Saudi Arabia To Invest $40bn In Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Saudi Arabia is planning to create a fund of about $40 billion to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). This investment according to report by the New York Times is between Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and other potential parties.

Two individuals familiar with the matter informed CNBC that these discussions have been ongoing for several months.

The proposed partnership would involve Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) collaborating with Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s prominent venture capital firms.

These sources emphasized that the talks have not yet reached a final agreement and chose to remain anonymous due to restrictions on disclosing information to the media.

Additionally, they mentioned being unaware of any other potential participants in the discussions aside from Andreessen Horowitz and the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Also Read: Saudi Arabia ranks 2nd  on ICT Development Index

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has been actively pursuing investments to diversify the kingdom’s revenue sources away from oil, in line with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative.

The fund has made substantial investments in acquiring stakes and forming joint ventures with major international companies such as Uber, Bank of America, Citi, SoftBank, and Blackstone.

Andreessen Horowitz, managing assets totalling $35 billion, boasts a track record of supporting successful companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Facebook, and Slack. The firm also has nearly 100 AI-related startups in its portfolio.

In a blog post on the firm’s website in June 2023, co-founder Marc Andreessen emphasized the significant risk posed by not aggressively pursuing global dominance in AI.

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