Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) have finalized an acquisition deal, transferring a 49% stake in artificial intelligence firm Humain to an Aramco subsidiary for approximately 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6 billion) in cash, computing, and digital assets.
The Bottom Line
- Ownership Structure: The Public Investment Fund retains majority control with a 51% stake in Humain, while Aramco holds the remaining 49% through a wholly owned subsidiary.
- Capital Injection: Aramco is injecting roughly 9.9 billion Saudi riyals ($2.6 billion) in cash throughout 2026, alongside contributions of AI, computing, and digital assets.
- Infrastructure Target: The partnership aims to scale Humain’s AI data center capacity to 3 gigawatts by 2030 to serve regional and global markets.
Consolidating National AI Assets Under Humain
The transaction consolidates the sovereign wealth fund’s and the state-backed oil giant’s technology investments into a single corporate vehicle. Launched in May 2025, Humain serves as a centralized hub for advanced computing, next-generation data centers, cloud platforms, and specialized models, including the Arabic multimodal language model ALLAM. By pooling resources, the PIF and Aramco aim to accelerate the company’s evolution into a competitive global AI exporter.
Our partnership with the PIF in HUMAIN builds on our efforts to harness advanced technologies, marking a strategic step toward strengthening our global position in AI pic.twitter.com/B3mqSWYt9p
Yazid bin Abdulrahman Al-Humaid, Deputy Governor and Head of MENA Investments at the PIF, noted that the integration of digital assets will foster national competencies, intellectual property, and private sector partnerships. He added that the transaction will support future investment opportunities, accelerate the company’s growth, and enhance its global competitiveness.
| Metric / Asset | Details |
|---|---|
| Aramco Ownership Stake | 49% (via a wholly owned subsidiary) |
| PIF Ownership Stake | 51% (majority holding) |
| 2026 Cash Contribution | ~9.9 billion SAR ($2.6 billion USD) |
| Data Center Target (2030) | 3 Gigawatts |
Integrating Industrial Operations With Advanced Computing
For Aramco, the transaction bridges energy infrastructure with high-performance computing. Company President and CEO Amin Nasser stated that technology deployments have yielded 42.4 billion Saudi riyals ($11.31 billion) in value since 2023, with a significant portion driven by artificial intelligence applications.
He described the partnership as very important for the company, which serves as the crown jewel of the economy in the world’s largest crude oil exporting country. Humain is positioned at the core of the Gulf kingdom’s ambition to transform into a leading global hub for artificial intelligence, backed by the sovereign wealth fund valued at approximately one trillion dollars. In November 2025, Humain announced a partnership with technology giant Nvidia following US authorities’ approval to export advanced chips made by the American giant to Saudi Arabia, alongside a multibillion-dollar deal with AirTrunk to build data centers in the kingdom.
Energy economics experts point out that power generation represents a core operating expenditure for data center operators, frequently accounting for over 40% of running costs. By integrating directly with Aramco’s energy ecosystem, Humain secures a structural advantage in managing power and cooling overheads as it scales its footprint toward the 2030 targets.
