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Communications and Information Technology Minister Abdullah Alswaha inaugurated the LEAP 2026 event in Riyadh on August 31, outlining the kingdom’s latest artificial intelligence initiatives aimed at positioning Saudi Arabia as a global technology leader. Alswaha pointed to xAI’s first expansion beyond the United States, which will begin with an initial 50-megawatt facility scaling up to 500 megawatts. The minister also noted NVIDIA’s commitment to establish one of the world’s largest AI factories in the kingdom, describing it as a cornerstone of the national economy under Vision 2030.
Humain, the state-backed artificial intelligence company launched by the Public Investment Fund in 2025, partners with xAI on the data center project that will also deploy the Grok models nationwide, according to details first announced at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in November 2025. Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk and NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang unveiled the 500-megawatt facility during that Washington event attended by US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Humain has invested $3 billion in xAI as part of a broader funding round, making it a significant minority shareholder whose stake later converted following xAI’s merger with SpaceX.
NVIDIA has committed to supply several hundred thousand advanced GPUs, starting with an 18,000-unit GB300 Grace Blackwell supercomputer in the initial phase, the company said in its partnership announcement with Saudi authorities. The collaboration extends to deploying the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for digital twins and physical AI applications while training thousands of local developers. A separate agreement with the Saudi Data and AI Authority will add up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs for sovereign AI capabilities and smart city solutions.
The kingdom’s digital economy has grown by 70 percent in recent years while women’s participation in the technology sector has reached 36 percent, the highest rate among G20 nations, Alswaha stated at the conference. These gains form part of a wider push that includes Humain’s target of 6.6 gigawatts of AI compute capacity by 2034 at an estimated total cost of $77 billion. The company has broken ground on initial data center sites in Riyadh and Dammam scheduled to come online in the second quarter of 2027.
LEAP 2026, running under the theme “Into New Worlds” at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham, features more than 1,000 speakers, 1,800 companies, 600 startups and 1,900 investors. Dedicated zones address sports technology, world tech trends and startup networking opportunities. The event coincides with ongoing regulatory approvals that have enabled exports of advanced US semiconductors to Humain for these AI infrastructure projects.
Humain chief executive Tareq Amin has described the partnerships as critical to securing computing capacity in a market where demand for GPUs frequently outstrips immediate supply. The Saudi Press Agency reported that Musk emphasized combining massive compute with advanced models to accelerate intelligence development in the kingdom. Huang, in remarks at the earlier forum, underscored AI’s emergence as essential global infrastructure supported by high-performance systems and simulation capabilities.
