Saudi Arabia is betting on abundant energy supplies and expanding digital infrastructure to build an integrated artificial intelligence ecosystem, allocating about 14 gigawatts of power capacity to support what HUMAIN calls “AI factories.”
The move comes as companies and countries race to secure the computing capacity needed to train and operate advanced models amid growing constraints on the availability of energy, chips and data centers.
HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin said the Kingdom has the resources needed to build such an ecosystem, explaining that the company is focusing not only on providing computing capacity and infrastructure, but also on developing software and systems in-house. This would allow it to build an integrated chain extending from energy and data centers to models and applications.
Speaking at Servcorp’s inaugural economic forum in Riyadh, Amin said his previous experience in the energy sector had given him early insight into the scale of the challenges involved in securing advanced computing capacity. Access to graphics processing units could in some cases take several months, he noted, prompting him to consider building an integrated AI ecosystem within Saudi Arabia.
14 GW to Support Infrastructure
Amin explained that since its establishment, HUMAIN has focused on building “AI factories” by providing the ecosystem’s core components, including energy, computing and digital infrastructure, alongside developing software, models, applications and consulting services and investing in startups.
He added that cooperation with the Energy Ministry and several government entities had helped accelerate the allocation of land and infrastructure required for the project, noting that about 14 GW of power capacity had been allocated to the site the company is working on.
Infrastructure development is proceeding in parallel with efforts to attract global companies to make use of it, Amin noted. The company has signed agreements with international companies, including Amazon, while work on a joint project with AMD is progressing. Other companies are also being attracted to operate within the AI ecosystem being developed in Riyadh.
Beyond Generative AI
Amin said current uses of AI still represent only a limited portion of the technology’s available potential. Global attention is currently focused on generative AI and its applications within companies, while AI applications connected to the physical world, industry and infrastructure remain at an early stage.
The next phase will require greater computing capacity, energy and data center infrastructure, he explained, predicting a significant expansion in the scope of AI use as the supporting infrastructure develops.
Amin added that the company has managed, in about 15 months, to build operations spanning several sectors, stressing that fully harnessing AI is not simply a matter of adding new technological tools, but requires redesigning how organizations operate.
From Buying Software to Developing It In-House
Amin noted that the biggest challenges the company faced were not so much technological as related to changing corporate culture and working methods. HUMAIN made a strategic decision not to buy off-the-shelf software and instead to develop its systems internally.
The approach has included building agentic workflows, systems of record and a number of applications used in daily operations. Amin said the future of work will gradually move toward models in which users need only specify the task they want performed, while intelligent models automatically carry out the necessary steps and procedures.
He stressed that these changes are not intended to eliminate employees, but rather to increase their productivity and enable them to perform their work more efficiently. Some employees, he noted, are now able to complete tasks that previously required much larger teams.
The experience has also extended to human resources and other departments, where team members are now able to develop workflows and AI agents themselves without having to rely entirely on IT departments.
AI and Geopolitics
Amin’s remarks came during Servcorp’s inaugural economic forum, which brought together about 150 business leaders, investors and policymakers to discuss shifts reshaping the economies of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye.
Opening the forum, Walid Abukhaled, chairman of EMIR in Saudi Arabia, said the global economy faces a combination of overlapping challenges, including geopolitical tensions and accelerating technological change, noting that Saudi Arabia’s importance is growing given its pivotal position in the global energy sector.
He added that AI has become a major factor reshaping the labor market as automation and modern technologies expand across manufacturing, consulting and programming, creating new challenges related to the skills that will be required in the future.
For his part, David Godchaux, Servcorp’s CEO for the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, said Saudi Arabia has undergone a major transformation in recent years, moving from an emerging market to a major economy with growing global influence.
He explained that the abundance of information has not made decision-making easier, but has instead increased the need to distinguish valuable information from the noise generated by the vast flow of data. One of the forum’s objectives, he noted, is to provide a platform that helps business leaders and investors interpret economic trends more clearly and make more precise decisions.
