Hiumain builds two AI funds, turning financing into a gateway to Saudi computing
In the computing race, funding may not be merely fuel for building data centers, but a tool to determine where the companies that receive it operate. That is the bet attributed by the Enterprise AM newsletter to Hiumain, the AI arm backed by the Public Investment Fund: a global fund that could exceed its initial target of $10 billion, and a separate local fund with an initial size of $2.5 billion to finance data centers inside Saudi Arabia.
According to the newsletter, the global fund will not treat investment as passive financing. CEO Tarek Amin said Hiumain will support companies that commit to using Saudi data centers for part of their computing or to relocating staff to the Kingdom. That means the proposed capital comes with an operational pathway: a company that receives funding may also be tied to the location of its computing and to a human presence in the market.
The local fund is closer to infrastructureThe newsletter says the sister vehicle Hiumain Limited will direct investment and support to AI companies inside Saudi Arabia. It also notes that the local fund aims to raise an initial $2.5 billion to finance capacity of 250 megawatts built by Hiumain with the Information Systems Builder, with the possibility to scale to one gigawatt. BSF Capital is expected to manage the fund after obtaining approval from the Capital Market Authority, the newsletter reports from informed sources.
Construction does not stop at the two funds. Enterprise AM notes that a $3 billion partnership with Blackstone helps finance data-center expansion, and that Hiumain funds its build through service-purchase agreements with major tech firms, which the company describes as debt-financable. The newsletter cites plans for six gigawatts of AI data centers by 2034, a commitment from the Ministry of Energy for 16 gigawatts of electricity, and agreements with XAI, Grok, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
Sovereignty here is an operational processWhen investment is tied to the use of Saudi data centers, the idea shifts from owning servers to attracting the workload itself. That gives the region a different angle than merely announcing a new fund: financing, compute capacity, and the presence of staff can become linked conditions in a single deal. According to the newsletter, the arrangement allows companies to use open-source Chinese models for inference, but it prohibits training advanced Chinese models on Hiumain’s compute, a compliance-related distinction.
Nevertheless, the energy factor remains a real test. The report quotes Amin as saying the world does not have enough power capacity to build what this demand requires, and that the amount actually deliverable from the 16-gigawatt commitment will determine how far Hiumain can expand as demand grows. Therefore, fund figures or agreements alone are insufficient to prove capacity materialisation; the infrastructure needs available power, operating data centers and contracts that use them.
What changes for companies in the GulfFor AI companies, this model opens a clear possibility: access to Saudi capital may be linked to running part of the compute inside the Kingdom or to boosting local presence. For organisations that purchase AI capabilities, power reliability and infrastructure flexibility become part of the supplier decision, not a postponed technical detail. The bet goes beyond building a data center, as it seeks to make compute an economic layer that settles within Saudi Arabia. Its success will hinge on turning the committed power into operational capacity that can meet this demand.