Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to establish a global artificial intelligence (AI) hub in the Eastern Region, near Dammam. This landmark agreement, signed during the 8th edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII8), positions Saudi Arabia as a prominent global AI hub and an attractive destination for enterprises and startups.
The collaboration aims to enhance the Saudi workforce by providing AI programs to millions of students and professionals, aligning with the national goal of expanding the information and communication technology (ICT) sector by 50%. Under this partnership, customers will have access to Google Cloud’s technology to drive growth across various industries and improve the delivery of AI applications.
PIF indicated that businesses and consumers can expect enhanced AI application quality and data services, delivered locally with greater efficiency. The partnership will also focus on joint research initiatives regarding Arabic language models and AI applications tailored to Saudi Arabia, pending regulatory approvals.
The high-performance infrastructure will incorporate Google Cloud’s significant investment and expertise in custom silicon, featuring the latest tensor processing unit (TPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators, alongside the Vertex AI platform—Google Cloud’s specialized environment for developing generative AI applications.
Yasir Al Rumayyan, Governor of PIF, expressed enthusiasm for the new Google Cloud AI hub, stating, “This partnership demonstrates PIF’s commitment to fostering an AI-friendly environment through investments in human capital and technology, equipping thousands with cutting-edge tools to support our sustainable and innovative infrastructure goals.”
He emphasized that Saudi Arabia is a prime location for global tech partnerships, highlighting PIF’s sector expertise and long-term investment approach. Al Rumayyan noted the country’s strategic location, advanced infrastructure, access to rapidly growing Middle Eastern markets, and the potential for reliable renewable energy as attractive factors for major tech initiatives.
Preliminary research conducted by tech policy advisory firm Access Partnership and commissioned by Google Cloud estimates that the new AI hub could contribute approximately $71 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP over eight years. The increased economic activity from AI adoption is anticipated to create thousands of highly skilled direct and indirect jobs.
This initiative builds on Google Cloud’s existing presence in Saudi Arabia, including the Dammam cloud region launched last year as part of its global network of 40 regions. Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google, stated that this partnership will accelerate AI adoption in local languages and across various industries—such as healthcare, retail, and financial services—for enterprises and startups in Saudi Arabia and beyond.
Porat highlighted the partnership’s potential to create highly skilled jobs for Saudis and provide opportunities for global businesses to grow through cloud adoption.
PIF prioritizes technology investments to enable critical sectors of the economy, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare, transportation, logistics, utilities, and renewables. Its investments in telecom, communications, and technology include the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE) and IoT Squared, a company specializing in the Internet of Things.
To enhance Arabic-language models, PIF and Google Cloud plan to improve the Arabic capabilities of Gemini, Google’s generative AI model family, by integrating additional Arabic datasets with Google Cloud’s technology. This will empower local businesses, researchers, and developers to implement sophisticated Arabic-language AI agents and applications.
