Saudi Arabia Eyes Multibillion-Dollar AI Partnership With Private Equity Titans

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(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s new artificial intelligence company, Humain, is in early-stage talks with global private equity firms on a partnership to plow significant capital into data centers and related infrastructure, people familiar with the matter said.

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The company has held preliminary talks with heavyweights including Blackstone Inc. and BlackRock Inc., the people said, declining to be identified as the information is private. The firms have explored the possibility of committing billions of dollars to Humain’s efforts, the people said.

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No final decisions have been made on the structure or the eventual size of the partnership. Representatives for Humain, Blackstone and BlackRock declined to comment. 

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The kingdom has historically been a big backer of private equity firms, though it has more recently focused on partnerships that support its own goals for the local economy.

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AI has emerged as a central plank of Riyadh’s efforts, and Humain — owned by the $1 trillion Saudi Public Investment Fund and set up in May — is a key cog. Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman has been playing a role in discussions with the firm, signaling the significance of the potential transaction to the alternative investing giant, people familiar with the matter said.

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While lower energy prices and sluggish foreign direct investment have hamstrung outlays on some aspects of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan, officials intend to continue supporting Humain’s efforts, according to some of the people.

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The firm recently broke ground on its first data centers in the kingdom and plans to have them running in early 2026. It’s in the process of procuring semiconductors from US chipmakers, including Nvidia Corp., and plans to add 1.9 gigawatts’ worth of data centers by 2030.

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Humain counts companies like Qualcomm Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. as partners, and is in early talks with Elon Musk’s xAI on a data center deal in Saudi Arabia. Humain Ventures, a $10 billion fund, launched this summer and has started deploying capital.

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The potential partnership illustrates the importance of the region’s sovereign wealth for the capital-intensive AI sector. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have pledged trillions of dollars to the US, and a portion of this is expected to flow into the technology industry.

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Recently, the $524 billion Qatar Investment Authority invested in Anthropic’s $13 billion financing round. Abu Dhabi is home to MGX, which plans to bankroll US President Donald Trump’s Stargate plan, has backed OpenAI and xAI, and teamed up with BlackRock and Microsoft Corp. on a $30 billion plan to build data warehouses and energy infrastructure.

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—With assistance from Omar El Chmouri.

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