Saudi Arabia Can Turn out to be International AI Hub Connecting East and West: Minister
At LEAP East 2026, Communications Minister Abdullah Alswaha stated the Kingdom is construction the compute, capital, and virtual infrastructure to change into a strategic hub for international AI funding.
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Saudi Arabia Can Turn out to be International AI Hub Connecting East and West: Minister
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[Image: Chetan Jha/MITSMR Middle East]
Saudi Arabia is making synthetic intelligence infrastructure a central a part of its long-term financial technique. Minister of Communications and Knowledge Era, Abdullah Alswaha, has said that the Kingdom possesses the crucial parts had to change into an international hub for computing, knowledge infrastructure, and AI funding.
Talking on the opening of LEAP East 2026 in Hong Kong, Alswaha stated Saudi Arabia is leveraging large-scale investments in virtual infrastructure to improve its function as a bridge between Asian generation ecosystems and international markets. The remarks replicate the Kingdom’s broader ambition below Imaginative and prescient 2030 to diversify its financial system whilst competing for a bigger proportion of the abruptly increasing AI worth chain.
Fairly than focusing only on AI adoption, Saudi Arabia is more and more emphasizing the bodily infrastructure underpinning the generation—together with knowledge facilities, energy capability, semiconductors, and cloud computing.
Alswaha stated the Kingdom’s virtual financial system has expanded through 75% during the last 8 years, attaining $139 billion (SAR 522 billion). The non-oil virtual financial system now accounts for 16% of GDP, underscoring the sphere’s rising significance as Saudi Arabia seeks to scale back its dependence on hydrocarbons.
The minister highlighted knowledge heart growth as a key aggressive benefit. Saudi Arabia recently operates 467 MW of information heart capability, representing just about part (47%) of the Heart East and North Africa’s overall operational capability. Having a look forward, the Kingdom plans to increase 6.9 GW of information heart capability through 2034, together with 3 GW through 2030, supported through 12.8 GW of to be had electrical energy technology capability.
The emphasis on infrastructure is part of the worldwide AI festival, the place get entry to to power, chips, and computing capability is as essential as creating AI fashions.
Alswaha additionally framed Saudi Arabia’s ambitions throughout the broader Asian generation ecosystem. He famous that jap economies jointly constitute a $34 trillion (SAR 127.5 trillion) financial system and a $10 trillion (SAR 37.5 trillion) virtual financial system, whilst accounting for a lot of the arena’s semiconductor manufacturing and AI-related highbrow belongings.
Positioning the Kingdom between East and West creates alternatives to draw international generation firms searching for regional infrastructure and funding locations, he stated.
Past infrastructure, Alswaha pointed to group of workers construction as every other element of the Kingdom’s AI technique. Girls’s participation in Saudi Arabia’s ICT group of workers has higher from 7% to 35% during the last 8 years, which he stated now exceeds the typical participation charges in each the Ecu Union and Silicon Valley.
Concluding his cope with, Alswaha stated Saudi Arabia now possesses what he described as the 3 important components for the AI technology—compute, shoppers, and capital—and that generation firms from Asia have already begun increasing their investments within the Kingdom, reinforcing its ambition to change into a regional AI infrastructure hub.
