- New partnerships, Arabic AI tools and autonomous trucks highlight the Kingdom’s push to develop technology talent
RIYADH: The fifth edition of the landmark LEAP technology conference began on Monday with major announcements from Saudi AI firm Humain, setting a rapid pace for the Kingdom’s regional technological leadership.
“Everything that we’ve talked about is building that intelligence in Saudi Arabia. We covered the data center and the infrastructure. We covered the compute and showed what we have built in advanced AI chips, the intelligence, the models, the model library, Humain, Humain Voice, ALLAM and making sure that all of the developers have access to it,” CEO Tareq Amin said.
He led a presentation on the announcements of new product launches and strategic partnerships to drive regional AI innovation.
One major announcement was a partnership between semiconductor giant AMD and Humain to launch AI in a Box, increasing AI accessibility for Saudi-based enterprises by giving those at the start of their AI journey access to world-class compute technology.
“The launch builds on the strategic collaboration between AMD and Humain to invest up to $10 billion to support AI infrastructure initiatives. Through a joint venture, AMD, Humain and Cisco have also planned to deploy up to 1 GW of AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia by 2030,” Amin said.
“The most transformative technologies are the ones that eventually become accessible to everyone; AI compute is moving through that same transition. With AI in a Box, Humain and AMD are taking advanced computing capability and making it practical for enterprises that do not need to begin with hyperscale infrastructure,” he added.
Another major announcement shared by Amin was the deepening of the partnership between Humain and Amazon Web Services, which aims to launch its first cloud infrastructure region in the Kingdom by December this year.
“Here in Saudi Arabia, you have already reached a tipping point of adoption. Forty-five percent of the population is already using AI, and Saudi Arabia is number one in this region for AI sector growth — incredible contributions to the economy,” Tanuja Randery, president of AWS EMEA, said during her presentation on stage.
“Two years ago, we stood on this stage, and we made a commitment to His Royal Highness that we would invest in the AWS region here in Saudi Arabia with over $5 billion,” she added.
“We’ve been working at warp speed thanks to our partners — and the AWS Saudi region will launch live in December 2026,” she added.
The cloud region will provide resilience, data residency and low-latency capability for innovation in the Kingdom, Randery said.
“And it also brings Saudi into the global infrastructure of AWS’s 40 regions around the world, which means we can bring global customers here, and you can take your customers as well globally,” she added.
Looking further ahead, Randery said Humain and AWS also plan to establish an AI zone in the Kingdom powered by AWS.
“And it is coming in the first half of 2027,” she said.
During her remarks, Randery highlighted the importance of training, saying that AWS has already trained 682,000 people for free across the region, with plans to train 2 million by 2030.
In another announcement, Humain launched Humain Voice, a platform for users to verbally issue prompts and speak to AI in their own language and dialect. Starting today, it is available as an API for developers across Saudi Arabia to consume, test and validate.
During a live stage demonstration, a video showcased the capabilities of Humain Voice. The demo highlighted how users can speak in their local dialect and receive responses in their preferred regional dialect — reflecting an inclusive approach to AI that supports all forms of Arabic.
One standout moment came when the Humain CEO welcomed Khalid Al-Shammari to the stage. At just 20 years old, Al-Shammari is Humain’s youngest AI engineer and the creator of Crew. He took the stage to present his product and share how it works.
“We caught him actually working in Silicon Valley in Canada, building amazing things. He had a startup, and he called the startup Crew,” Amin said.
The 20-year-old Humain engineer took the stage to introduce his product, now part of the Humain ecosystem. “Introducing Humain Crew: your virtual co-worker, supporting teams across finance, HR and customer support,” Al-Shammari said.
“I am 20 years old and still a student. But because Humain believes in me and in the youth of this nation, today I am a lead engineer,” he added.
One of the final announcements of the day was a joint venture between Humain and Applied Intuition, a $15 billion company that makes drones, cars and trucks, and is planning to deploy driverless vehicles in Saudi Arabia.
“We're bringing autonomous trucks to Saudi Arabia,” Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO, said.
“Today we’re announcing a joint venture between Humain and Applied Intuition. Applied Intuition is one of the largest physical AI companies on the planet. We’re a $15 billion company that makes autonomous cars, trucks, mining equipment, agricultural equipment, drones — you name it, we do it,” Younis added.
“Together, we’re building an office here in Riyadh to ultimately build driverless trucks and deploy thousands of driverless trucks on Saudi roads by 2030.”
