It's Nvidia Corp's (NASDAQ:NVDA) week to shine as earnings land on Wednesday after the bell. But Saudi Arabia may have just given rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) a stage-stealing spotlight. The kingdom's new AI startup, Humain, has broken ground on its first data centers in Riyadh and Dammam, a project that combines Nvidia's cutting-edge Blackwell chips with a blockbuster $10 billion deal with AMD.
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Saudi's AI Push, Silicon In The Spotlight
Humain, backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is laying out an aggressive roadmap: two initial 100-megawatt data centers are expected to come online by early 2026, with ambitions to scale to nearly 2 gigawatts by 2030. At the heart of this expansion is a $540 million order for 18,000 Nvidia GPUs—pending U.S. regulatory approval—but also a sweeping partnership with AMD that could evolve into a joint venture, giving the chipmaker equity ties to Saudi capital.
That dual-track strategy puts both U.S. firms in the center of Riyadh's AI ambitions. While Nvidia remains the must-have brand for advanced AI workloads, AMD's megadeal suggests Saudi Arabia is hedging bets and offering CEO Lisa Su's company a once-in-a-decade growth lever.
Read Also: Nvidia’s Silicon Silk Road: From China’s Firewalls To Saudi Arabia’s Data Palaces
More Than Just Chips
Humain isn't just pouring concrete and buying GPUs, it's building an AI ecosystem. Its chatbot, Humain Chat, already live in the kingdom, is expanding across the Middle East in October with silicon supplied by California-based Groq. Partnerships with Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) add even more U.S. tech muscle to the mix. And, in a potentially headline-grabbing twist, Humain has reportedly held early talks with Elon Musk's xAI about a future data center project in Saudi Arabia.
The Market Question
For investors, the timing is electric. Nvidia reports just as headlines swirl about Saudi Arabia spending billions on AI infrastructure, underscoring the unrelenting demand for GPU compute. But the larger question looms: can AMD's Saudi lifeline tilt the balance of power in AI chips?
Nvidia may dominate today, but if Humain's 1.9GW roadmap is even half-realized, AMD could emerge from the shadow of its rival with more than just a seat at the table—it could have the Saudi kingdom's checkbook.
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