Elon Musk’s xAI announced a partnership with Humain, a state-backed Saudi company. Getty Images Prince Mohammed has been trying to transform Saudi Arabia into a major AI exporter, looking to take advantage of the kingdom’s vast energy reserves and abundant land. AI data centers — widely viewed as the key to winning the artificial intelligence race — are mostly located in the US, Europe and China. Humain is aiming to power 6% of the global AI workload over the coming years. American tech firms have been leaning heavily on Middle Eastern partners to fund expensive AI infrastructure projects – including Saudi Arabia, despite its history of human rights abuses. OpenAI signed a deal this year with MGX, a United Arab Emirates state-backed firm, and Anthropic has received funding from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Several tech leaders, including Musk, joined the crown prince at a White House dinner hosted by Trump on Tuesday. Filed under