Saudi Aramco is acquiring a 49% stake in HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia's national AI company, in a $2.6 billion cash deal to support the kingdom's ambition to become a global AI hub.

Saudi Aramco is buying into Humain, the company meant to turn Saudi Arabia into a global AI hub. According to Aramco, the oil giant is taking a 49 percent stake and contributing about $2.6 billion in 2026, along with its own AI technology. Humain was founded in May 2025 by the sovereign wealth fund PIF. It builds data centers, develops cloud services, and trains AI models such as the Arabic language model ALLaM.

Humain plans to build three gigawatts of data center capacity by 2030. The company wants to serve demand both at home and abroad and become a leading AI exporter. Business is already picking up. In late August, AMD reported that infrastructure built jointly with Cisco and Humain is now serving customers inside and outside Saudi Arabia. Aramco plans to use the technology in its own operations and to generate additional revenue by selling its own AI solutions. Through its investment arm, Wa'ed Ventures, the company also holds a stake in Korean AI chip developer Rebellions.

The Iran war is affecting the buildout. Humain is strengthening protection for its data centers, CEO Tareq Amin told Semafor in September. Saudi Arabia is drawing on Aramco's experience in securing oil infrastructure as a model. Despite the war, Humain has not seen any drop in demand.