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PIF, Google Cloud Partner to Establish AI Hub in Saudi Arabia

The partnership will emphasize joint research on Arabic language models and Saudi-specific AI applications. - SPA
The partnership will emphasize joint research on Arabic language models and Saudi-specific AI applications. - SPA
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PIF, Google Cloud Partner to Establish AI Hub in Saudi Arabia

The partnership will emphasize joint research on Arabic language models and Saudi-specific AI applications. - SPA
The partnership will emphasize joint research on Arabic language models and Saudi-specific AI applications. - SPA

PIF and Google Cloud announced on Wednesday a strategic partnership to establish a global artificial intelligence (AI) hub near Dammam, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region.
According to a press release issued by the PIF, the landmark partnership, signed at the 8th edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII8), further positions Saudi Arabia as a global AI hub and a top destination for enterprises and startups. This collaboration aims to enhance the Saudi workforce by offering AI programs to millions of students and professionals, supporting the national objective of growing the information and communication technology (ICT) sector by 50%.
Under this partnership, customers will be able to leverage Google Cloud’s technology to drive growth across industries and expand the capacity for AI application delivery. Businesses and their consumers can anticipate improved AI application quality and data services, delivered locally and with greater efficiency, SPA reported.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the partnership will emphasize joint research on Arabic language models and Saudi-specific AI applications. Enabled by Google Cloud’s substantial investment and expertise in custom silicon, this high-performance infrastructure will feature the latest tensor processing unit (TPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators, along with the Vertex AI platform—Google Cloud’s specialized development environment for building generative AI applications.
The release added atht this collaboration underscores Saudi Arabia’s attractiveness for major tech initiatives. Investors are drawn to the nation’s strategic location at the crossroads of three continents, its advanced infrastructure, its access to fast-growing Middle Eastern markets, and the potential for reliable and affordable renewable energy to support the AI hub.
Governor of PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan said, “We are delighted to welcome this new Google Cloud AI hub to Saudi Arabia. This partnership demonstrates PIF’s dedication to fostering an AI-friendly environment through investments in human capital and technology, upskilling thousands with cutting-edge tools to support our sustainable and innovative infrastructure goals. Saudi Arabia is a prime location for global tech partners, as PIF brings both sector expertise and a long-term approach to investment.”
Meanwhile, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google Ruth Porat added, “This strategic partnership will accelerate the adoption of AI in the local language and across industries—including healthcare, retail, financial services, and more—for enterprises and startups in Saudi Arabia, across the Middle East, Africa, and worldwide. As part of Saudi Arabia’s vibrant technology ecosystem, we aim to create highly skilled jobs for Saudis and provide opportunities for global businesses to drive growth through cloud adoption.”
Technology is one of PIF’s priority investment sectors, enabling critical areas of the economy, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare, transportation, logistics, utilities, and renewables. PIF’s telecom, communications, and technology investments include the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), which delivers digital and cyber services through national talent, and iot squared, a company specializing in the Internet of Things.
To advance Arabic-language models, PIF and Google Cloud will explore enhancing the Arabic-language capabilities of Gemini, Google’s generative AI model family, by integrating additional Arabic datasets with Google Cloud’s technology. This will provide local businesses, researchers, and developers the opportunity to incorporate these models into their systems, enabling sophisticated Arabic-language AI agents and applications.
Preliminary research commissioned by Google Cloud and conducted by tech policy advisory firm Access Partnership estimates the new AI hub could contribute a cumulative $71 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP over eight years. Increased economic activity from AI adoption is expected to support the creation of thousands of highly skilled direct and indirect jobs.
These investments expand on Google Cloud’s existing presence in Saudi Arabia, which includes the Dammam cloud region, launched last year as part of Google Cloud’s global network of 40 regions.

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Technology

Indian PM, President of Saudi Arabia’s SDAIA Discuss AI Cooperation 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi meet on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. (SPA)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi meet on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. (SPA)
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Indian PM, President of Saudi Arabia’s SDAIA Discuss AI Cooperation 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi meet on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. (SPA)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi meet on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. (SPA)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Friday.

Discussions focused on knowledge transfer and the exchange of expertise to accelerate digital development in both nations. They also tackled expanding bilateral cooperation in data and AI.

Al-Ghamdi commended India’s leadership in hosting the summit, noting that such international partnerships are essential for harnessing advanced technology to benefit humanity and achieve shared strategic goals.

Technology

India Chases 'DeepSeek Moment' with Homegrown AI

A handout photo made available by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with global leaders at the AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, 19 February 2026.EPA/PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU HANDOUT HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with global leaders at the AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, 19 February 2026.EPA/PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU HANDOUT HANDOUT
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India Chases 'DeepSeek Moment' with Homegrown AI

A handout photo made available by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with global leaders at the AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, 19 February 2026.EPA/PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU HANDOUT HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with global leaders at the AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, 19 February 2026.EPA/PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU HANDOUT HANDOUT

Fledgling Indian artificial intelligence companies showcased homegrown technologies this week at a major summit in New Delhi, underpinning big dreams of becoming a global AI power.

But analysts said the country was unlikely to have a "DeepSeek moment" -- the sort of boom China had last year with a high-performance, low-cost chatbot -- any time soon, AFP reported.

Still, building custom AI tools could bring benefits to the world's most populous nation.
At the AI Impact Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded new Indian AI models, along with other examples of the country's rising profile in the field.

"All the solutions that have been presented here demonstrate the power of 'Made in India' and India's innovative qualities," Modi said Thursday.

One of the startups making a buzz at the five-day summit was Sarvam AI, which this week released two large language models it says were trained from scratch in India.

Its models are optimized to work across 22 Indian languages, says the company, which received government-subsidized access to advanced computer processors.

The five-day summit, which wraps up Friday, is the fourth annual international meeting to discuss the risks and rewards of the fast-growing AI sector.

It is the largest yet and the first in a developing country, with Indian businesses striking deals with US tech giants to build large-scale data center infrastructure to help train and run AI systems.

On Friday, Abu Dhabi-based tech group G42 said the United Arab Emirates would deploy an AI supercomputer system in India, in a project "designed to lower barriers to AI innovation".

So-called sovereign AI has become a priority for many countries hoping to reduce dependence on US and Chinese platforms while ensuring that systems respect local regulations, including on data privacy.

AI models that succeed in India "can be deployed all over the world", Modi said on Thursday.

But experts said the sheer computational might of the United States would be hard to match.

"Despite the headline pledges, we don't expect India to emerge as a frontier AI innovation hub in the near term," said Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

"Its more realistic trajectory is to become the world's largest AI adoption market, embedding AI at scale through digital public infrastructure and cost-efficient applications," she said.

Another Indian company that drew attention with product debuts this week was the Bengaluru-based Gnani.ai, which introduced its Vachana speech models at the summit.

Trained on more than a million hours of audio, Vachana models generate natural-sounding voices in Indian languages that can process customer interactions and allow people to interact with digital services out loud.

Job disruption and redundancies, including in India's huge call center industry, have been one key focus of discussions at the Delhi summit.

Prihesh Ratnayake, head of AI initiatives at think-tank Factum, told AFP that the new Indian AI models were "not really meant to be global".

"They're India-specific models, and hopefully we'll see their impact over the coming year," he said.

"Why does India need to build for the global scale? India itself is the biggest market."
And Nanubala Gnana Sai at the Cambridge AI Safety Hub said that homegrown models could bring other benefits.

Existing models, even those developed in China, "have intrinsic bias towards Western values, culture and ethos -- as a product of being trained heavily on that consensus", Sai told AFP.

India already has some major strengths, including "technology diffusion, eager talent pool and cheap labor", and dedicated efforts can help startups pivot to artificial intelligence, he said.

"The end-product may not 'rival' ChatGPT or DeepSeek on benchmarks, but will provide leverage for the Global South to have its own stand in an increasingly polarized world."

Technology

Report: Nvidia Nears Deal for Scaled-down Investment in OpenAI

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
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Report: Nvidia Nears Deal for Scaled-down Investment in OpenAI

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

Nvidia is on the cusp of investing $30 billion in OpenAI, scaling back a plan to pump $100 billion into the ChatGPT maker, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The AI-chip powerhouse will be part of OpenAI's new funding round with an agreement that could be concluded as early as this weekend, according to the Times, which cited unnamed sources close to the matter.

Nvidia declined to comment on the report.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the US tech giant will make a "huge" investment in OpenAI and dismissed as "nonsense" reports that he is unhappy with the generative AI star.

Huang made the remarks late in January after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI had been put on ice.

Nvidia announced the plan in September, with the investment helping OpenAI build more infrastructure for next-generation artificial intelligence.

The funding round is reported to value OpenAI at some $850 billion.

Huang told journalists that the notion of Nvidia having doubts about a huge investment in OpenAI was "complete nonsense."

Huang insisted that Nvidia was going ahead with its investment in OpenAI, describing it as "one of the most consequential companies of our time".

"Sam is closing the round, and we will absolutely be involved in the round," Huang said, referring to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

"We will invest a great deal of money."

Nvidia has become the coveted supplier of processors needed for training and operating the large language models (LLM) behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

LLM developers like OpenAI are directing much of the mammoth investment they have received into Nvidia's products, rushing to build GPU-stuffed data centers to serve an anticipated flood of demand for AI services.

The AI rush, and its frenzy of investment in giant data centers and the massive purchase of energy-intensive chips, continues despite signs of concern in the markets.