D-AI and PIF Partner on Saudi Sovereign Infrastructure

Saudi Arabia signs multi-year AI infrastructure agreement with D-AI

#SaudiArabia #datacentres - European AI and compute infrastructure company D-AI, signed a multi-year memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to develop sovereign national data centres, digital identity frameworks and cloud computing systems. The partnership follows a shared-benefit economic model designed to retain national value within the Kingdom sovereign cloud and local leadership development. D-AI will design and deploy advanced national data centres capable of supporting large-scale AI training, cybersecurity operations and secure computational workloads for government agencies. The company will also collaborate with Saudi digital authorities to implement next-generation digital identity and citizen service platforms.

SO WHAT? - The partnership aligns with Saudi Arabia’s increased focus on creating sovereign AI and cloud environments and reducing dependency on cloud services based outside the Kingdom. The deal is one of a growing list of partnerships with global technology leaders to build Saudi’s national AI compute and cloud infrastructure, in an effort to meet local demand and establish technology sovereignty.

Here are some key points about the agreement:

• London-headquartered AI and AI infrastructure company D-AI, signed a multi-year MoU with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to develop sovereign national data centres, digital identity frameworks and cloud computing systems.

• The partnership will adopt a shared-benefit economic model designed to retain national value within Saudi Arabia through locally governed systems, operational command within the Kingdom and development of homegrown technical leadership. The built-out will ensure full national ownership of critical data infrastructure, security protocols and high-performance computing resources.

• D-AI will design and deploy advanced national data centres capable of supporting large-scale AI training, cybersecurity operations and secure computational workloads for government agencies

• The European company will also collaborate with Saudi digital authorities to implement next-generation digital identity and citizen service platforms.

• Sovereign cloud computing systems will ensure that all data remains stored, processed and governed under Saudi jurisdiction, enabling seamless and secure access to government systems and public services whilst maintaining complete national control.

• Human capital development forms a central pillar of the initiative, with D-AI working with Saudi ministries, digital agencies and institutional partners to train and mentor engineers, policymakers and technical leaders.

• The first phase will establish multiple national data and AI enablement hubs across strategic regions, followed by phased integration of sovereign cloud systems and digital identity frameworks into key government and institutional infrastructures throughout the Kingdom.

• D-AI specialises in designing and deploying national-scale data centres, cloud systems and AI platforms for governments and enterprises, partnering with organisations worldwide to deliver secure, sovereign digital infrastructure whilst building local technical capacity and leadership in technology.

• The Public Investment Fund has established 103 companies since 2017 and drives Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification whilst enabling creation of key sectors and opportunities that help shape the global economy, actively partnering with pioneering organisations worldwide to accelerate growth and transfer technology and knowledge.

ZOOM OUT - AI and related digital fields are at the forefront of Vision 2030’s strategy to diversify the national economy beyond hydrocarbons through development of world-class technological capacity. The Kingdom is determined to become a world leader in AI and is placing heavy bets on building out AI compute for local and global consumption, leveraging the country’s unique combination of access to capital, energy and real estate. During the past month alone AI infrastructure initiatives and investments have been announced with AMD, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, DataVolt, Magna AI, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and xAI representing plans to build gigawatts of compute capacity in Saudi Arabia.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

Read more about recent Saudi AI infrastructure deals:

• HUMAIN to deploy 600,000 NVIDIA GPUs (Middle East AI News)

• Qualcomm to open AI Engineering Centre at HUMAIN (Middle East AI News)

• AWS to deploy 150,000 AI accelerators in Riyadh AI Zone (Middle East AI News)

• xAI to build 500MW Saudi AI data centre with HUMAIN (Middle East AI News)

• HUMAIN, DataVolt to create multi-GW data centre pipeline (Middle East AI News)

• $300M alliance to build sovereign AI data centre (Middle East AI News)