Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia seeks to become an artificial intelligence powerhouse

November 8, 2024

Saudi Arabia is looking to transform itself into an artificial intelligence powerhouse, with major investment focused on infrastructure, startups and local talent.

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Saudi Arabia is betting on artificial intelligence to diversify its economy, reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and compete with the UAE technology conglomerate.

Through “Project Transcendence,” the kingdom has announced an ambitious investment plan of up to USD $100 billion to become a global leader in technology and advance the realization of its Vision 2030.

This strategy aims not only to establish a center for innovation in artificial intelligence, but also to attract technology companies, develop local talent and create high-level infrastructures.

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Project Transcendence

The “Transcendence Project” is the centerpiece of the Saudi effort in artificial intelligence, with funding backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). This project seeks to build a self-sustaining technology ecosystem focused on state-of-the-art data centers, robust infrastructure and startups.

One of the prominent strategies of “Project Transcendence” is its focus on collaborating with tech giants. Talks have been reported between PIF and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, for an initial investment that could range from USD $5 billion to $10 billion.

Through this collaboration, the hope is to advance the development of Arabic-language artificial intelligence models by adapting technologies such as Google Cloud’s Gemini for applications in the Arab world.

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Vision 2030: Artificial intelligence as a pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economy

Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s plan to diversify its economy and decrease its dependence on oil. Under this strategy, the government seeks to establish the country among the 15 leaders in AI by 2030.

In addition, the kingdom plans to adopt artificial intelligence domestically in the coming years and export it from 2030 onwards. In recent years, specific ministries have been established for this purpose, as well as dedicated research centers that have already produced advanced language models similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

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Diversification and technology-based economy

The development of an artificial intelligence hub in Saudi Arabia is part of a key economic diversification strategy for the country. By exploring areas such as telecommunications, robotics and video games.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to transform its traditionally oil-centric economy into a knowledge economy. In addition to “Project Transcendence,” Saudi Arabia has collaborated with Qualcomm to develop the Internet of Things (IoT) and with Intel to establish an Open RAN center.

Saudi Arabia’s strategic agreements, such as the one reached with Google Cloud in the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII8), highlight its focus on digital technologies. This agreement aims to create an artificial intelligence center in Dammam province that will contribute to the development of local talent and enable the country’s ICT sector to grow by 50%.

The center has the potential to add up to USD $71 billion to the Saudi economy over eight years, according to an Access Partnership study commissioned by Google Cloud.

The potential of the artificial intelligence market in Arabic

One of the key objectives of the “Transcendence Project” is the creation of AI models specific to the Arabic language. In a context where most AI models are developed in English, adapting this technology to Arabic represents a crucial competitive advantage for Saudi Arabia. With language models and algorithms in its native language, the kingdom is well positioned to serve the needs of markets in the Middle East and North Africa.

In addition to facilitating the adoption of AI in local industries, creating models in Arabic will enable local companies, researchers and developers to create advanced AI applications that understand and generate text in their own language. This capability is essential not only for commercial applications, but also for the development of systems that can analyze large amounts of government and social data.

The role of artificial intelligence in the energy transformation

Although Saudi Arabia is a world leader in oil production, the country is also committed to reducing its carbon footprint and exploring renewable energy. A crucial point in the Saudi strategy is how the expansion of artificial intelligence will dovetail with its sustainability and carbon reduction goals.

The artificial intelligence projects, which include the Google Cloud hub, have a reliable renewable energy supply in mind, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s commitment to a sustainable energy transition.

Despite these efforts, Google has faced questions about whether its new partnership with the kingdom could conflict with its policy of not developing algorithms for the fossil fuel industry. According to Google, the current agreement is in line with its sustainability commitments, although this remains a matter of debate.