#SaudiArabia #M&A - Saudi Arabiaá energy giant Aramco has closed a deal for a 49 percent stake in national AI company HUMAIN, paying about SAR 9.9 billion ($2.6b) in cash in 2026 plus AI, compute and digital assets. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), retains a majority 51 percent share. Aramco is the Dhahran-based national energy and chemicals giant. HUMAIN plans 6 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity by 2034 and aims to become one of the world’s leading AI exporters. The shareholders will also contribute AI talent and capabilities as previously announced a year ago.
SO WHAT? - Aramco’s acquisition is significant for a number of reasons. As a result, HUMAIN not only gets funding, but is also firmly positioned as the country’s preferred AI technology partner, whilst reinforcing its connection with the Kingdom’s single largest technology customer. The deal includes the acquisition of some of Aramco Digital’s portfolio, people and expertise.
KEY POINTS:
Aramco, through its wholly owned subsidiary Saudi Aramco Development Company, has acquired a 49% stake in HUMAIN, while Public Investment Fund (PIF) retains 51% of the shares. The two shareholders announced the transaction had closed on 1 November 2026.
Aramco is contributing about SAR 9.9 billion ($2.6b) in cash in 2026, on top of AI, compute and digital assets. PIF and Aramco will both contribute AI assets, capabilities and talent.
HUMAIN plans to deploy 6 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity by 2034. The company says this will help it meet growing regional and global demand for AI compute.
HUMAIN launched in May 2025 and is building across four areas: next-generation data centres, high-performance infrastructure and cloud platforms, advanced AI models, and AI solutions for industry.
Its models include ALLaM, which the company describes as one of the world’s most powerful multimodal Arabic large language models (LLMs). HUMAIN aims to cover the full AI stack, from data centres to applications.
Aramco expects to use HUMAIN’s AI infrastructure to turn AI capabilities into industrial applications across its operations. As a shareholder and strategic partner, it expects revenue growth and attractive margins.
Aramco says it has achieved $11.3 billion in Technology Realized Value since 2023, with a significant portion coming from AI solutions. The company expects the deal to complement its core energy business.
The deal fits PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy, which aims to deepen links across economic sectors, widen private sector involvement and grow national companies into global leaders. It also supports Saudi efforts to attract AI talent and investment.
The European Commission cleared Saudi Aramco Development Company and PIF to take joint control of HUMAIN under the EU Merger Regulation (case M.12417) in July 2026. It found no competition concerns, citing limited impact on the European Economic Area and the companies’ limited combined market position, and used the simplified review procedure.
ZOOM OUT - In October 2025, PIF and Aramco signed a non-binding term sheet for Aramco to take a significant minority stake in HUMAIN, with PIF keeping majority ownership. Aramco also announced plans to move AI assets and talent into the company, including from its Aramco Digital subsidiary and a 19,000-chip Groq AI inference data centre. No details of the assets have so far been divulged. HUMAIN’s chief executive, Tareq Amin, said the company aimed for a future dual listing on NASDAQ and Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul exchange within four years.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: PIF, HUMAIN, various
Read more background on the Aramco-HUMAIN acquisition:
Aramco to merge AI assets with HUMAIN (Middle East AI News)
Saudi Arabia creates future AI powerhouse called Humain (Middle East AI News)
Saudi government plans $100B AI and infrastructure group (Middle East AI News)