Qualcomm to open engineering hub in Saudi Arabia, part of a series of AI deals in kingdom-awdailynews

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2025-11-20

Qualcomm to open engineering hub in Saudi Arabia, part of a series of AI deals in kingdom

Qualcomm (QCOM) said it will open a new engineering center in Saudi Arabia as part of its effort to deploy some 200 megawatts of AI servers to the country’s Humain AI.

The company will construct the servers using its recently announced AI200 and AI250 accelerator chips and software.

CEO Cristiano Amon, who attended a White House dinner on Tuesday for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said in a statement that the engineering center will “serve as a key technology and ecosystem development hub designed to streamline and accelerate deployment of the most advanced services based on Qualcomm AI solutions for data centers.”

Qualcomm is jumping into the AI data center market at a time when it’s seeking to further diversify its business segments away from its heavy reliance on smartphone chip sales and licenses. It’s also working to extend its reach into the PC space with chips for Windows-based computers, taking on both Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 19, 2025. (Reuters/Ann Wang) · REUTERS / Reuters

Qualcomm isn’t the only tech firm looking to grow its business in Saudi Arabia.

In May, Nvidia (NVDA) announced it will begin shipping its chips into the country to power some of Humain’s services.

AMD and Cisco (CSCO) are also teaming up with Humain to create a joint venture geared toward advancing Humain’s AI capabilities.

According to AMD, the first phase of the venture will involve 100 megawatts worth of AMD’s Instinct MI450 GPUs and Cisco infrastructure. The companies plan to expand that to 1 gigawatt of AI capabilities by 2030 before expanding to multiple gigawatt systems.

Saudi Arabia’s push to get AI chips from US companies hasn’t been without controversy, though, as some in Washington believe, China could benefit from the high-powered processors through its close relationship with the kingdom.

The AI industry has been steadily pushing the concept of so-called sovereign AI, or AI systems built in individual countries that they can access and use to develop, train, and roll out their own AI services.