Leap 2025: Saudi Arabia unveils plans to boost local chip manufacturing and quantum computing

Moonshot programmes for cognitive cities and artificial general intelligence also announced at the summit in Riyadh

Delegates at the opening keynote of the Leap technology conference in Riyadh on Wednesday. Photo: Leap/YouTube

Saudi Arabia has announced several initiatives focused on boosting its domestic chip manufacturing and quantum computing sectors, as the kingdom continues to position itself as a major technology hub regionally and globally.

The National Semiconductor Hub will be welcoming 10 companies, “mostly based in Silicon Valley”, who will begin their operations in Riyadh in the next two to three months, Naveed Sherwani, who leads the NSH, said on Wednesday.

These companies will design “state of the art” chips “using Saudi engineers,” he told delegates at the Leap technology summit in Riyadh.

The NSH, formed last year, aims to bring at least 50 semiconductor companies into the Arab world's biggest economy.

The hub is also setting up a design and manufacturing centre with California-based UltraSense in Riyadh to develop human interface chips for contactless interactions in collaboration with the kingdom's Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources.

The NSH is also teaming up with ACT, a Saudi credit cards producer, to establish a company for manufacturing payment chips for use in the kingdom.

“By next year, all such chips will be made in Saudi Arabia,” Mr Sherwani said.

Saudi Arabia also announced three “moonshot missions”, including the establishment of five cognitive cities across the kingdom by 2040, the development of a “scalable, fault-tolerant” quantum computer by 2045 and the creation of an aligned artificial general intelligence by 2050.

In technology terms, a moonshot programme is an exploratory and ambitious undertaking without the guarantee of near-term benefit or profitability.

The quantum computer initiative is expected to be complemented by the formation of the National Alliance for Quantum Computing.

The kingdom also announced a programme to build Saudi Arabia's first autonomous logistics vehicle under the Future of Mobility Committee and set up a centre of excellence in artificial intelligence and data analytics for healthcare research and development, with an initial investment of 100 million Saudi riyals ($26.7 million).

The latest round of announcements at the Leap summit reinforce efforts of the kingdom, which continues to tap into technology as part of its overarching Vision 2030 programme aimed at diversifying its economy away from oil.

The kingdom, like its peers in the Gulf region, is boosting its technology sector as the world increasingly moves into a digital era, with home-grown technologies and manufacturing especially, in AI and chips, seen as essential to helping in this transition and economic development.

On Tuesday, US company Equinix announced plans to build a $1 billion data centre in the kingdom, while Saudi start-ups received $494 million in new investment commitments.

Pledges of more than $7.4 billion from local and global entities were also made to boost Saudi Arabia’s AI and data centre capabilities, and the $14.9 billion commitments, mostly centre on AI, announced on Sunday.

EV-maker Ceer boosts partnerships

Separately on Wednesday, Ceer, Saudi Arabia's first electric vehicle manufacturer, signed 11 partnerships agreements worth 5.5 billion riyals to help boost its operations.

Executives from Saudi EV maker Ceer and its partners during a signing ceremony at the Public Sector Forum in Riyadh.

About 80 per cent of the suppliers for the company's vehicle components and charging equipment are Saudi-based, Ceer announced on the sidelines of the PIF Public Sector Forum in Riyadh.

The move aims to achieve 45 per cent localisation targets and further expand the Saudi car sector, it said.

The company has already established partnerships with 263 local companies that have been awarded deals worth 6.6 billion riyals. Its global partners include Foxconn, BMW and Siemens, among others.

“These partnerships are crucial not only for a thriving automotive industry, but also for creating future jobs and driving economic growth in the kingdom,” Ceer chief executive Jim DeLuca said.

Ceer had previously said it plans to roll out its first EVs in 2025. The company aims to attract more than $150 million of foreign direct investment and create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, in addition to contributing $8 billion to the kingdom's economy by 2034, according to its website.