Chinese tech giants among global enterprises announcing big Saudi ventures  

The LEAP 2025 Tech Conference, which is currently underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has drawn investment commitments worth $14.9 billion on its opening day on Feb 9, with the participating enterprises outlining plans to step up involvement in artificial intelligence and tech-related infrastructure projects in the Gulf nation as it advances its Vision 2030 program.

LEAP 2025 is a flagship Saudi event amid the nation’s goal to become a global and regional tech hub. Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha emphasized that these significant investments and initiatives were made possible through the support and empowerment of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The investments aim to foster digital skills development, support the growth of tech startups, and encourage innovation within the kingdom. “These initiatives are integral to empowering the technology sector and accelerating Saudi Arabia’s transition towards an innovative, AI-driven economy,” said Alswaha. “They are also aligned with the objectives of Vision 2030.”

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Under the theme “Into New Worlds” and with state-of-art exhibits, LEAP25 is organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf Company — a joint venture between SAFCSP and Informa, with support from the Events Investment Fund.

Alswaha said the country is witnessing significant growth in its tech industry, and “making history” as almost $15 billion worth of investments were announced on the very first day of LEAP25.

“As a digital economy collectively, we (MENA region) have grown by 73 percent to $260 billion in the region from 2021 to 2024. The Kingdom represents 50 percent of it,” he said, adding that the number of related jobs have jumped from 150,000 in 2021 to 381,000 in 2024 in his nation.

“If you use unicorns and startups as a proxy for growth, the region grew to 15 unicorns, and the Kingdom grew from two unicorns to seven,” Arab News cited Alswaha as telling the annual tech event, which runs through Feb 12.

Among the various partnerships unveiled during LEAP25 was one between Alat, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Chinese tech giant Lenovo, as they announced that they were joining hands to establish an advanced manufacturing and technology center, based on AI and robotics, in Saudi Arabia.

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Lenovo also announced a decision to establish its regional headquarters in the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Tencent Cloud, a division of Chinese internet behemoth Tencent Holdings, has committed to investing $150 million in local infrastructure, resources, and partnerships within the technology sector over the coming years to support Saudi Vision 2030.

Dan Hu, vice-president of Tencent Cloud International for the Middle East and North Africa, said the company’s expansion aligns with Saudi Arabia’s broader push to attract foreign investment and establish itself as a global technology hub.

The King Abdullah Financial District Development and Management Company (KAFD DMC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei on the sidelines of the LEAP 2025 Tech Conference to implement smart city solutions, artificial intelligence, and advanced technologies. The collaboration aims to enhance KAFD's smart infrastructure, improve operational efficiency, and elevate the digital experience for residents, tenants, and visitors.

The partnership covers multiple key areas, including WiFi-7 networks, advanced 5G-A technology, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and smart pole solutions, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Chief Information Technology Officer at KAFD DMC, Ramez Al-Fayez, stated: "Through our partnership with Huawei, we aim to move forward in creating a fully integrated urban environment that supports digital transformation and serves as an innovative model for urban development in Saudi Arabia."

Chinese e-commerce and tech titan Alibaba said it will launch an AI empowerment program in cooperation with Tuwaiq Academy — the training arm of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity.

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Among other ventures, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco Digital announced a partnership with US-based Groq Inc for a $1.5 billion groundbreaking investment in AI-powered cloud computing, demonstrating Saudi Arabia's role as a global hub for innovation and advanced technologies.

Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, executive vice-president of technology and innovation at Saudi Aramco, told the audience that maximizing AI potential requires three main enablers: tremendous amounts of real-world data, computing capability infrastructure to do the models, and — probably the most important element — the talent.

“You need the subject matter experts who can tell you if the model is telling the truth,” he said.

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Tara Brady, president of Google for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, said the tech giant will contribute up to $70 billion to the Saudi economy over the next 10 years.

Alswaha said Saudi Arabia is trying to avoid division and polarization as innovation takes center stage globally.

“In the analog and digital world, we were talking about the Global North and the Global South. For every dollar made in the Global South, somebody makes three times to five times in the Global North, and that is not acceptable.”

The Saudi minister said his government is trying to ensure inclusivity in the technological sector, in a bid to advance prosperity for all in the future.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has bet on closing the divide of the digital age by fueling cloud, entrepreneurship and tech for the region and the world, and “this is why we are laser-focused on continuing to be the biggest success story in closing the skills divide, digital divide, and governance divide in partnership with you,” Alswaha was cited as saying by Arab News.

Highlighting the necessity to avoid polarization, the minister said: “We have to celebrate the ChatGPT moment of 2022, but we also have to appreciate the DeepSeek moment.”

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“The world does not need polarization in the intelligent age. We need to work collectively to celebrate these advancements, where DeepSeek so far is beating all AI models” he said, referring to the recent stunning technological breakthrough by a Chinese AI startup.

Speaking at a discussion on Feb 9, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said “over 70 percent” of the firm’s hires in IBM’s AI and R&D lab in Saudi Arabia are “Saudi nationals, not expats”.  

AbdulHakim Mansour Shar in Riyadh contributed to this report.

Contact the writer at cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn