Cointelegraph has reported that Saudi Arabia is initiating a colossal partnership with leading tech companies, pledging investments and projects in the AI sector valued at $14.9 billion. This announcement was made during a tech conference held in Riyadh, the nation’s capital, on February 9.
Saudi Minister Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha revealed that the kingdom, in collaboration with global tech innovators, is set to invest the staggering sum in AI, cutting-edge tech, and cloud services. Notable tech partners in this venture include Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Groq, and Salesforce among others.
Commenting on the initiative, Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, the Executive Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Aramco, said, “Our business is all about scale. That’s why we need to partner, and no single company can deliver the promise of AI. It requires a partnership, a collective effort from many companies to establish the technologies we need.” Aramco is currently the seventh-largest company globally in terms of market capitalization, following tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google, based on data from CompaniesMarketCap.
In their move to develop an AI hub in Saudi Arabia, these tech giants are contributing significantly. Aramco and Groq have struck a $1.5 billion deal to enhance AI-powered cloud computing capabilities and are looking forward to entering agreements with other AI companies, added Al-Khowaiter.
Moreover, Saudi manufacturing behemoth Alat and Lenovo have committed to a $2 billion investment to construct a local AI and robotics-based manufacturing and tech facility. Lenovo will also set up a regional headquarters in Riyadh as part of the agreement.
Google, Qualcomm, and Alibaba Cloud have also declared the launch of various initiatives dedicated to local AI innovation. In addition, Salesforce, Databricks, Tencent Cloud, and SambaNova have committed to investments worth $500 million, $300 million, $150 million, and $140 million, respectively.
In a parallel development, Tether, a stablecoin issuer, announced a partnership with Reelly Tech, a United Arab Emirates-based real estate platform, on February 6. This partnership aims to simplify property transactions using Tether’s USDT stablecoin.
