PIF, Google Cloud to Establish Advanced AI Hub in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced on Wednesday a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to launch a global hub for artificial intelligence (AI) near Dammam in the Eastern Province, according to a press release.
The partnership, signed during the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII8), marks a milestone in establishing Saudi Arabia’s status as a global hub and a prime destination for AI applications for local and international enterprises and startups.
Partnership with Google Cloud
The agreement aims to enhance the labor market capabilities through providing AI programs and digital tools for millions of Saudi students and employees, in line with the Kingdom’s strategic objectives of achieving a 50% growth in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
On this occasion, the Governor of PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, said: “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.”
Similarly, the President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google, Ruth Porat, said: “As part of Saudi Arabia’s rich technology ecosystem, we aim to create highly-skilled jobs for Saudis and opportunities for global businesses to fuel growth through cloud adoption.”
Enhancing Growth
Moreover, the partnership will enable customers to use Google Cloud technologies to support growth across various sectors and increase the capacities for the development of AI applications.
The partnership, which is subject to obtaining regulatory approvals, will also include joint research on Arabic language models as well as Saudi-specific AI applications.
To advance Arabic-language models, PIF and Google Cloud will examine 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 allow local businesses, researchers and developers to link these models with their systems to build sophisticated Arabic language AI agents and applications.
Global AI Hub
Furthermore, the partnership highlights the attractiveness of Saudi Arabia for major technology projects, owing to its strategic location at the intersection of three continents.
Investors can also benefit from the Kingdom’s advanced infrastructure, its position in the rapidly growing markets of the Middle East, and the prospect of reliable and affordable renewable energy to supply the AI hub.
In the light of this, Al-Rumayyan said: “Saudi Arabia is a prime location for global tech partners as PIF brings both sector expertise and a long-term approach to investment.”
PIF’s Focus on Technology
The technology sector is one of PIF’s priority investment areas, acting as a key enabler of other key areas of the economy, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare, transport and logistics, and utilities and renewables.
According to a research conducted by Google Cloud and the advisory firm, Access Partnership, the new AI hub could contribute a cumulative $71bn to the Saudi GDP over eight years.
Underscoring the agreement’s significance, Porat said: “This strategic partnership will accelerate 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 around the world.”