AWS and HUMAIN Announce $5 Bn + Investment to Create AI Zone in Saudi Arabia

Big news in the AI world!.... Amazon Web Services (AWS) and HUMAIN have announced a $5 billion-plus investment to create a groundbreaking AI Zone in Saudi Arabia. This initiative aims to accelerate AI adoption both locally and globally, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

HUMAIN is a Saudi Arabian Al company launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman under the Public Investment Fund (PIF). It aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global Al hub by developing advanced Al technologies, next-generation data centers, cloud infrastructure, and Arabic Large Language Models (LLMs).

The AI Zone will feature:

• Dedicated AWS AI infrastructure, including world-class semiconductors and UltraCluster networks for faster AI training.
• AWS services like SageMaker, Bedrock, and Amazon Q, enabling businesses to develop generative AI applications with security and privacy.
• A unified AI agent marketplace, simplifying AI software deployment for the Saudi government.
• Support for Large Language Models (LLMs), including Arabic Large Language Models (ALLaM), to drive AI innovation across industries.

AWS and HUMAIN will also work together to advance an AI-powered startup sector in the Kingdom, providing access to the broadest and deepest set of cloud technology tools and programs, including AWS Activate, and helping Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious founders and entrepreneurs scale their businesses.

This partnership builds on AWS’s previous $5.3 billion investment in Saudi Arabia to develop an AWS infrastructure region, set to launch in 2026. The AI Zone is an additional investment, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a global AI leader.

Notably, AWS is currently building an AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia that will become available in 2026. Amazon is investing US$5.3 billion (approx. 19.88 billion Saudi riyal) in Saudi Arabia to develop this new region for AWS.

The new AI Zone announced is an additional investment to grow global and local demand for advanced AI services in the Kingdom, and is part of AWS’s long-term commitment to bring its world-class infrastructure and services to Saudi Arabia.

This collaboration aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and builds upon the Kingdom’s pledge in 2024 to invest in building an AI-powered economy, representing a significant step towards realizing Saudi Arabia's ambitions to become a global AI leader. AWS will bring to Saudi Arabia its advanced server and network infrastructure capabilities, as well as its artificial intelligence and machine learning services – including Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q, fully managed services for building and scaling generative AI (genAI) applications.

With Amazon Bedrock in Saudi Arabia, businesses and government organizations can access high-performing models from leading AI companies to develop genAI applications with security, privacy, and responsible AI. Amazon Q is the world’s most capable coding assistant, and also enables organizations to build genAI-powered assistants to answer questions, provide summaries, generate content, and complete tasks based on enterprise data.

Saudi Arabia is making massive investments in Al to diversify its economy, and HUMAIN is a key player in this transformation.

"This collaboration to build an AI Zone in Saudi Arabia will enable innovations across all industries using AWS’s advanced AI offerings, and reflects our commitment to support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” said Matt Garman, CEO, Amazon Web Services. “Together, we will empower customers with cost-effective and secure cloud technologies, fuel innovation and economic growth across the nation, and enable HUMAIN to appeal to customers globally."

"HUMAIN’s partnership with AWS is a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia's journey to become a global leader in AI,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. “By leveraging AWS’s world-class cloud infrastructure and AI expertise and HUMAIN’s full-stack AI capabilities, we are creating an offering that will attract global investment and talent, thereby driving our digital transformation agenda forward.”

Top Image by Lara Jameson from Pexels