Google's cloud unit and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund have teamed up to build an artificial intelligence hub in the kingdom focused on developing Arabic language models and Saudi-specific applications to boost the country's technological capabilities.
The Google Cloud facility will be built in the Eastern Province's capital, Dammam, and is designed to upskill “millions” of students and professionals, the Alphabet unit said in a statement. The new AI hub could potentially contribute about $71 billion to the Saudi economy over the next eight years, according to a study Google conducted with London-based advisory firm Access Partnership.
The increased economic activity from AI adoption in Saudi Arabia is expected to create thousands of highly-skilled direct and indirect jobs, the research added.
The agreement was signed on Wednesday by Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google and Alphabet, and Yasir Al Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh.
Google did not reveal how much will be invested in the hub, nor when it will open or when construction will begin. The partnership is subject to regulatory approvals, it said.
The deal is expected to accelerate the adoption of AI – in Arabic – across key industries, including health care, retail and financial services, in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa and “around the world”, Ms Porat said.
“As part of Saudi Arabia’s rich technology ecosystem, we aim to create highly skilled jobs for Saudis and opportunities for global businesses to fuel growth through cloud adoption,” she added.
Google and the PIF will explore advances in the Arabic-language capabilities of Gemini – Google’s family of generative AI models – by combining additional Arabic data sets with Google Cloud technology, they said.
“Local businesses, researchers and developers will have the opportunity to connect these models to their systems so they can build sophisticated Arabic language AI agents and applications,” the statement said.
The partnership also reflects the "growing interlink" between AI and energy, as Saudi Arabia leverages its energy surplus to power its data centres, a critical component of AI infrastructure and which makes it an attractive destination for tech giants like Google, Mohammed Soliman, director of the strategic technologies and cyber security programme at the Washington, DC-based Middle East Insitute, told The National.
Technology investments are crucial to Saudi Arabia's economic plans and are one of the main pillars of Riyadh's Vision 2030 agenda as it diversifies away from oil dependence. The government also has a programme for expanding the country's information and communications technology sector by 50 per cent.
The ICT Strategy aims to establish an advanced infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation of the Arab world's largest economy to create an “innovative future” for the kingdom, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
The adoption of AI and cloud services has been growing in the Middle East amid the rise of technology-savvy young consumers and an evolving digital landscape, underpinned by government efforts to develop the future economy. This has given global cloud and AI service providers an incentive to tap into the region's potential.
The new AI hub is a continuation of Google's investments. It opened a cloud region in Dammam last year, one of 40 across its worldwide network. Other global companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Alibaba Cloud have also opened cloud and data centres in the Middle East.
Google, with its Gemini platform, is one of the leading players in generative AI and is considered one of the biggest rivals of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot.
"In a Middle East increasingly characterised by digital ambitions and rapid AI infrastructure growth, partnerships like Google's signal a profound shift, positioning the region as an emerging tech hub," Mr Soliman said.
Saudi Arabia was the region’s most-funded country for start-ups in 2023. Start-ups in the kingdom raised $1.3 billion through venture capital funding, overtaking the UAE for the first time as the top destination for VC investment in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to Magnitt.
“This partnership demonstrates PIF’s dedication to fostering an AI-friendly environment through investments in human capital and technology, upskilling thousands with cutting-edge tools to support our sustainable and innovative infrastructure goals,” Mr Al Rumayyan said.
“Saudi Arabia is a prime location for global tech partners as PIF brings both sector expertise and a long-term approach to investment.”
The PIF, meanwhile, continues to boost its portfolio of $930 billion of assets under management. The partnership with Google is in line with its strategy to cut its portfolio of foreign assets by a third and focus more on domestic markets as it aims to establish the kingdom as the global hub of AI.
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10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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