King Saud University, SenseTime MEA launch AI innovation centre
PIF joint venture establishes innovation hub with Riyadh university
#SaudiArabia #innovation – SenseTime-Public Investment Fund joint venture SenseTime MEA and Riyadh’s King Saud University have signed an agreement to launch a joint AI Innovation Centre serving as a platform for AI research, applications across multiple sectors and talent development. The partnership includes deployment of a GPU cluster providing computing capacity to support the innovation centre alongside clients and stakeholders scaling initiatives in health, energy, entertainment, logistics, smart cities, environmental monitoring and space science.
SO WHAT? – Hong Kong-headquartered SenseTime has its roots in the academic world and has always prioritised research, innovation and education for SenseTime MEA, its joint venture in Saudi Arabia. The partnership with King Saud University supports the country’s efforts to grow its AI pipeline by developing local talent and fulfils the company’s goal of supporting the education sector. The company is also building AI infrastructure which will support both the AI Innovation Centre, and commercial clients across sectors such as health, energy, entertainment, logistics, smart cities, environmental monitoring and space science.
Here are the key points about the new initiative:
SenseTime-Public Investment Fund joint venture SenseTime MEA and Riyadh’s King Saud University signed an agreement on 11 November 2025 to establish a joint AI Innovation Center in Riyadh, creating a platform for AI research and use case development across multiple sectors.
The new centre at King Saud University will focus on teaching, learning, research and talent development, implementing intelligent course design, AI-assisted teaching and post-class analytics whilst connecting students and researchers to live sector-aligned projects.
The partnership combines SenseTime MEA’s supercomputing capabilities with King Saud University’s academic strengths to embed AI into everyday practice, from course design to research acceleration and career preparation for high-impact roles.
SenseTime MEA is building a GPU cluster to provide AI computing capacity supporting the innovation centre, customers and stakeholders, allowing them to scale AI initiatives in health, energy, entertainment, logistics, smart cities, environmental monitoring and space science applications.
SenseTime MEA drives digital transformation across education, entertainment and smart cities. It also previously contributed to a project using AI to monitor the Red Sea ecosystem for coral reef and wildlife protection.
The company’s solutions portfolio includes smart cities, buildings, destinations, digital experiences, environment and sustainability applications deployed across the Kingdom since beginning operations in 2022.
King Saud University, established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulaziz as the first university in Saudi Arabia, operates across four colleges covering science, health, humanities and community, with programmes taught in English and Arabic.
ZOOM OUT – SenseTime MEA was established in Riyadh in 2022 as a joint venture between Hong Kong-based SenseTime Group and the Public Investment Fund (PIF), via its company SCAI (which is now part of HUMAIN). PIF invested SAR 776 million ($206.54m) in SenseTime MEA, a joint venture focused on empowering the local AI ecosystem, building capabilities in computer vision and driving innovation across smart city, business intelligence, healthcare and education domains. The new company also aimed to build AI innovation and research facilities and create skilled jobs for Saudi nationals.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]