Saudi Aramco takes 49% stake in AI firm Humain

Saudi Aramco, the cornerstone of the oil-dependent Saudi economy, has announced that it is taking a 49 percent stake in state-backed AI company Humain. The Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, will retain the remaining 51 percent. This investment is part of Aramco's efforts to diversify its economy and accelerate Humain's growth to meet increasing demand for AI capabilities.

The investment, which includes AI assets, compute power, and digital assets, will be made by Aramco through a wholly-owned subsidiary. This move comes as Humain prepares to deploy three gigawatts of AI data center capacity by 2030. Humain is also working on infrastructure and cloud platforms, and has developed an Arabic-language large language model (LLM).

In a joint statement, Aramco and Humain said the investment will support Humain's rapid scaling to meet growing regional and global demand for AI compute. Humain's president and CEO, Amin H. Nasser, said the deal will help the company advance its full range of AI capabilities globally. Aramco's investment is expected to amount to about 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6 billion) this year.