US chip manufacturer Nvidia plans to bring 18,000 processors to Saudi Arabia to fuel a new data center project in collaboration with Humain, an AI startup controlled by the country's sovereign wealth fund.
President Donald Trump and other top CEOs are traveling to the area with the White House, and the announcement was made as part of that tour.
The state-of-the-art Blackwell chips will be utilized in 500 megawatt data centers in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.
“I am so delighted to be here to help celebrate the grand opening, the beginning of Humain,” Huang said.
“It is an incredible vision, indeed, that Saudi Arabia should build the AI infrastructure of your nation so that you could participate and help shape the future of this incredibly transformative technology.”
The GB300 Blackwell chips, which are currently among Nvidia's most sophisticated AI chips and were first formally unveiled earlier this year, will be used in the company's first deployment, according to Nvidia.
With nations vying for the devices, which are used to train and implement cutting-edge AI software like ChatGPT, this week's news highlights the significance of Nvidia's chips as a negotiating chip for the Trump administration.
Tuesday's trading saw a more than five percent increase in Nvidia shares.
The Department of Commerce announced last week that it will be implementing a "much simpler rule" in place of what it called President Joe Biden's rule. Due to national security concerns, Nvidia has also had to apply for an export license for its AI processors since 2023.
Humain is expected to be owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and will focus on creating data center infrastructure and AI models. The eventual deployment of "several hundred thousand" Nvidia graphics processing units is part of Humain's plans.
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As part of an agreement to construct 500 megawatts of AI capacity, AMD announced this week that it would also provide chips to Humain. Humain has pledged $10 billion to the project, according to AMD. Tuesday's trading saw a four percent increase in AMD shares.