Luma AI, a frontier artificial intelligence company focused on building multimodal AGI systems, has announced plans to establish a new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking a strategic expansion of its presence in the Middle East and reinforcing the momentum behind HUMAIN Create.
Backed by leading global investors including HUMAIN, Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon, AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, Amplify Partners, Matrix Partners, and prominent technology and entertainment angels, Luma AI continues to strengthen its role in shaping next-generation AI infrastructure and creative technologies.
The new Riyadh office will serve as a regional hub for partnerships, client engagement, and advanced AI development. The expansion is designed to deepen collaboration with HUMAIN and support the development of what is positioned as the first Saudi-built, Arabic-native foundation model. This model will be deployed through HUMAIN Create, HUMAIN’s generative AI platform that integrates advanced models, tools, and infrastructure for regional creators and enterprises.
As part of its regional growth strategy, Luma AI plans to recruit local talent across AI engineering, software development, go-to-market leadership, and forward-deployed technical and creative roles. These teams will work closely with customers and partners across Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region.
Through HUMAIN Create, Luma AI’s systems will be trained on Arabic language datasets and regional content, enabling AI applications that reflect local language nuances, culture, and creative context. The initiative aims to accelerate adoption of generative AI across both public and private sectors describing a shift toward locally relevant AI ecosystems.
Amit Jain, CEO and Co-Founder of Luma AI, said Saudi Arabia represents a natural regional base given the Kingdom’s ambitious technology agenda and technically capable workforce. He noted that establishing a local presence allows Luma AI to collaborate directly with regional creators and builders while developing AI systems aligned with local needs and creative expression.
Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN, described the expansion as a major step in advancing collaboration between the two organizations. He highlighted that HUMAIN Create is focused on building culturally fluent AI systems that empower creators, brands, and organizations across the region. The initiative is supported by Project Halo, a large-scale 2GW AI supercluster under development in Saudi Arabia, designed to provide the compute capacity required for large-scale AI training and inference.
In parallel, Luma AI announced a strategic partnership with Publicis Groupe Middle East, under which Luma AI has been named the preferred generative AI technology partner for the group across Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region. The partnership, developed in collaboration with HUMAIN, will see Publicis integrate Luma AI’s generative video and multimodal AI capabilities into creative and production workflows.
Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey, said the collaboration reflects a shift toward embedding generative AI directly into creative processes, enabling faster production cycles, greater personalization, and culturally relevant storytelling across markets. Jason Day, Head of EMEA at Luma AI, added that the partnership enables generative AI to become a core component of creative development, unlocking new levels of scale, speed, and creative ambition for brands across the region.
Luma AI’s expansion underscores Saudi Arabia’s growing position as a regional hub for AI development, infrastructure investment, and next-generation digital creativity, aligning with broader national ambitions to build globally competitive AI capabilities rooted in local innovation.
