Prime Highlights:
- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches ‘Humain’—a government-backed AI firm.
- The company aims to lead in Arabic-language AI and data infrastructure in the Middle East.
Key Facts:
- Backed by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), worth $940B+.
- Part of Vision 2030 to diversify the economy and lead in tech.
- Launch aligns with major global tech partnerships and funding plans.
Key Background :
Humain is an artificial intelligence firm based in Saudi Arabia and headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It is controlled by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and is the focal point of Saudi Arabia’s entire economic reform drive called Vision 2030. The vision is to make the kingdom a worldwide hub for AI research, development, and commercialization, with special emphasis in the Arabic-speaking markets.
Humain’s aim is to build block-chain LLMs for the Arabic language, build future-proof data centers, and build AI solutions suitable for the Middle Eastern user. The project aims to overcome the Arab language technology gap in the value chain of AI and drive regional innovation by investing in high levels of data infrastructure and human capital.
Saudi Arabia is investing significantly in artificial intelligence. In addition to Beyond Humain, the kingdom will invest $40 billion of foreign AI investments by 2025 and be the world’s second-largest government-sponsored investor in AI. Saudi Arabia also established a $100 billion general technology investment fund.
Humain launch was preceded by a run of Riyadh’s tech forums and summits that saw industry stars such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman (OpenAI), and others. These summits will increasingly prove to be cross-border collaborations, licensing deals, and investments in AI, semiconductors, cloud computing, and cybersecurity space.
By Humain, Saudi Arabia is not only developing local capabilities in AI but also attempting to break free from Western tech ecosystems. The project is also viewed as part of one way towards digital-readiness of the country’s workforce through education, research, and local innovation.
Humain is among the Saudi Vision strategic pillars for being a world-leader in AI potentiality—facilitating AI solutions and services natively created in Arabic and well-tuned to the economy, culture, and society of the country.
