Saudi Arabia expands AI capacity with AMD and Cisco

US technology firms AMD and Cisco, in collaboration with Saudi AI firm Humain, announced on Monday the commissioning of new artificial intelligence computing infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The enhanced computing capabilities will support Humain's customers domestically and internationally, according to a news release from Cisco.

Humain's CEO, Tareq Amin, emphasized that the partnership with AMD and Cisco signifies confidence in Humain's capacity to develop, deploy, and operate advanced AI infrastructure on a large scale. The AI network utilizes AMD's Instinct MI355X GPUs and EPYC CPUs. AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, stated that the establishment of AMD Instinct systems in Saudi Arabia marks an important milestone.

Humain will also leverage Cisco's Silicon One-based AI networking technology and N9000 Series platform. The collaboration between Humain, AMD, and Cisco is expected to expand AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia to a potential 1GW capacity by 2030. This venture aims to strengthen Saudi Arabia's AI sovereignty, enabling the country to operate digital infrastructure with reduced reliance on external nations.

The announcement coincides with Leap, a major annual technology event in Saudi Arabia, where Amazon Web Services (AWS) also highlighted its upcoming AWS Cloud Infrastructure Region in the kingdom, set to launch by year-end. This region will allow businesses and startups to utilize Amazon's data centers within Saudi Arabia for hosting applications and services, aligning with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 goals.