. Qualcomm also entered into an agreement with Humain, signing a memorandum of understanding to develop and build a central processing unit (CPU) for data centers. Qualcomm had acquired server CPU manufacturer Nuvia in 2021 but has not yet released any products.
Trump’s Gulf tour began on Tuesday, marked by a strategic economic agreement with Saudi Arabia, as the country extended a warm welcome. The purpose of Trump’s visit is to secure investments totaling trillions of dollars. According to the White House, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia will share technology investments. Saudi firm DataVolt is expected to invest $20 billion in AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. tech giants like Alphabet (Google), Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber are set to invest $80 billion into advanced technologies across both nations.
Trump’s next stop will be the UAE on Thursday. Reports suggest that the Trump administration is close to finalizing a deal for the UAE to purchase large quantities of Nvidia’s AI chips.
Saudi Arabia is working to diversify its economy and reduce reliance on oil revenue, aiming to become a global leader in AI technology. To this end, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Humain on Monday, which will focus on AI development in the kingdom.
Nvidia and Humain will collaborate to establish Saudi Arabia as a major player in AI and cloud computing, with plans to build AI factories equipped with Nvidia’s advanced GPUs over the next five years, with a total capacity of up to 500 megawatts. AMD’s partnership with Humain also includes a five-year plan to deploy AI infrastructure and create a next-generation cloud computing platform.
The Humain-AMD agreement, besides hardware, will help develop a platform with global significance, enhancing performance, openness, and reach. Part of the strategy is to avoid dependency on a single AI hardware vendor.
Humain, which will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, operates under the Public Investment Fund and will focus on AI services, including data centers, cloud capabilities, and advanced AI models. As Humain CEO Tareq Amin highlighted, the initiative is a critical step in establishing AI infrastructure within Saudi Arabia.
