The Scoop
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund-backed artificial intelligence company HUMAIN has selected US chipmaker and Nvidia competitor Groq for its inference work, and has tapped Aramco’s former head of digital, Tareq Amin, to lead the company, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
HUMAIN, launched on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom, will consolidate Saudi Arabia’s massive investments in AI in recent years into one holding company chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The company, backed by the Public Investment Fund, plans to offer AI services, data centers, cloud capabilities, and an Arabic large language model.
Groq, a California chipmaker founded by a former Google executive, will be at the core of some of these efforts. The firm uses an alternative to the GPU-based systems favored by market leader Nvidia. Groq says its system can perform faster inference, the step when trained large language models respond to individual prompts. Nvidia remains the leader for its training capabilities.
A PIF spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Know More
Groq plans to expand its data center in Dammam after securing a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia in February aimed at developing the kingdom’s AI infrastructure.
Gulf nations’ work with American technology companies is under scrutiny as the Trump administration mulls overhauling Biden-era restrictions on chip exports.
Riyadh has emerged as the fastest-growing market for data centers in the Middle East, and aims to soon catch up with Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the race to build up the power and capacity needed to fuel the AI boom.