Qualcomm makes Saudi its first stop in AI data centers with a unlimited partnership with Human and Aramco

When Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, decided to steer his company toward the AI data center market, the first destination was not Silicon Valley, nor Seattle, nor even Taipei. It was Riyadh. In an exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the Snapdragon 2026 Summit in Hawaii, Amon disclosed that Saudi Human (HUMAIN) was the first client to bet on Qualcomm’s vision for data center products, a partnership he described as having created a “trust bond” that today drives the company to expand its investments and its bet on the AI economy in the Kingdom.

Beginning: a Saudi client paves the way

Qualcomm’s journey toward AI data centers did not begin with one of the major U.S. cloud computing companies, but with a nascent Saudi firm that carries an ambition for tech sovereignty. Human, owned by the Public Investment Fund, became the first client to sign with Qualcomm on developing processors and infrastructure tailored to AI workloads in data centers. This early choice, Amon said, was not merely a commercial deal; it established a “trust bond” and a mutual desire to continue the journey together, and was one of the reasons that prompted Qualcomm to increase its resources and focus in the region.

Beyond data centers: a multi-layer partnership network

The relationship today extends to AI-enhanced personal computers, industrial AI with Aramco, local engineering and automotive technologies, with an open horizon toward robotics and other areas where Qualcomm previously lacked comparable depth. Amon describes the current projects as “just the beginning”, pointing to “many intersections” between what his company is building and the Kingdom’s push to adopt new technologies and its early investment in trends that reshape computing markets.

Engineering hub in Riyadh, talent in AI and semiconductors

Following the opening of an engineering center in Riyadh and the expansion of its research and development presence, Qualcomm is working to cement the Kingdom as a regional hub, seeking to attract engineers specialized in AI, semiconductors, and modern computing platforms. The scope of opportunities, Amon says, goes beyond the ongoing projects in data centers, personal computers, and the industrial sector; it also identifies robotics and automotive technologies as additional domains, and he sees “no ceiling” for partnership opportunities with the Kingdom.

Physical AI: where code meets the real world

One of the themes Amon is banking on for the next phase is what he calls “Physical AI”: systems that interact with the physical world via sensor data, images, and signals generated by equipment and industrial environments, enabling use in factories, energy, robotics, and vehicles. Here Qualcomm links its collaboration with Aramco to the concept of “AI at the edge”, where data is analyzed near its source rather than relying continuously on a distant data center. Applications extend to the Saudi Ministry of Interior, smart cities, computer vision, and private 5G networks for industrial settings, where local AI becomes a prerequisite for trust and rapid response in widely distributed industrial operations.

The car as a moving computer: Ceer as a model

This pathway intersects the automotive sector, which has become a pivotal part of Qualcomm’s strategy. Amon points to Ceer, a Saudi electric-vehicle company that uses Qualcomm technologies, as an example of his vision of the vehicle as a “connected computer on wheels”. Computing inside the vehicle is no longer limited to entertainment or navigation; it extends to a digital cockpit, control of vehicle functions, software-defined vehicles, driver-assist systems, and autonomous driving. Qualcomm is on track to become the largest supplier of semiconductor technologies to the automotive industry, working with manufacturers across multiple categories. In Amon’s view, AI agents are perfectly suited to vehicles: the driver interacts by voice, and the systems use cameras, sensors, and real-time context to understand what is happening inside and around the vehicle.

Phone works in your absence: the start of a new upgrade cycle

At the personal device level, Amon envisions a shift to an “AI phone” with a simple premise: in the past, when a person did not use their phone, the device waited. In the era of AI agents, the phone can continue operating even when the user is not looking at the screen, because an agent can execute a task, perform a search, or interact with apps on its behalf. This requires fundamental changes to processor design, compute capacity, memory, and power needs. Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processors support Mixture-of-Experts models with more than 30 billion parameters directly on the device, along with 50 % additional shared memory. For the first time, Qualcomm is offering two flagship platforms instead of one. However, Amon does not believe the current limits will suffice for long, speaking of a future need for dedicated AI accelerators and even more tightly integrated compute-memory technologies.

Personal AI not tied to a single device: trust first

The ambition goes beyond the phone: “Connected Intelligence Everywhere”, a compute layer where personal AI moves across a phone, smart glasses, a digital cockpit, and emerging categories such as smart wearables, jewelry, and audio devices. The Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform shifts headphones and wearables from audio playback to always-on personal-AI interfaces, doubling on-device AI capability while consuming 40 % less power, with direct Wi-Fi connectivity to cloud services without constantly routing through the phone.

Yet this future raises a trust dilemma: AI that follows a user across multiple devices needs to know a great deal about them. Amon places success at the intersection of two factors: trust and friction reduction. A user will not grant context to an agent they do not trust regarding how it accesses, stores, and uses their data. Qualcomm is building mechanisms that let users decide what goes to the cloud and what stays on the device, with a permission system that defines what the agent can access. Amon does not present this as a solved problem; he openly acknowledges that the industry does not yet have all the answers.

From personal memory to sovereignty: citizen data as part of the equation

This leads to a broader notion of sovereign AI. Amon does not see sovereignty limited to how governments manage defense systems, financial services, and public functions. In his view, it can extend to citizens’ data and their ability to control the portions they wish to make available to AI agents. These questions create larger opportunities for sovereign models that combine local data-center capabilities with on-device intelligence. Qualcomm’s collaboration with Human falls squarely within this context.

When the agent acts for you: hardware-level security

The security challenge intensifies when an agent does not merely know information but begins using user credentials and interacting with external services on their behalf. Amon sees this as requiring new layers of continuous authentication to ensure the agent truly acts for the authorized individual, with a larger role for biometric metrics and the storage of credentials and sensitive information in secure zones. The user’s “personal memory map” itself needs protection, and a key part of these guarantees must be supported at the hardware level rather than as an added software layer, which Qualcomm ties to the built-in security mechanisms of Snapdragon platforms.

Device and cloud: a partnership, not a replacement

Although the focus is on on-device AI, Amon does not expect devices to replace the cloud. He points to today’s mobile applications as an example: users generally do not know, nor need to know, which part runs on the device and which runs in a data center. He expects AI to operate similarly, with tasks moving seamlessly between the device and the cloud.

What this means for tech professionals in the region

For the Saudi engineer, the KAUST researcher, and the Gulf tech founder: Qualcomm’s deep entry, an engineering hub, R&D, partnerships with Human, Aramco, Ceer, and the Ministry of Interior, is not a passing news item. It signals that the region’s AI infrastructure is being built to global standards, and that demand for semiconductor talent, edge AI, and trustworthy systems will accelerate rapidly. Those who put a foot early on this path, whether through technical specialization or a understanding of compliance and sovereignty requirements, will find themselves in a position to shape the market rather than chase it.