Saudi Arabia announced the launch of Humain, a state-owned artificial intelligence company led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Tareq Amin, former CEO of Aramco Digital, appointed as CEO.
What Happened: The announcement was made just before the start of President Donald Trump's tour of the Middle East. "This initiative will pave the way for a groundbreaking national AI strategy in Saudi Arabia," Amin said.
The company will develop homegrown AI tech, scale adoption across industries, and centralize data center initiatives. Staff have been recruited from state-backed projects like SDAIA, Tonomus, and Aramco Digital, according to Forbes.
The launch coincides with Trump's tour, during which Trump announced a massive $600 billion investment commitment from Saudi Arabia into the U.S., calling it a "golden era" for U.S.-Middle East economic ties.
Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, Trump listed a series of multibillion-dollar commercial deals involving leading American companies like Amazon, Oracle, AMD, Uber, Qualcomm and Johnson & Johnson.
Why It Matters: Humain appears to have emerged out of Saudi Arabia's "Project Transcendence," a program reportedly set up last year to position the kingdom as a serious rival to the United Arab Emirates in the AI sector.
The UAE has already taken the lead with its $100 billion state-backed AI fund, which supports OpenAI.
U.S. export controls on GPUs remain a major hindrance for the Middle East's AI plans, but changing rules under Trump offer some hope.
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