Nvidia will send 18,000 AI GPUs to Saudi Arabia's new state-sponsored AI company, Humain, CEO Jensen Huang announced Tuesday. The move comes after the US canceled pending AI diffusion export rules that would have complicated these types of transactions.
As reported by Bloomberg, Huang made the remarks at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh as President Donald Trump makes his visit to the country. According to the report, Nvidia's semiconductors will be used to build a 500-megawatt data center.
During his remarks, Juang reportedly stated that Saudi Arabia would help Nvidia unlock new capabilities in the field of AI thanks to its rich energy stores. "I am so delighted to be here to help celebrate the grand opening, the beginning of Humain,” Huang said in comments reported by CNBC. “It is an incredible vision, indeed, that Saudi Arabia should build the AI infrastructure of your nation so that you could participate and help shape the future of this incredibly transformative technology.”
The news comes just days after it was revealed the Trump administration plans to jettison its restrictive AI Diffusion Rule, an export control policy proposed in January to prevent the proliferation of AI tech to rival nations. The three-tier system reserved its strictest controls for the likes of Belarus, China, and Russia, but Saudi Arabia was among nations listed in tier 2 set to face restrictions that would have precluded even a tenth of the amount proposed from changing hands prior to the rules being scrapped.
Saudi Arabia's Humain venture explained
Announced on Monday, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Board of Directors of PIF, unveiled Humain. Humain is an AI company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Chaired by the Crown Prince, Humain "will provide a comprehensive range of AI services, products and tools, including next-generation data centers, AI infrastructure and cloud capabilities, and advanced AI models and solutions." It also promises one of the world's most powerful multimodal Arabic LLMs.
As Bloomberg notes, the move is not without controversy, with Saudi Arabia mandating "that personal and financial data be stored locally." The move forces companies, including Amazon, Google, and Oracle, to operate to build data centers in the country to avoid losing out on contracts elsewhere.
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