Saudi Arabia deploys OpenAI’s open-source models in sovereign data centers

Saudi Arabia’s AI venture Humain and chipmaker Groq have deployed OpenAI’s new open-source models—gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B—within Saudi Arabia’s sovereign data centers. This marks a significant step in Saudi Arabia’s push for AI sovereignty, ensuring compliance with local data regulations while providing high-speed AI inference capabilities to enterprises, government institutions, and developers without requiring data to leave the Kingdom.

What you should know: The deployment brings cutting-edge AI capabilities directly to Saudi infrastructure with impressive performance metrics.
• The gpt-oss-120B model operates at over 500 tokens per second, while the smaller gpt-oss-20B delivers over 1,000 tokens per second on Groq’s specialized hardware.
• Both models run on Groq’s high-speed inference platform, designed specifically for large-scale AI operations with predictable performance and reduced costs compared to general-purpose GPUs.
• The hosting arrangement ensures full compliance with Saudi Arabia’s data sovereignty and regulatory requirements.

In plain English: Think of tokens as small pieces of text—words or parts of words that AI models process. When we say a model processes 500 tokens per second, it means the AI can read and understand roughly 375-400 words per second, which is incredibly fast for complex language processing tasks.

Strategic partnerships: This deployment builds on Humain and Groq’s broader collaboration established in May 2025, aimed at expanding AI infrastructure across the Middle East region.
• Humain is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, giving it substantial government support for its AI initiatives.
• The partnership represents part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals and aligns with objectives set by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.

The bigger picture: Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a major player in the global AI ecosystem through massive infrastructure investments and strategic partnerships.
• Humain plans to develop up to 1.9 gigawatts of AI-focused data center capacity by 2030, scaling to 6.6 GW over the next four years.
• A 50 MW pilot site using 18,000 Nvidia GPUs is already in development and expected to be operational next year.
• The company has signed $23 billion worth of agreements with major American firms including Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services, and Qualcomm.

What they’re saying: Leadership emphasizes the significance of achieving AI sovereignty while maintaining access to cutting-edge technology.
• “This is a defining moment for Saudi Arabia,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain. “With the deployment of OpenAI’s most powerful open models, hosted right here inside the Kingdom, Saudi developers, researchers, and enterprises now have direct access to the global frontier of AI – fully aligned with our national regulations and data laws. This is what AI sovereignty looks like, and it’s only the beginning.”

Financial scale: The scope of Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions extends far beyond this single deployment.
• Humain launched a $10 billion venture capital fund this summer through Humain Ventures to target high-potential AI startups.
• The company formed a $10 billion joint venture with AMD to deliver 500 MW in AI compute capacity over five years.
• A separate $2 billion partnership with Qualcomm will build a chipset design center in Riyadh employing 500 engineers.
• According to Amin, the full project cost could reach $77 billion based on current valuations.

Long-term goals: Humain aims to handle 7% of global AI model training by 2030, focusing on both model development and inferencing capabilities across research, commercial applications, and government use.