Riyadh moves to rewire its global role with AI

Saudi Arabia aims to translate its hydrocarbon wealth into computational power

By Andreas Krieg

May 16, 2025, 9:25 AM

Attendees at the Gain AI summit in Riyadh in 2024. Saudi Arabia hopes advantages in AI will reinforce the kingdom's geoeconomic and geostrategic power

As President Donald Trump departs Saudi Arabia and the Gulf with a slate of artificial intelligence and technology investment deals, it’s clear that the kingdom – long synonymous with oil-fuelled wealth – is now making a decisive bet on a new power source: data.

With a slew of multibillion-dollar tech investments – ranging from AI infrastructure to chip supply deals with Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm – Saudi Arabia is not just buying into the AI future; it wants to transform itself into a central node in the global tech ecosystem.

Economic transformation

At the heart of the vision is Humain, a just-launched AI firm backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Humain features prominently in deals to acquire hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s newest “Blackwell” chips. The kingdom has also announced plans to develop massive AI data centres capable of generating up to 500 megawatts of graphics processing unit computing power.

Saudi Arabia intends to achieve its data kingpin vision by capitalising on an increasingly scarce and vital resource in the AI age: cheap energy.

Data centres, especially those running high-intensity AI workloads, are ferociously energy-hungry. However, the transition to a post-hydrocarbon economy is not about abandoning fossil fuels altogether, but using them more strategically.

Saudi Arabia is doing just that – leveraging its comparative advantage in low-cost energy to power AI infrastructure that can anchor the next phase of economic development. In essence, the kingdom aims to translate its hydrocarbon wealth into computational power.

This pivot is tightly linked to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a national strategy to diversify the economy, reduce dependency on oil and transform the kingdom into a hub of innovation. The AI deals announced during Trump’s visit show how far this vision has come from being a mere slogan.

With $80 billion in reciprocal investments from companies like Google, Oracle and Uber, Riyadh is not only importing technology but also exporting capital, demonstrating a new level of ambition to shape the global tech economy.

Yet, despite the apparent ambition and scale, there remains a looming question mark over the financial sustainability of Saudi Arabia’s AI dream.

Global oil prices have remained persistently low – well below Saudi Arabia’s fiscal breakeven threshold, estimated at over $95 per barrel.

With oil revenues no longer covering the kingdom’s expansive spending, Riyadh is increasingly turning to borrowing to fund its Vision 2030 priorities.

Even with the PIF’s deep pockets, maintaining the current pace of investment in AI infrastructure, education and foreign partnerships will be fiscally demanding.

While sovereign debt remains manageable for now, future liquidity constraints or external shocks could force difficult trade-offs between economic transformation and fiscal prudence.

Geostrategic entanglement

However, the massive Saudi push into the AI space is not just a geoeconomic one but also a geostrategic one.

Within the 21st century strategic order, computing power is national power and Saudi Arabia is building digital capabilities that rival or exceed those of many advanced economies. In effect, Riyadh is making itself indispensable to the future of global AI, creating deep entanglements with Western tech giants and placing itself in the engine room of digital capitalism.

In an era of great power rivalry, technology is diplomacy and chip access is leverage.

The Trump administration’s easing of President Joe Biden-era AI chip export restrictions to the Gulf is not an act of benevolence; it is a recognition of Saudi Arabia’s new value as a trusted technological ally.

Riyadh has clearly signalled that it is putting its tech eggs in the US basket – rejecting China’s Huawei model in favour of America’s Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm. This is not merely an economic choice but a strategic alignment deepening bilateral interdependence between Riyadh and Washington.

By entangling itself in US supply chains and playing a central role in the AI ecosystem, Saudi Arabia is binding its future to American technological hegemony. This does not just enhance Riyadh’s access to cutting-edge platforms – it also increases Washington’s stake in the kingdom’s stability and success. In a transactional world order, this is how trust is built: through interdependence.

The Saudis are becoming not just buyers of US technology but enablers of its deployment at scale – especially in the Middle East and Global South, where Washington is eager to counter Chinese digital influence.

In that sense, Saudi Arabia’s AI leap is more than a national project – it is a geostrategic play. It aims to position the kingdom as a gatekeeper in global data flows, an anchor of digital infrastructure and a vital ally in the US-led tech bloc.

Just as oil once gave Saudi Arabia leverage in a carbon-centric world, AI infrastructure is supposed to provide similar leverage in the network-centric world of the 21st century.

Riyadh has always understood the power of being a hub – of oil or religion. Now, it is staking a very ambitious claim to be a hub in global data flows and artificial intelligence.

In doing so, it borrows from the playbook of its UAE neighbours, who are competing in the same space.

Andreas Krieg is an associate professor at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London. He is also founder of the London-based risk consultancy firm MENA analytica