Intl. Companies Intend to Invest in AI, Robotics in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia to adopt AI technology and robotics by providing an attractive local investment environment. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia to adopt AI technology and robotics by providing an attractive local investment environment. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
20

Intl. Companies Intend to Invest in AI, Robotics in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia to adopt AI technology and robotics by providing an attractive local investment environment. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia to adopt AI technology and robotics by providing an attractive local investment environment. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Major international companies intend to invest in artificial intelligence and robotics in Saudi Arabia, senior investors told Asharq Al-Awsat.

AI Investor Abdullah bin Zaid Al-Meleihi said that Saudi Arabia aims at establishing 400 startup companies in artificial intelligence.

He added that the Kingdom was seeking to provide a more attractive environment for foreign investments, pointing to a gathering of Saudi and foreign companies led by the Saudi Excellence Holding Company, which intends to introduce advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence and unveil new technologies.

He added that investments in AI are expected to surpass $150 million over the next two years.

For his part, Sem Koksal, CEO and partner of Legacy Technologies, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the quality and nature of Saudi public and private initiatives enhanced the AI technology industry.

He also stressed that the AI sector would increase the attractiveness of foreign investments in the Kingdom.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Shuhail, Advisor to the chairman of Prince Sultan College of Business and a specialist in AI and technology, emphasized a Saudi endeavor to develop the technology sector, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

While he highlighted Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation process, Al-Shuhail pointed to the construction of smart cities, including NEOM.

The second edition of the Global AI Summit concluded on Friday in Riyadh.

Organized by the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA), the summit highlighted the means to maximize the use of the sector’s technologies, along with developments, challenges and solutions in the smart city sectors, human capacity development, health care, transportation, energy, culture and heritage, environment, and economic mobility.

The summit was attended by a large number of experts, specialists and officials in government agencies and global technology companies.



German Central Bank Chief: US Tariffs Would Eat Up German Growth in 2025

President of the Bundesbank, Dr Joachim Nagel, speaks during an interview at the G20 finance meeting in Durban, South Africa, on July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
President of the Bundesbank, Dr Joachim Nagel, speaks during an interview at the G20 finance meeting in Durban, South Africa, on July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
TT
20

German Central Bank Chief: US Tariffs Would Eat Up German Growth in 2025

President of the Bundesbank, Dr Joachim Nagel, speaks during an interview at the G20 finance meeting in Durban, South Africa, on July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
President of the Bundesbank, Dr Joachim Nagel, speaks during an interview at the G20 finance meeting in Durban, South Africa, on July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

The Bundebank expects growth of 0.7% in Germany in 2026 but this could be eaten up if US tariffs of 30% threatened by President Donald Trump were implemented, the central bank's President Joachim Nagel told Reuters in an interview.

“If tariffs materialize in August, a recession in Germany in 2025 cannot be ruled out,” Nagel said in Durban, South Africa, where the meeting of G20 finance chiefs is taking place on Thursday and Friday.

The 30% tariff on European goods threatened by Trump would, if implemented, be a game-changer for Europe, wiping out whole chunks of transatlantic commerce and forcing a rethink of its export-led economic model.

“The outlook for the German economy has just improved, especially due to the fiscal program that has been announced and is now being implemented by the German federal government, which also sets the right accents: investments in infrastructure, in future technologies,” Nagel said. “But this uncertainty could significantly weaken a positive outlook.”

Also, German Finance Minister Klingbeil told Reuters on Thursday that the European Union should find solutions to its finances without using common borrowing.

Klingbeil said the EU had joint debt in the last few years, but that was in a crisis situation during the COVID pandemic, he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Durban, South Africa.

“Overall, we need to resolve the finances of the EU differently than through a policy of joint debt,” he said.

“Fortunately, we are not in such a crisis right now,” he added.