Saudi Arabia Launches Humain, New State AI Company Ahead of Trump Visit

Saudi Arabia has launched a new state-backed artificial intelligence company called Humain, signaling another major move in its push to become a global leader in AI. The launch comes just ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit to the Kingdom, with Humain chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and backed by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Tareq Amin, former CEO of Aramco Digital and a former executive at Rakuten, has been named to lead Humain. Amin resigned from his post at Aramco Digital in December 2024 and later posted on LinkedIn, saying, "This initiative will pave the way for a groundbreaking national AI strategy in Saudi Arabia, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead this mission."

Humain’s Mission and Structure

According to sources familiar with the project, Humain plans to "operate and invest across the AI value chain." The company aims to:

• Build proprietary AI technologies.

• Promote the use of AI tools across the Saudi economy.

• Streamline the country’s growing data center projects.

Staff for Humain have reportedly been recruited from several other state-backed initiatives, including Aramco Digital, the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), and Tonomus, the tech arm of Saudi Arabia’s futuristic Neom city project. LinkedIn updates from employees and reports from insiders confirm the staff transfers.

The budget for Humain has not been disclosed, but Saudi Arabia has significantly increased its spending on AI and data center infrastructure. At the Leap tech conference earlier this year, the kingdom announced roughly $15 billion in deals with chipmakers, cloud operators, and data center firms.

Neither Humain, Amin, nor the Public Investment Fund responded to requests for comment.

Launch Timing and U.S. Business Ties

Humain’s unveiling coincides with President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, part of a broader effort to strengthen ties and secure major investment deals for U.S. technology companies. Speaking in March, Trump suggested he conditioned the trip on a promise of significant investment, saying: "I said I will go if you put up a trillion dollars to American companies."

Several American tech leaders are attending the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum tied to Trump's visit, including:

• Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia

• Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon

• Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir

• Reuters also reported that Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman were invited to the Riyadh forum.

From "Project Transcendence" to Humain

Humain appears to have evolved from a broader Saudi initiative called Project Transcendence, reportedly started last year to help the Kingdom compete with neighboring UAE’s aggressive AI investments.

The United Arab Emirates launched its own $100 billion state AI fund and has backed local AI labs as well as OpenAI producing leading large language models (LLMs). In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s approach has shifted toward building a "unified operating company" in Humain, rather than a standalone investment fund.

Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has heavily invested in global tech companies to diversify its economy beyond fossil fuels. But with falling oil prices over the past year, the $925 billion Public Investment Fund has started slowing its spending. Now, Saudi Arabia’s pitch to tech companies emphasizes its cheap energy resources and abundant land — ideal for building large-scale data centers needed to power AI systems.

State entities across Saudi Arabia have signed a series of major deals with tech firms over the past year, including:

• A $1.5 billion deal between Aramco Digital and chipmaker Groq to build AI inference infrastructure.

• Data center projects by Neom’s Tonomus and the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA).

• New partnerships with chipmakers and cloud providers like Cerebras, Oracle, and Google.

Humain’s website, which launched alongside the announcement, reinforces the company’s ambition with the tagline:

"No patchwork, no vendors to juggle. Just one full stack, built for scale and ready to solve real problems."

The site features links to a state-developed AI chatbot and highlights Groq, the chipmaker specializing in processors for AI applications. The chatbot also confirmed that Tareq Amin is the CEO of Humain.

AI Chips at the Center of Diplomatic Talks

Access to AI chips is expected to be a key topic during Trump’s visit to the Middle East. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s AI expansion plans hinge not just on capital, but on securing the latest graphics processing units (GPUs) essential for training advanced AI models.

Under the Biden administration, strict export controls had limited the availability of these chips out of concern that they could be re-exported to China. Trump hinted earlier this year that these restrictions could be relaxed, potentially reshaping access to cutting-edge AI technology for America's Middle Eastern allies.

What This Means

The launch of Humain marks a strategic shift in Saudi Arabia’s approach to AI: moving from heavy foreign investment toward building its own national AI capabilities. By consolidating efforts from various state-backed tech projects into one unified company, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself to control more of the AI value chain — from chip infrastructure to software development and national deployment.

With Humain backed directly by the Public Investment Fund and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the initiative sends a clear signal that AI is central to Saudi Arabia’s long-term economic transformation goals. The company’s mission to "streamline" data center development and produce proprietary AI tools reflects a broader ambition to reduce reliance on outside vendors and establish Saudi Arabia as a serious player in the global AI race.

At the same time, Humain's launch just ahead of President Trump’s visit underscores the growing importance of AI chips and infrastructure in international diplomacy. As U.S. export policies around AI technologies continue to evolve, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors are emerging as major customers and collaborators — influencing where the next generation of AI systems will be built and who controls them.

Looking ahead, Humain’s success could either accelerate Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a tech-driven economy or highlight the challenges of building advanced AI industries from scratch in emerging markets.

The creation of Humain represents more than a national tech strategy — it is part of a broader contest for influence in the future of global AI innovation.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.