Latest news with #AIZone
Daily Tribune
14-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
Saudi Arabia Partners with AWS to Launch $5 Billion AI Zone
In a major leap toward becoming a global hub for artificial intelligence, Saudi Arabia's newly established AI company, HUMAIN, has entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch the Kingdom's first-ever AI Zone. The groundbreaking initiative is backed by an investment of over $5 billion. Announced on Tuesday, the AI Zone aims to position Saudi Arabia at the forefront of AI innovation and adoption, reinforcing its ambitions under Vision 2030 to drive digital transformation and economic diversification through emerging technologies. The AI Zone will leverage AWS's world-class AI and cloud infrastructure, including UltraCluster networks, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock, and Amazon Q. This advanced ecosystem will support HUMAIN's goal of creating a unified AI environment designed for government and enterprise use across the Gulf region and beyond. The new initiative builds upon AWS's existing $5.3 billion investment in a dedicated AWS cloud region in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to go live in 2026. The AI Zone adds a new layer of investment focused on AI infrastructure, innovation, and talent development. 'This partnership marks a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia's journey to become a global leader in AI,' said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. 'The AI Zone will act as a magnet for top talent and global investment, accelerating the Kingdom's technological evolution.' As part of the collaboration, HUMAIN will utilize AWS technologies to develop cutting-edge AI applications and establish a marketplace for AI agents. The initiative also supports the development of Arabic Large Language Models (ALLaM) and aims to boost AI adoption across critical sectors, including healthcare, education, government, and energy. To fuel national AI capabilities, AWS will train 100,000 Saudis in AI and cloud technologies through its Amazon Academy — the largest program of its kind in the Middle East. Additionally, a dedicated women-focused initiative will offer free AWS certification to 10,000 Saudi women, empowering greater female participation in the AI field. According to PwC estimates, Saudi Arabia's investment in AI is expected to contribute up to $130 billion to the national economy by 2030, driven by increased productivity, digital innovation, and societal advancement.
Trade Arabia
14-05-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
AWS, HUMAIN to invest $5bn in groundbreaking AI Zone
Amazon Web Services, an company, and HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia's newly created company responsible for driving AI innovation across the kingdom and globally, have announced plans to invest $5 billion-plus in a strategic partnership to build a groundbreaking 'AI Zone' in the kingdom. This first-of-a-kind AI Zone will bring together multiple innovative capabilities, including dedicated AWS AI infrastructure and servers with world-class semiconductors, UltraCluster networks for faster AI training and inference, AWS services like Sagemaker and Bedrock, and AI application services such as Amazon Q to advance Saudi Arabia's mission to be a world leader in AI. AWS previously announced and is currently building an AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia that will become available in 2026. Amazon is investing $5.3 billion in Saudi Arabia to develop this new region for AWS. The new AI Zone announced on Tuesday is an additional investment to grow global and local demand for advanced AI services in the kingdom, and is part of AWS's long-term commitment to bring its world-class infrastructure and services to Saudi Arabia. This collaboration aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and builds upon the kingdom's pledge in 2024 to invest in building an AI-powered economy, representing a significant step towards realizing Saudi Arabia's ambitions to become a global AI leader. AWS will bring to Saudi Arabia its advanced server and network infrastructure capabilities, as well as its artificial intelligence and machine learning services – including Amazon Sagemaker AI, Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q, fully managed services for building and scaling generative AI (genAI) applications. With Amazon Bedrock in Saudi Arabia, businesses and government organizations can access high-performing models from leading AI companies to develop genAI applications with security, privacy, and responsible AI. Amazon Q is the world's most capable coding assistant, and also enables organizations to build genAI-powered assistants to answer questions, provide summaries, generate content, and complete tasks based on enterprise data. Through this collaboration, HUMAIN plans to develop AI solutions using AWS technologies for its end customers. Further, HUMAIN will work with AWS on the development of a unified AI agent marketplace, simplifying the discovery, deployment, and management of AI software for the Saudi Arabia government. The collaboration also intends to spur the growth of Large Language Models (LLMs), including Arabic Large Language Models (ALLaM), while spearheading wide adoption of AI in organizations and industries across the Gulf Region and beyond. Key sectors, such as government, energy, healthcare, and education, will be able to accelerate their transformation, envisioning AI-powered tools that can personalise learning experiences for students, help provide early disease diagnoses for patients, and unleash productivity across core upstream and downstream processes for government administration. Use cases such as these will be accelerated via the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, in partnership with HUMAIN, enabling customers – from the fastest-growing startups and largest enterprises, to government agencies – to amplify genAI roadmaps and workloads, leading to equitable and efficient delivery of vital services for greater societal impact. 'We thank AWS for doubling down on their long-term partnership with the Kingdom. This new collaboration with HUMAIN lays the foundation for the intelligent era, accelerates our innovation momentum, grows our talent, and reinforces Saudi Arabia's position as a global partner of choice in the age of AI,' said Eng Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Fueling vibrant startup sector AWS and HUMAIN will also work together to advance an AI-powered startup sector in the kingdom, providing access to the broadest and deepest set of cloud technology tools and programs, including AWS Activate, and helping Saudi Arabia's most ambitious founders and entrepreneurs scale their businesses. AWS has helped more than 330,000 startups globally bring their business ideas to life. Its scalable, secure, low-cost cloud solutions and AI-powered services, combined with HUMAIN's deep support network, will help supercharge Saudi's startup scene. According to MAGNiTT, Saudi Arabia startups secured $750 million venture capital funding in 2024, the highest share of capital deployed across the Middle East and North Africa last year. 'This collaboration to build an AI Zone in Saudi Arabia will enable innovations across all industries using AWS's advanced AI offerings, and reflects our commitment to support Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030,' said Matt Garman, CEO, Amazon Web Services. 'Together, we will empower customers with cost-effective and secure cloud technologies, fuel innovation and economic growth across the nation, and enable HUMAIN to appeal to customers globally.' Accelerating talent development As part of its long-term commitment to fast-track cloud adoption in Saudi Arabia, AWS is scaling its training and certification programs focused on genAI skills-building in line with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 digital transformation goals. Working with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), AWS has committed to train 100,000 citizens from the Kingdom in cloud computing and genAI, focusing on the two newest AWS genAI certifications: AWS AI Practitioner and AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate Certifications. Training will be delivered by the Amazon Academy. Launched in 2023, the Amazon Academy is the largest talent development program of its kind in the Middle East. It provides transformative training and certifications, free of cost to participants, to elevate in-demand competencies and equip Saudi talent for jobs of the future. The program is designed to empower the next generation of Saudi youth, entrepreneurs, and professionals at any stage of their career to achieve success across in-demand skills, such as cloud computing, logistics, and leadership. In addition, to help accelerate Saudi Arabia's goal of empowering women to increase participation in the workforce, AWS in 2024 also launched an upskilling program, 'AWS Saudi Arabia Women's Skills Initiative,' in partnership with Skillsoft Global Knowledge. AWS has committed to train 10,000 women on AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, at no charge, through classroom trainings with AWS-certified professionals. Supercharging HUMAIN's AI ambitions Saudi Arabia is forecast to hold the lion's share of AI's estimated economic impact across the Middle East in the coming years. According to PwC, AI will contribute $130 billion to Saudi's economy by 2030, comprising more than 40 percent of the estimated $320 billion of AI value for the entire Middle East. The kingdom is also at the forefront of a regional drive to transform both public sector services and enterprises with AI-powered innovation built in the cloud. PwC estimates that nearly 70 percent of Middle East companies plan to migrate most of their operations to the cloud within the next year, while a 2023 report by Telecom Advisory Services predicts public cloud adoption to unlock US$733 billion in economic value by 2033 across the Middle East and North Africa. "HUMAIN's partnership with AWS is a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia's journey to become a global leader in AI,' said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. 'By leveraging AWS's world-class cloud infrastructure and AI expertise and HUMAIN's full-stack AI capabilities, we are creating an offering that will attract global investment and talent, thereby driving our digital transformation agenda forward.' -
Arabian Business
14-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Saudi Arabia's HUMAIN and AWS forge $5bn-plus AI Zone partnership
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia's newly created company responsible for driving AI innovation across the country and globally, announced plans to invest $5 billion-plus in a strategic partnership to build a groundbreaking 'AI Zone' in the Kingdom. This first-of-a-kind AI Zone, which will bring together multiple innovative capabilities, including dedicated AWS AI infrastructure and servers with world-class semiconductors and UltraCluster networks for faster AI training and inference, is aimed to advance Saudi Arabia's mission to be a world leader in AI. AWS services like SageMaker and Bedrock and AI application services such as Amazon Q will also be part of the proposed AI Zone. HUMAIN, AWS join forces Through this collaboration, HUMAIN plans to develop AI solutions using AWS technologies for its end customers. Further, HUMAIN will work with AWS on the development of a unified AI agent marketplace, simplifying the discovery, deployment, and management of AI software for the Saudi Arabian government. The collaboration also intends to spur the growth of Large Language Models (LLMs), including Arabic Large Language Models (ALLaM), while spearheading wide adoption of AI in organisations and industries across the Gulf Region and beyond. AWS and HUMAIN will also work together to advance an AI-powered startup sector in the Kingdom, providing access to the broadest and deepest set of cloud technology tools and programmes, including AWS Activate, and helping Saudi Arabia's most ambitious founders and entrepreneurs scale their businesses. 'We thank AWS for doubling down on their long-term partnership with the Kingdom. This new collaboration with HUMAIN lays the foundation for the intelligent era, accelerates our innovation momentum, grows our talent, and reinforces Saudi Arabia's position as a global partner of choice in the age of AI,' said Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN, said the company's partnership with AWS is a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia's journey to become a global leader in AI. 'By leveraging AWS's world-class cloud infrastructure and AI expertise and HUMAIN's full-stack AI capabilities, we are creating an offering that will attract global investment and talent, thereby driving our digital transformation agenda forward,' he said. The collaboration is expected to benefit key sectors such as government, energy, healthcare, and education to accelerate their transformation. Envisioning AI-powered tools can personalise learning experiences for students, help provide early disease diagnoses for patients, and unleash productivity across core upstream and downstream processes for government administration, Amazon said. Use cases such as these will be accelerated via the AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre, in partnership with HUMAIN, enabling customers – from the fastest-growing startups and largest enterprises, to government agencies – to amplify genAI roadmaps and workloads, leading to equitable and efficient delivery of vital services for greater societal impact, it said. The latest collaboration follows AWS previously announced and is currently building an AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia, which is scheduled to become operational in 2026. Amazon is investing $5.3 billion (approx. SAR 19.88 billion) in Saudi Arabia to develop this new region for AWS. The new AI Zone is an additional investment to grow global and local demand for advanced AI services in the Kingdom, and is part of AWS's long-term commitment to bring its world-class infrastructure and services to Saudi Arabia, Amazon said. The collaboration aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and builds upon the Kingdom's pledge in 2024 to invest in building an AI-powered economy, representing a significant step towards realising its ambitions to become a global AI leader.
Gulf Business
14-05-2025
- Business
- Gulf Business
AWS, HUMAIN to launch $5bn AI Zone in Saudi Arabia
Image: Getty Images Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI company HUMAIN announced a strategic partnership to develop a first-of-its-kind 'AI Zone' in the kingdom, backed by a joint investment exceeding $5bn. The new AI Zone, aimed at accelerating AI adoption locally and globally, will include dedicated AWS AI infrastructure, UltraCluster networks, and services such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Sagemaker, and Amazon Q. The initiative aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 goals. The partnership builds on AWS's previously announced The AI Zone marks an additional commitment to expand cloud and AI capabilities in the region. 'This new collaboration with HUMAIN lays the foundation for the intelligent era, accelerates our innovation momentum, grows our talent, and reinforces Saudi Arabia's position as a global partner of choice in the age of AI,' said Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Communications and Information Technology. As part of the partnership, HUMAIN will utilise AWS technologies to deliver AI solutions for customers and co-develop a unified AI agent marketplace to simplify AI deployment across government services. Building LLMs The two entities also plan to develop large language models (LLMs), including Arabic-focused models, to support AI adoption in key sectors such as healthcare, education, energy, and government. 'This collaboration to build an AI Zone in Saudi Arabia will enable innovations across all industries using AWS's advanced AI offerings,' said Matt Garman, CEO of The initiative includes the establishment of a Generative AI Innovation Center, in partnership with HUMAIN, to fast-track generative AI (genAI) adoption for startups, enterprises, and public institutions. AWS-HUMAIN alliance to spur startup growth The partnership will also bolster Saudi Arabia's startup ecosystem. AWS will provide startups access to cloud tools and resources, including AWS Activate. The Kingdom saw a record $750m in venture capital funding in 2024, the highest in the Middle East and North Africa, according to MAGNiTT. AWS is also expanding its training and certification programs to build AI and cloud expertise among Saudi nationals. It has committed to training 100,000 citizens, including 10,000 women, through initiatives such as the Amazon Academy and the AWS Saudi Arabia Women's Skills Initiative. 'By leveraging AWS's world-class cloud infrastructure and AI expertise and HUMAIN's full-stack AI capabilities, we are creating an offering that will attract global investment and talent,' said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. According to PwC, AI is expected to contribute $130bn to Saudi Arabia's economy by 2030 — over 40 per cent of the projected AI economic impact in the Middle East. Read:
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AWS enters into 'strategic partnership' with Saudi Arabia-backed Humain
Amazon says it will work with Humain, the AI company recently launched by Saudi Arabia's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, to invest "$5 billion-plus" in a strategic partnership to build an "AI Zone" in Saudi Arabia. The AI Zone will include dedicated Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI infrastructure, servers, networks, and training and certification programs, according to a press release. Humain is pledging to develop AI solutions using AWS technologies, and to work with AWS on providing access to tools and programs for Saudi Arabia-based AI startups. AWS joins tech giants Nvidia, AMD, and others in partnering with Humain, which is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). American tech firms have looked to the PIF as a source of capital. Companies like Google and Salesforce have also recently worked with the PIF on AI-related projects and investments. President Donald Trump and several tech industry allies attended a U.S.-Saudi investment forum on Tuesday. Under a new Trump administration initiative, U.S.-based tech suppliers including the aforementioned Nvidia and AMD have been permitted to arrange deals with Saudi Arabian firms. Saudi Arabia has mandated AI companies and services in the kingdom store data locally, pushing vendors to put facilities there to avoid losing contracts. Both Google and Oracle have announced expansion plans in the region over the past year. Amazon early last March pledged to spend billions of dollars on data centers in Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, the company said it is devoting around $5.3 billion to develop an AWS region in the kingdom scheduled to come online in 2026. The AI Zone commitments are an "additional investment" separate from the roughly $5.3 billion, Amazon said. It isn't clear, however, if Amazon's contribution to the AI Zone will draw on the tranche the company originally announced. TechCrunch has reached out to Amazon for clarification and will update this piece if we hear back. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
