Saudi Arabia Optimistic About Getting Access to Nvidia Chips Next Year

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The country has ambitions to develop and operate the most advanced artificial intelligence models.

Quoted from CNBCMonday (16/9), a senior official at the Saudi Data and AI Authority, Abdulrahman Tariq Habib, said that the kingdom hopes to make this big step next year.

This is a significant expectation considering that strict US export controls have so far prevented chip exports to the kingdom.

Habib made the comments on the sidelines of GAIN, Saudi Arabia’s international AI summit, which took place in Riyadh last week.

“It would be very meaningful for Saudi Arabia to have access to those chips,” Habib said, referring to Nvidia H200s, the most powerful chips used in OpenAI’s GPT-4o.

“This will facilitate business between Saudi and the US,” he said, adding that it will also open up a lot of opportunities to build capabilities, computing capabilities, in the kingdom.

Habib stressed that they have worked hard in the last three years for the project.

“Therefore, we work and collaborate with the entire international community and contribute to being one of the most active countries in data analysis,” he added.

Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in developing a robust AI ecosystem in the kingdom, aiming to make AI 12 percent of its gross domestic product by 2030.

According to a report published on September 9, the kingdom’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund will lead the investment.

The effort is part of Vision 2030, an initiative launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to modernize the Saudi economy and diversify its revenues away from oil.