Saudi Public Investment Fund and" Google Cloud " launch a new Global Center for artificial intelligence in the kingdom

The Saudi Public Investment Fund and"Google Cloud" announced a strategic partnership to launch a new Global Center for artificial intelligence, located near the city of Dammam in the eastern province.

The new partnership was signed during the eighth edition of the "Future Investment Initiative" forum, as it is an important station that will contribute to consolidating the kingdom's position as a global center and the first destination for artificial intelligence applications for local and international institutions and startups.

The partnership includes developing the capabilities of Saudi competencies in the labor market, through artificial intelligence programs and digital skills that benefit millions of students and employees, in line with the kingdom's strategic goals to achieve 50% growth in the ICT sector.

Under the partnership, customers will be able to use artificial intelligence technology from "Google Cloud" to support growth in various sectors and increase the ability to develop applications and artificial intelligence models.

The project allows companies and their consumers to benefit from better quality levels of artificial intelligence applications and data services, faster at a local level.

The high-performance infrastructure dedicated to this purpose will include the latest Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators, as well as the "Vertex AI" platform, a specialized development platform from Google Cloud, which enables customers to create generative artificial intelligence applications, and this partnership is subject to obtaining the required regulatory approvals.

The project reflects the attractiveness of the kingdom for major technology projects, as investors can benefit from the kingdom's strategic location at the junction of three continents, its advanced infrastructure, proximity to the fast-growing markets in the Middle East, in addition to the presence of reliable renewable energy at affordable prices to fuel the artificial intelligence center.

"We are pleased to welcome the new Google Cloud Center for artificial intelligence in the Kingdom, and this partnership reflects the role of the Public Investment Fund in promoting a friendly environment for artificial intelligence, through investing in human and technical capital, and improving the skills of thousands of people using advanced tools to support the goals of developing a sustainable and innovative infrastructure. The partnership highlights the kingdom's position as a leading hub for global technology partners, while PIF will use its expertise in the sector and its long-term investment to serve this partnership,"he added.

For her part, President and chief investment officer of alfabit and Google Ruth Porat said: "this strategic partnership will accelerate the adoption of AI solutions in the local language for enterprises and startups in the kingdom, the Middle East, Africa and the world, in various sectors, including healthcare, business services, finance and others. Through the adoption of cloud solutions within the framework of the advanced technology system in the Kingdom, we aim to create highly skilled jobs for Saudis and provide opportunities for international companies to enhance their growth,"he added.

The technology sector is one of the priority investment sectors of the PIF, being a major enabler for many other economic sectors, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare, transport, logistics, utilities and renewable energy. The Public Investment Fund has several investments in the telecommunications and technology sector, including the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), which provides digital and cyber services and solutions through national competencies, and the Internet of Things technologies company for Information Technology “iot Squared” specialized in the Internet of things.

To enhance the models in Arabic, Google Cloud and the Public Investment Fund will work to enhance the Arabic language capabilities of the Gemini application, which is a family of generative artificial intelligence models from Google, by combining additional sets of Arabic language data with the "Google Cloud"technology. Local companies, researchers and developers will have the opportunity to connect these models to their systems so that they can build advanced AI applications in Arabic