PIF’s HUMAIN: Catalyzing AI Partnerships and Business Opportunities for Foreign Companies

PIF’s HUMAIN is advancing Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions through strategic partnerships, infrastructure investments, and business opportunities, creating new pathways for foreign companies looking to enter and expand in the Kingdom’s growing AI ecosystem.

Saudi Arabia is building one of the world’s largest AI infrastructure ecosystems, with HUMAIN, the Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned AI company, at the center of the expansion.

Since its launch, HUMAIN has announced partnerships with global technology companies, alongside Saudi infrastructure and investment partners. The partnerships follow a consistent model: HUMAIN provides access to compute capacity and the Saudi market, while partners contribute AI models, software, technology, infrastructure, or specialized expertise.

For foreign companies considering setting up a business in Saudi Arabia, these developments offer a useful indication of where demand is emerging and where opportunities may exist across the Kingdom’s growing AI ecosystem.

HUMAIN at a Glance

HUMAIN is owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and operates across four main areas: AI data centers, High-performance computing infrastructure and cloud platforms, advanced AI models and sector-specific AI solutions

The company is planning a major expansion of AI computing capacity, targeting:

• 1.7 GW by 2027
• Around 3 GW by 2030
• 6 GW by 2034

HUMAIN estimates that developing AI data center capacity costs between $10 million and $12 million per MW. The company largely focuses on building the capacity that matches the current demand, making signed customers and strategic partnerships an important part of its expansion strategy.

Global Partnerships: What Companies Are Bringing to Saudi Arabia

HUMAIN’s international partnerships demonstrate the range of companies finding opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s emerging AI ecosystem.

Canadian AI company Cohere has secured at least 50 MW of dedicated compute capacity for its next-generation models, with the potential to expand over five years, while the two companies will also collaborate on Arabic-language and domain-specific models and enterprise AI tools.

Meanwhile, French AI company Mistral AI announced a collaboration with HUMAIN valued at hundreds of millions of euros in August 2026, covering AI model development and localization, initially focusing on areas such as cybersecurity and voice AI, as well as opportunities in regulated sectors and the potential use of HUMAIN’s data center infrastructure.

A few months earlier, HUMAIN took a controlling stake in UK-based sports technology company ai.io in February 2026 and launched HUMAIN Sport using its technology.

These moves form part of a broader push to bring international technology companies into Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem. The PIF-backed company has also signed xAI and AWS as customers, alongside several companies developing open-weight AI models.

These partnerships reflect HUMAIN’s broader goal of enabling global technology companies to run AI workloads from Saudi while using the Kingdom as a platform to serve customers in other markets.

HUMAIN’s Saudi Partnerships Are Expanding AI Infrastructure

International AI companies are not the only businesses benefiting from HUMAIN’s expansion.

Saudi companies are also securing major contracts and partnerships to build the infrastructure needed to support the Kingdom’s AI ambitions. Al Moammar Information Systems (MIS) has recently signed a SAR1.88 billion ($501 million) design-and-build contract for an AI data center.

Al Yamama Company for Trading & Contracting has won the infrastructure contract for HUMAIN’s planned 6 GW campus in Riyadh, covering power distribution, two substations, water and fire systems, roads, and underground cable and fiber infrastructure.

DataVolt, meanwhile, is partnering with HUMAIN on 100 MW of the planned 360 MW first phase of a data center development at Oxagon in NEOM, with the first 100 MW expected to become operational in 2028.

HUMAIN is also developing additional investment vehicles, including Humain Limitless, a venture vehicle targeting Saudi AI companies, although fund sizes have not yet been disclosed.

HUMAIN’s growing network of global and Saudi partners shows that Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem is developing across the full value chain—from AI models and cloud computing to data centers, infrastructure, software, and specialized services.

For foreign companies, this creates opportunities not only to work directly with HUMAIN, but also to serve the wider network of businesses building and operating the Kingdom’s AI infrastructure.