HUMAIN prepares a substantial venture capital fund to scale sovereign AI investments and attract global compute partners to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned artificial intelligence company, is preparing to launch a multibillion-dollar venture capital fund to accelerate the kingdom’s ambitions as a global hub for AI compute. Chief Executive Tareq Amin announced the initiative in an interview published Wednesday, noting that the primary vehicle could exceed a previously planned $10 billion fund. Additionally, HUMAIN is targeting a separate approximately $2.5 billion fund dedicated specifically to data centers—a figure Amin acknowledged sits at the lower end of announced Gulf AI commitments. While the exact size remains unconfirmed, Amin told Semafor the main fund could surpass the $10 billion mark, and Newsquawk has reported on the data-center-focused vehicle.
The fund will operate under strict operational requirements. “We don’t do passive investments, that will never happen,” Amin stated. Portfolio companies will only receive backing if they agree to run a portion of their compute workloads on Saudi data centers or relocate staff to the kingdom. To accelerate deal flow, HUMAIN plans to establish offices across the United States, Saudi Arabia, France, and the United Kingdom. Alongside the international fund, the company will launch a dedicated domestic arm, HUMAIN Limitless, designed to fund and support AI startups operating within Saudi Arabia.
HUMAIN’s aggressive expansion follows what Amin described as a highly successful early move: a $3 billion investment in Elon Musk’s xAI made in February. Following xAI’s merger with SpaceX, the stake was converted into SpaceX equity, which the PIF—HUMAIN’s parent alongside Aramco—has since disclosed as a $26 billion holding. Amin cited this transaction as proof that the company’s infrastructure-backed investment strategy yields results, calling the initial xAI bet “a home run.” Since its founding by the PIF, HUMAIN has rapidly scaled its operations, securing partnerships with Nvidia, Groq, Qualcomm, and xAI, while committing to develop six gigawatts of AI data center capacity in the kingdom by 2034.
Supporting this growth, HUMAIN secured a 16-gigawatt power commitment from the Saudi Ministry of Energy. The company is leveraging debt financing backed by long-term offtake agreements with major technology firms, which Amin characterized as “bankable.” A $3 billion partnership with Blackstone is also being utilized to finance data center projects. According to Amin, computing costs in Saudi Arabia are approximately 30% lower than in other regions, sustaining steady demand despite broader geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Recent contractual expansions include Al Moammar Information Systems increasing its data center agreement to 250 megawatts, now valued at over 8.76 billion riyals ($2.34 billion), and a joint venture with DataVolt to build the first 100-megawatt phase of a 360-megawatt facility in Neom’s Oxagon zone, scheduled for completion in 2028. Industry estimates suggest Saudi Arabia’s AI and cloud infrastructure expansion may require up to $42 billion by 2030.
Access to advanced semiconductor hardware remains a critical component of HUMAIN’s strategy. In November 2025, the United States approved its first exports of advanced AI chips to the company. Amin credited a US-Saudi strategic AI partnership for enabling this access, stating, “I don’t see any obstacles or issues for us to obtain the chip capacity we need.” Operating under US export controls originally imposed on China, HUMAIN has committed to strict compliance protocols. The company will not permit Chinese frontier laboratories to train foundational models on its infrastructure. Instead, it will provide only inference access to Chinese open-source models. Amin emphasized that this distinction ensures the arrangement remains compliant with Washington’s regulatory framework, as it does not involve “furnishing a training cluster to Chinese frontier labs.”
Regional security concerns have also shaped HUMAIN’s operational posture. Following attacks on AI infrastructure across the Gulf during the recent US-Iran war, Amin confirmed that the company is hardening and decentralizing its facilities, treating them “like critical national infrastructure.” HUMAIN is ultimately owned by the PIF and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with Tareq Amin serving as chief executive. The company continues to position itself at the intersection of sovereign wealth capital, cutting-edge AI development, and stringent geopolitical compliance.