Artificial Intelligence

JEDDAH : Saudi Arabia has taken another major step towards expanding its artificial intelligence industry after the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and energy giant Saudi Aramco completed a transaction involving national AI company HUMAIN. Under the agreement, Aramco has acquired a 49% stake in HUMAIN through a wholly owned subsidiary, while PIF retains the controlling 51% stake. As part of the transaction, Aramco is contributing approximately SAR 9.9 billion ($2.6 billion) in cash during 2026, alongside key artificial intelligence, computing and digital assets. The deal was officially announced on November 1, 2026. Yazeed A. Al-Humied, deputy governor and head of MENA Investments at PIF, said: “Bringing PIF and Aramco’s AI portfolio of investments together under Humain creates a powerful synergy that fuels talent growth, technological advancement, and intellectual property creation." "Fully aligned with PIF’s strategic objectives, this transaction accelerates Humain's growth into a global leader in the sector, strengthening AI as an enabler of PIF’s six ecosystems and further expanding private sector participation across our portfolio while advancing the development of cutting-edge technologies in Saudi Arabia.” “The Humain deal is very important to Aramco, building on the company’s long track record of innovation and technology. We are proud of our progress in developing and deploying advanced digital and AI technologies to enhance performance across the oil and gas sectors." Amin H. Nasser, Aramco president & CEO, added. "Since 2023, Aramco has achieved $11.3 billion in Technology Realized Value, with a significant portion coming from AI solutions. This partnership with PIF strengthens Aramco’s position as a global technology leader and AI powerhouse, while laying the foundation for localizing the AI industry and enabling faster, more integrated, and scalable deployment of AI systems." HUMAIN is also preparing to secure computing capacity at the Oxagon data centre, currently under development in NEOM’s industrial district in Saudi Arabia. The facility is expected to become part of the Kingdom’s growing digital infrastructure supporting advanced artificial intelligence workloads. The company has previously disclosed that it has secured access to more than 200 plots of land across Saudi Arabia for the potential development of data centres, signalling its ambition to build a large-scale AI infrastructure network. Aramco is majority-owned by the Saudi Arabian government, making its growing involvement in artificial intelligence and advanced computing part of the Kingdom’s wider strategy to strengthen its position in the global technology sector.