Aramco buys 49% of Humain, putting $2.6bn behind Saudi AI push
Saudi Aramco will take a 49 percent stake in Humain, the state-backed artificial intelligence company, injecting about 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6 billion) this year alongside AI, compute and digital assets, the oil major said. The Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund steering the kingdom's diversification drive, keeps the remaining 51 percent.
The move gives Humain, which launched in May 2025, a second deep-pocketed backer as it races to build capacity. The company plans to deploy three gigawatts of AI data centre capacity by 2030 and is developing infrastructure, cloud platforms and an Arabic-language large language model, according to a joint statement from the two shareholders.
"The transaction will further accelerate Humain's growth and advance its full range of AI capabilities globally, with PIF and Aramco contributing AI assets, capabilities, and talent," the statement said. Aramco's stake is held through a wholly owned subsidiary and, the statement added, "supports Humain's rapid scaling to meet growing regional and global demand for AI compute".
Aramco had been planning a significant minority holding in Humain for at least a year. Amin H. Nasser, the company's president and chief executive, said AI had helped the oil giant reach $11.3 billion in tech-related value since 2023.
The tie-up places one of the world's largest listed companies at the centre of Gulf efforts to build AI infrastructure at home rather than import it, with the sovereign fund and the national oil champion pooling assets behind a single compute platform.
