INVESTMENTS BY SAUDI ARABIA’S PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS

BOTH GOVERNMENT-LED INITIATIVES AND PRIVATE SECTOR PLAYERS ARE INVESTING IN THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SPACE IN SAUDI ARABIA

IN OCTOBER 2023, SAUDI ARAMCO’S VENTURE CAPITAL ARM LED A $3.4M ROUND FOR AN EGYPTIAN AI STARTUP DUBBED INTELLA.”

Saudi Arabia has launched a fund for early-stage investments in high-tech companies, aiming to strengthen partnerships with technology pioneers.

The country is also developing domestic technology capabilities, including foundation models for Arabic and English, as well as purchasing Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) in order to help power and drive generative AI applications and software.

NOTABLE PUBLIC SECTOR DEVELOPMENTS:

December 2023: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman, announced the creation of a $200m fund to invest in local and international firms specialising in advanced technology.

August 2023: Saudi Arabia acquired 3,000 Nvidia GPUs to help power up AI applications and software in the country. September 2022: A landmark $200m deal was inked with SenseTime (an AI software company headquartered in Hong Kong) in order to establish a state-of-theart AI lab in Saudi Arabia.

PRIVATE FUNDING

Saudi Arabia plans to use its largest venture capital funds in order to expand across the Middle East and North Africa region, enhance its Arabic speech-to-text AI service, and support its growing AI and technology sectors.

This development follows in the footsteps of billions of dollars in investments.

NOTABLE PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENTS:

October 2023: Saudi Aramco’s venture capital arm led a $3.4m round for an Egyptian AI startup dubbed Intella. (Saudi Aramco is the world’s biggest petroleum and natural gas company by market capitalisation.)

February 2023: Saudi Arabia unveiled more than $6.4bn in technology and startup investments at LEAP 2022, the region’s biggest technology event.