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More than 5 billion joint investment in AI infrastructure, AWS services, and AI training and talent development will advance Saudi Arabias mission to be a global leader in AI RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), and HUMAIN, Saudi Arabias newly created company responsible for driving AI innovation across the Kingdom and globally, today announced plans to invest 5 billion-plus in a strategic partnership to build a groundbreaking AI Zone in the Kingdom. This first-of-a-kind AI Zone will bring together multiple innovative capabilities, including dedicated AWS AI infrastructure and servers with world-class semiconductors, UltraCluster networks for faster AI training and inference, AWS services like SageMaker and Bedrock, and AI application services such as Amazon Q to advance Saudi Arabias mission to be a world leader in AI.AWS previously announced and is currently building an AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia that will become available in 2026. Amazon is investing US5.3 billion (approx. 19.88 billion Saudi riyal) in Saudi Arabia to develop this new region for AWS. The new AI Zone announced today is an additional investment to grow global and local demand for advanced AI services in the Kingdom, and is part of AWSs long-term commitment to bring its world-class infrastructure and services to Saudi Arabia.This collaboration aligns with Saudi Arabias and builds upon the Kingdoms to invest in building an AI-powered economy, representing a significant step towards realizing Saudi Arabias ambitions to become a global AI leader. AWS will bring to Saudi Arabia its advanced server and network infrastructure capabilities, as well as its artificial intelligence and machine learning services - including , and , fully managed services for building and scaling generative AI (genAI) applications. With Amazon Bedrock in Saudi Arabia, businesses and government organizations can access high-performing models from leading AI companies to develop genAI applications with security, privacy, and responsible AI. Amazon Q is the worlds most capable coding assistant, and also enables organizations to build genAI-powered assistants to answer questions, provide summaries, generate content, and complete tasks based on enterprise data.Through this collaboration, HUMAIN plans to develop AI solutions using AWS technologies for its end customers. Further, HUMAIN will work with AWS on the development of a unified AI agent marketplace, simplifying the discovery, deployment, and management of AI software for the Saudi Arabia government. The collaboration also intends to spur the growth of Large Language Models (LLMs), including Arabic Large Language Models , while spearheading wide adoption of AI in organizations and industries across the Gulf Region and beyond.Key sectors, such as government, energy, healthcare, and education, will be able to accelerate their transformation, envisioning AI-powered tools that can personalize learning experiences for students, help provide for patients, and unleash productivity across core upstream and downstream processes for government administration. Use cases such as these will be accelerated via the , in partnership with HUMAIN, enabling customers - from the fastest-growing startups and largest enterprises, to government agencies - to amplify genAI roadmaps and workloads, leading to equitable and efficient delivery of vital services for greater societal impact.We thank AWS for doubling down on their long-term partnership with the Kingdom. This new collaboration with HUMAIN lays the foundation for the intelligent era, accelerates our innovation momentum, grows our talent, and reinforces Saudi Arabias position as a global partner of choice in the age of AI, said His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.Fueling Saudi Arabias vibrant startup sector with AI-powered innovationAWS and HUMAIN will also work together to advance an AI-powered startup sector in the Kingdom, providing access to the broadest and deepest set of cloud technology tools and programs, including , and helping Saudi Arabias most ambitious founders and entrepreneurs scale their businesses.AWS has helped more than 330,000 startups globally bring their business ideas to life. Its scalable, secure, low-cost cloud solutions and AI-powered services, combined with HUMAINs deep support network, will help supercharge Saudis startup scene. According to , Saudi Arabia startups secured US750 million venture capital funding in 2024, the highest share of capital deployed across the Middle East and North Africa last year.This collaboration to build an AI Zone in Saudi Arabia will enable innovations across all industries using AWSs advanced AI offerings, and reflects our commitment to support Saudi Arabias Vision 2030, said Matt Garman, CEO, Amazon Web Services. Together, we will empower customers with cost-effective and secure cloud technologies, fuel innovation and economic growth across the nation, and enable HUMAIN to appeal to customers globally.Accelerating talent development for a vibrant Saudi tech industryAs part of its long-term commitment to fast-track cloud adoption in Saudi Arabia, AWS is scaling its training and certification programs focused on genAI skills-building in line with the Kingdoms Vision 2030 digital transformation goals. Working with Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund (PIF), AWS has committed to train 100,000 citizens from the Kingdom in cloud computing and genAI, focusing on the two newest AWS genAI certifications: AWS AI Practitioner and AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate Certifications. Training will be delivered by the . Launched in 2023, the Amazon Academy is the largest talent development program of its kind in the Middle East. It provides transformative training and certifications, free of cost to participants, to elevate in-demand competencies and equip Saud
