Humain 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
In sum – what to know:
Two OpenAI models now hosted in Saudi Arabia – gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B are deployed on Groq’s infrastructure in Humain’s sovereign data centers.
High-speed AI inference performance – gpt-oss-120B operates at over 500 tokens/sec, and gpt-oss-20B at over 1,000 tokens/sec, according to Groq.
Full compliance with Saudi regulations – Hosting inside Saudi Arabia keeps data local and aligned with national sovereignty requirements.
Saudi Arabia’s artificial intelligence (AI) venture Humain, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) 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.
In a release, 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.
“This is a defining moment for Saudi Arabia,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain. “With the deployment of OpenAI’s most powerful open models, hosted right here inside the Kingdom, Saudi developers, researchers, and enterprises now have direct access to the global frontier of AI – fully aligned with our national regulations and data laws. This is what AI sovereignty looks like, and it’s only the beginning.”
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. A 50 MW pilot site using 18,000 Nvidia GPUs is already in development and is expected to be operational next year.
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.
The Saudi AI company said it aims to handle 7% of global AI model training by 2030, focusing on both model development and inferencing capabilities.
