Saudi crown prince launches new company to develop AI technologies

By Tala Ramadan and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI (Reuters) -Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a new company to develop and manage artificial intelligence technologies in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a top priority of its economic diversification drive.

U.S. President Donald Trump travels to Saudi Arabia this week, the first stop on his Gulf tour, and AI is expected to be a major discussion point during Tuesday's joint Saudi-U.S. investment forum in Riyadh.

The kingdom, the world's biggest crude exporter, is undergoing a significant economic and social transformation under its Vision 2030 programme which aims to wean the economy off its oil dependency.

It wants to develop AI technology and infrastructure - including data centres - and has ambitions to establish the kingdom as a global centre for AI, pitching itself as a prospective hub for AI activity outside the United States.

Chaired by bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, the new company, Humain, will operate under the Public Investment Fund, and offer AI services and products, including data centres, AI infrastructure, cloud capabilities and advanced AI models, the state news agency reported.

Earlier this year, cloud software seller Salesforce said that it planned to invest $500 million in Saudi Arabia related to artificial intelligence.

(Reporting by Tala Ramadan, Jana Choukeir and Pesha Magid; Editing by Louise Heavens and Rachna Uppal)

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