AWS, HUMAIN Announce $5B AI Zone Investment in Saudi Arabia

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Saudi Arabia's newly created AI company HUMAIN have announced a joint investment of over $5 billion to build an AI Zone in Saudi Arabia, aimed at accelerating AI adoption locally and globally. This AI Zone will feature dedicated AWS AI infrastructure, including servers with world-class semiconductors, UltraCluster networks for faster AI training and inference, and services like Amazon SageMaker, Bedrock, and Amazon Q to support generative AI applications with security and privacy. The partnership aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, aiming to position the Kingdom as a global AI leader by fostering innovation, supporting AI startups, and developing Large Language Models (LLMs), including Arabic-specific models. Additionally, AWS is constructing a new AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia, with a $5.3 billion investment, expected to be operational by 2026; the AI Zone investment is separate from this. HUMAIN will leverage AWS technologies to develop AI solutions, create a unified AI agent marketplace for government use, and promote AI innovation across industries in the Gulf region. This collaboration reflects Saudi Arabia's broader strategy to diversify its economy through AI and cloud technologies, with support from major tech firms and alignment with regulatory requirements such as local data storage.