News • announcement
Saudi Arabia’s new AI enterprise, HUMAIN, joins forces with AMD and Cisco to launch groundbreaking AI Infrastructure Collaboration
A historic alliance to build the world’s most open, scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient AI infrastructure, powering the future of global intelligence
Riyadh – 13 May
HUMAIN, a PIF company, today announced the formation of a groundbreaking initiative with AMD and Cisco that will redefine how artificial-intelligence workloads are trained, tuned, and deployed worldwide.
The new venture leverages HUMAIN's seamless value chain and world-class engineering capabilities as well as the deep hardware and secure networking expertise of AMD and Cisco to deliver a first-of-its-kind AI superstructure; one that is open by design, accessible at scale, and optimised for the lowest cost per training and inference cycle in the industry.
Under this Initiative:
- HUMAIN will oversee end-to-end delivery, including hyperscale data center, sustainable power systems, and global fiber interconnects.
- AMD will deliver its full portfolio of AI compute engines and open software for AI workloads.
- Cisco will design, integrate, and secure the AI-ready infrastructure, providing industry-leading compute, networking, security, and observability innovations. Cisco brings expertise in building large scalable purpose-built infrastructure to support demanding AI workloads.
The Mission:
To build the world’s most open AI ecosystem. A neutral, developer-first infrastructure where startups, enterprises, and governments can train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models at unprecedented speed and scale, without vendor lock-in or prohibitive costs.
“We thank AMD and Cisco for joining Saudi Arabia in this strategic collaboration to build the infrastructure that will power the future of AI. This alliance with HUMAIN marks a defining moment in advancing cost-efficient AI at scale, unlocking access to high-performance compute for innovators everywhere and positioning the Kingdom as a global platform for the AI era,” said His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
“This is not just another infrastructure play, it’s an open invitation to the world’s innovators,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. “By unlocking access to advanced compute, we’re ensuring AI’s future is shaped by creativity, not constrained by compute resources.”
Tareq Amin
CEO of HUMAIN
“Our investment with HUMAIN marks a significant milestone in the advancement of global AI infrastructure,” said Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD. “Together, we are building a next-generation AI platform that delivers unprecedented performance, openness, and scale. At AMD, we are committed to enabling the future of AI everywhere. Empowering developers, startups, and enterprises worldwide through open, high-performance computing.”
Dr. Lisa Su
Chair and CEO of AMD
“Cisco is proud to help shape the future of global AI innovation as a strategic partner with HUMAIN,” said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco. “As we unlock groundbreaking opportunities with AI, Cisco is committed to putting safety and security at the forefront as we build the critical infrastructure for countries, organizations, and industries around the world.”
Chuck Robbins
Chair and CEO of Cisco
With initial deployments already underway across key global regions, the collaboration is on track to activate multi-exaflop capacity by early 2026, supported by next-gen AI silicon, modular data center zones, and a developer-enablement focused software platform built around open standards and interoperability.
This initiative marks a pivotal moment in the AI era, shifting control away from centralized hyperscalers and toward an open, collaborative future where compute is abundant, infrastructure is transparent, and intelligence is truly global.