Humain is sourcing semiconductors from U.S. suppliers, including Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips, for which it has secured local regulatory approval
In sum – what to know:
Saudi Arabia builds AI data centers – Humain has begun construction in Riyadh and Dammam, targeting 100 MW per site with launch expected in early 2026.
U.S. chips power facilities – Nvidia will supply 18,000 Blackwell GPUs in the first batch, while AMD has signed a $10B deal with Humain.
Part of wider U.S.-Saudi tech push – The projects align with $600B in U.S.-Saudi commitments and Riyadh’s effort to position itself as a regional AI hub.
Saudi Arabia’s artificial intelligence (AI) venture Humain, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has started building its first data centers in the kingdom, with operations expected to begin in early 2026, according to Bloomberg.
The facilities, located in Riyadh and Dammam, are set to launch in the second quarter of 2026, each with an initial capacity of up to 100 megawatts, CEO Tareq Amin said.
Humain is sourcing semiconductors from U.S. suppliers, including Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips, for which it has secured local regulatory approval, Amin added. Nvidia had previously announced plans to deliver hundreds of thousands of chips to Saudi Arabia, with an initial batch of 18,000 Blackwell processors allocated to Humain.
In May, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled $600 billion in investment commitments during a visit to Gulf states, with several American tech firms announcing AI initiatives in the Middle East.
Earlier this month, Humain and AI start-up Groq announced the deployment of OpenAI’s new open-source models – gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B – in Humain’s sovereign data centers in Saudi Arabia.
Humain noted that the models run on Groq’s high-speed inference platform and are fully hosted within the country.
The launch brings open-source AI models with extended context capability into local infrastructure, offering performance of over 500 tokens per second for gpt-oss-120B and 1,000 tokens per second for gpt-oss-20B, Humain said, adding that Groq’s hardware is designed for large-scale AI inference, with predictable performance and reduced costs compared to general-purpose GPUs.
The Arab venture also noted that hosting within Saudi Arabia ensures compliance with the Kingdom’s data sovereignty and regulatory requirements, allowing enterprises, public institutions, and developers to use the models without transferring data abroad.
The announcement builds on the strategic partnership between Humain and Groq (not to be confused with X’s Grok AI chatbot) established in May 2025, aimed at expanding AI infrastructure and services in the region.
According to both companies, the deployment strengthens Saudi Arabia’s position in the global AI ecosystem and provides regional access to high-performance open models for research, commercial applications, and government use.
In May, Humain said it was set to launch a $10 billion venture capital fund this summer.
During a previous interview with the Financial Times, Amin said that the fund, known as Humain Ventures, will target high-potential AI startups, enabling the Middle Eastern country to expand its influence in one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global economy. The initiative also aligns with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and supports goals set by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.
Humain’s broader roadmap includes developing up to 1.9 gigawatts (GW) of AI-focused data center capacity by 2030, with plans to scale to 6.6 GW over the next four years.
Humain has rapidly established ties with leading American firms, signing $23 billion worth of agreements with Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services and Qualcomm. According to Amin, the full project cost could reach $77 billion based on current valuations.
As part of its industrial strategy, Humain previously said it was forming a $10 billion joint venture with AMD with the aim of delivering 500 MW in AI compute capacity over five years. In a separate $2 billion partnership with Qualcomm, the company will build a chipset design center in Riyadh employing 500 engineers.
