Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will supply semiconductors to Saudi Arabian artificial intelligence company Humain for a massive data center project, acting under a Trump administration initiative that lifts restrictions on delivering advanced technology to the region.
Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang announced the partnership on stage at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, the Gulf nation’s capital. The announcement came alongside US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country. Separately, AMD will provide chips and software for data centers “stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States” in a US$10 billion project, according to a statement.
AI needs a lot of power, and the energy-rich country will be able to use Nvidia’s technology to unlock new capabilities in the field, Huang said.
Nvidia shares rallied as much as 6.4 per cent following the announcement in trading Tuesday in New York. They had been down 8.4 per cent this year through Monday’s close. AMD shares rose as much as 4.5 per cent.
The two US companies are trying to broaden their customer base for AI accelerators — the chips used to develop artificial intelligence software. Purchases of that technology are currently dominated by a small group of data center operators, a roster that includes Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.
Attracting sovereign AI — state-sponsored initiatives to build national capabilities — is a key part of the effort to find new clients.
Humain, owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, was unveiled on Monday and will build data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure. It also will develop Arabic versions of large language models, which serve as the foundation for generative AI. CEO Tareq Amin said the company will build 1.9 gigawatts of data centers by 2030. Data centers are often measured in terms of their power consumption.
The Saudi investment fund arm will build what Nvidia calls “AI factories” in the Middle East country with a projected capacity of as much as 500 megawatts. The project will use “several hundred thousand” of Nvidia’s most advanced processors over the next five years, the US company said in a statement. The first step will involve 18,000 of Nvidia’s cutting-edge GB300 Grace Blackwell product and its InfiniBand networking technology.
Saudi Arabia has mandated that personal and financial data be stored locally, pushing international companies to put facilities in the kingdom to avoid losing contracts. Amazon pledged last year to spend $10 billion on data centers in the country. Both Google and Oracle Corp. also announced expansion plans there past year.
AMD is a distant second to Nvidia in the market for accelerator chips — a fast-growing field that’s facing tighter regulation in the US. The country has imposed rules on where such products can be exported, seeking to prevent the technology from getting into the hands of China and other nations it considers threats to national security.
--With assistance from Amy Thomson.
(Updates with AMD plan to build with Humain starting in first paragraph.)
Omar El Chmouri and Ian King, Bloomberg News
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