Saudi Arabia Intends to Launch a Fresh Artificial Intelligence Initiative

According to informed sources, Saudi Arabia plans to start a fresh artificial intelligence initiative with up to $100 billion in backing. The project would focus on luring talent to the Kingdom and fostering the local technology sector’s growth.

Remarkably, the sources said the new initiative, dubbed “Project Transcendence,” would fund businesses, data centres, and other infrastructure to advance artificial intelligence.

The “Excellence Project”: A Comprehensive Overview

The initiative’s main objectives are developing the local technology ecosystem, luring talent to the Kingdom, and enticing international tech firms to invest in the Saudi market.

Based on the Kingdom’s impressive efforts to become a global leader in artificial intelligence development, the project will be built with a structure akin to “Alat,” which emphasises sustainable manufacturing and has $100 billion in funding from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

According to Bloomberg, the unidentified sources clarified that the “Excellence Project” intends to collaborate with renowned big technological businesses, with Saudi Arabia supplying the cash and infrastructure. They also said the potential investment amount might be between $50 billion and $100 billion.

According to the sources, the initiative may ultimately incorporate numerous government departments and intends to finance artificial intelligence infrastructure and businesses, as well as close the gap between the United States and China in the field of AI knowledge.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s initiatives to become a worldwide centre for AI Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from fossil fuels and find new revenue streams, includes artificial intelligence.

With domestic adoption of the technology for the remainder of this decade and exports beginning in 2030, Saudi Arabia hopes to rank among the top 15 nations in artificial intelligence.

Besides, Saudi authorities said the kingdom wants to create an AI organisation that is at least as big as the G42 Holding Group, which consists of Abu Dhabi-based tech firms, and that would be a “national champion.”

The Kingdom has established significant artificial intelligence research institutes and ministries and has created extensive language models that resemble ChatGPT from OpenAI.

Read more Artificial Intelligence’s New Applications to Boost KSA’s Economy

Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious AI Goals

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the corporation focuses on producing goods for seven key business units: semiconductors, advanced industries, smart electronics, smart buildings, smart health, smart home appliances, and next-generation infrastructure.

Additionally, “Alat” manufactures in over 30 categories that support essential industries, including complex computers, digital entertainment goods, robotic systems, communication systems, and sophisticated heavy machinery utilised in mining, building, and construction.

Likewise, in an announcement released by the fund, the Saudi Public Investment Fund and “Google Cloud” signed a strategic partnership at the eighth edition of the “Future Investment Initiative” forum in Riyadh at the end of last October.

The partnership aims to establish a global centre for artificial intelligence near the city of Dammam in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom, which will contribute approximately $71 billion to the country’s GDP in eight years.

Furthermore, this new collaboration helps to strengthen the Kingdom’s standing as a major international hub and a top location for AI applications for entrepreneurs and institutions both domestically and internationally.

In keeping with the Kingdom’s strategic objectives of attaining 50% growth in the communications and information technology sector, the partnership includes enhancing Saudi talent’s employability through digital skills and artificial intelligence initiatives that benefit millions of students and workers.

Added to that, customers will benefit from quicker, local, higher-quality AI apps and data services as well as the ability to leverage Google Cloud’s AI technology to enable application growth and development.

Read more The Saudi Market’s Most Sought-After Artificial Intelligence Jobs

Digital Transformation Journey

By merging more Arabic language datasets with Google Cloud technology, the Fund and Google Cloud will endeavour to improve the Arabic language capabilities of Gemini, Google’s family of generative AI models.

Further, to create cutting-edge Arabic AI applications, local businesses, researchers, and developers will be able to integrate these models with their systems.

A group of ICT executives and experts are drawn to Riyadh, where they advocate for the Kingdom’s adoption of digital solutions to create a better present and a more affluent future.

Eventually, Saudi Arabia has achieved strides in this area despite the obstacles, and it is currently attempting to increase the local use of robots and sophisticated smart programs to diversify its economy, enhance services, and digitise sectors.

In 2023, the Kingdom has 22 operational shared data centres and 40 in development, making it the second-largest Middle Eastern country in this regard.

In the 2024 Global Artificial Intelligence Index, Saudi Arabia came out on top of the government strategy criterion for artificial intelligence, ranking first in the Arab world and 14th overall.

Read more Saudi Arabia: The First Globally with Artificial Intelligence