Saudi Arabian Oil Co. completed the purchase of a 49% stake in Humain, the artificial-intelligence company created by the kingdom’s sovereign-wealth fund, bringing the oil giant’s cash and computing assets into one of the Gulf’s most ambitious data center build-outs.
Under the deal, closed on Nov. 1, Aramco will put about 9.9 billion Saudi riyals, or roughly $2.6 billion, of cash into Humain during 2026 and transfer AI, computing and digital assets it has built over recent years. The Public Investment Fund, which launched Humain in May 2025, retains 51% and control. The two shareholders signed a nonbinding term sheet for the arrangement in October 2025.
Building for export
Humain plans to deploy 3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity by 2030, a scale that would place it among the larger independent operators globally. It is also developing cloud and high-performance computing platforms, Arabic-language large language models under the ALLaM name, and applications for government and corporate customers. The company has said it wants to become a leading exporter of AI computing services.
That strategy has started to attract outside customers. Last month, Humain and DataVolt signed a preliminary framework with AI cloud provider Nebius for up to 50 megawatts at a planned campus in Neom’s Oxagon industrial zone, half of an initial 100 megawatts now under construction.
Why Aramco wants in
For Aramco, the stake gives it a route to sell its internal technology work as a service and a ready supplier of computing power for its oil, gas and chemical operations. Chief Executive Amin Nasser said the company has generated $11.3 billion of value from technology deployments since 2023, much of it from AI. The two shareholders said the combination is meant to pool talent and intellectual property under one company rather than run parallel AI efforts.
The transaction also folds another of the kingdom’s largest companies into PIF’s 2026-2030 strategy, which calls for national champions to grow into global competitors and for more private-sector participation in state-backed ventures.
