Saudi Aramco has completed a transaction to acquire a 49 percent stake in the artificial intelligence company (AI) HUMAIN, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) retaining majority ownership at 51 percent.
Announced on Sunday, 1 November, the deal was carried out through an owned Aramco subsidiary and involves a cash contribution of approximately SAR 9.9 billion (USD 2.6 billion) to HUMAIN during 2026, alongside AI, computing and digital assets.
The announcement did not disclose the value of those assets or an overall valuation for HUMAIN, so the cash figure represents only part of the transaction.
The agreement brings together AI investments, capabilities and talent from both shareholders to support HUMAIN’s development of an integrated AI ecosystem.
That ecosystem spans data centres, high-performance computing, cloud platforms, advanced AI models and industry applications, and the transaction also supports the company’s plans to expand its infrastructure and develop solutions for public and private sector organizations.
HUMAIN, which was launched in May 2025, is building capabilities across the AI technology stack, from the physical infrastructure that powers AI to the models running on it and the applications used by businesses and governments.
Its portfolio includes ALLaM, a multimodal Arabic large language model, as well as cloud platforms and AI solutions for industry.
For Aramco, the investment offers both an ownership stake in an expanding AI business and access to infrastructure intended to support industrial AI applications across its operations and affiliates.
Amin H. Nasser, Aramco’s president and CEO, described the deal as very important to the company, saying it builds on a long track record of innovation and technology and on progress in deploying advanced digital and AI technologies to improve performance across the oil and gas sectors.
For PIF, the transaction consolidates investment and technical capabilities under HUMAIN while preserving majority ownership.
Yazeed A. Al-Humied, PIF’s Deputy Governor and Head of MENA Investments, said that bringing the two shareholders’ AI investments together under HUMAIN creates a powerful synergy that fuels talent growth, technological advancement and intellectual property creation.
It will also, he said, further expand private sector participation across the portfolio while advancing the development of cutting-edge technologies in Saudi Arabia.
Comments (0)