Saudi AI firm Humain to use 18k Nvidia chips for data center

Nvidia will supply over 18,000 Blackwell AI chips to the Saudi Arabian company Humain, announced CEO Jensen Huang on May 13, 2025.

This announcement occurred during the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh as part of a White House-led delegation.

The chips will support a 500-megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia operated by Humain, which is owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Nvidia’s Blackwell GB300 chips, launched earlier this year, will be used in this initial deployment.

🔗 Source: CNBC

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions represent a larger investment trend

The Humain-Nvidia partnership is part of Saudi Arabia’s broader “Vision 2030” strategy to transform its economy beyond oil dependency.

This 18,000-chip deal is just the first phase of a much larger plan, as Humain ultimately aims to deploy “several hundred thousand” Nvidia GPUs in a massive 500 megawatt data center 1.

The initiative falls under Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which manages assets exceeding $930 billion and is actively diversifying investments into technology sectors 2.

Saudi Arabia is strategically positioning itself as an AI hub by investing in both infrastructure and talent development, including building a powerful Arabic-language large language model 2.

2️⃣ AI chips are becoming strategic geopolitical assets

Nvidia’s Blackwell chips represent cutting-edge AI infrastructure that countries are increasingly viewing as critical national assets, similar to traditional infrastructure.

The announcement during a presidential visit with multiple CEOs present highlights how AI chip access has become an element of international diplomacy and trade negotiations.

The AI chip market is projected to reach $154 billion by 2030 with a 20% annual growth rate, making these technologies increasingly valuable in international relations 3.

Jensen Huang’s statement that “AI infrastructure” is essential for nations to “participate and help shape the future” of AI technology directly positions these chips as foundational to national competitiveness 1.