Saudi Arabia plans to make an investment of $40 billion in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The officials from the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are planning to come in a partnership with a capital firm of Silicon Valley, Andreessen Horowitz. The discussions are still ongoing and therefore, the plans are not finalized as of now.However, Saudi Arabia is willing to invest in Artificial Intelligence.
Investment in Artificial Intelligence
If everything goes as planned and discussed then Saudi Arabia would become the largest investor in the world in Artificial Intelligence.
How will this benefit Saudi Arabia?
This will prove to be a perfect opportunity for Saudi Arabia to portray its importance in geopolitics. Saudi Arabia is very rich in oil already and investment in Artificial Intelligence will help it to become a key player in other fields as well. Thus, this will certainly expand its economy.
The representatives from theSaudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have had a discussion with Andreessen Horowitz about its role. Andreessen Horowitz is already known as a well known investor in Artificial intelligence.
The Wall Street Banks are helping the Saudi tech fund. The valuations of the companies, both private and public, have observed a surge. Investors around the world became more ambitious to build something similar to Open AI.
Artificial Intelligence Projects require humongous fundings .As mentioned in a news article of Business Standard and in New York Times, the chief executive of OpenAI,Sam Altman has asked the United Arab Emirates Government for a good amount of money for manufacturing of chips. These chips are majorly required in building Artificial Intelligence ( AI) technology.
At present, the Saudi Arabian Government is willing to extend support to those tech start-ups which involve artificial intelligence. This includes expansive data centers that are highly required to power the upcoming generations of computing. It also includes supporting chip making.
Also, it is being said that Saudi Arabia is also thinking of starting its own Artificial Intelligence companies.
People in the international business community are closely observing the direction in which the Public Investment Fund is going. Saudi Arabia is moving ahead with strong ambition and this is why the international business community is closely keeping an eye on its plans.
It is being said that ,Mr. Horowitz and Yasir al-Rumayyan have discussed the Silicon Valley capital venture firm, establishing its office in Riyadh, which is the capital city of Saudi Arabia.
Killing of Jamal Khashoggi
The killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, by the Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018, caused severe damage to the country. Saudi Arabia was on its way to becoming a fertile place for investments. However, after this incident in 2018, many of the international financial investors took a step back.
The Issues Surrounding Investment in Saudi Arabia
Very recently a deal was signed to merge LIV Golf upstart with the PGA but the deal was also surrounded by many controversies due to the bad human rights reputation of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government invested a huge amount of money in a business firm owned by Jared Kushner, who is the son in law of former President Donald Trump. This was seen as a political stunt by many. Also, Saudi Arabia, which made a large investment into Uber , faced many challenges with technology investing.
