Saudi Arabia hosts first regional deployment of OpenAI models through HUMAIN-Groq partnership

08/08/2025 02:41 AST

Saudi Arabia has become the first country in the region to host OpenAI's newly released publicly available models through a deployment announced by HUMAIN and Groq.

The gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B models are operated on Groq's high-speed inference infrastructure located within HUMAIN's sovereign data centers in the Kingdom.

The move is part of broader efforts to localize advanced artificial intelligence infrastructure, aligning with national regulatory and data sovereignty requirements. Saudi Arabia's deployment of OpenAI's open-source models within domestic infrastructure supports a wider strategy to diversify its economy and position itself as a key player in global AI.

Under Vision 2030, the Kingdom envisions a digital economy powered by AI, investing heavily in sovereign compute infrastructure to support emerging markets across Africa and Asia.

HUMAIN, a company backed by the Public Investment Fund, said the deployment will enable Saudi-based developers, researchers, and enterprises to access AI tools that were previously limited by infrastructure or compliance constraints.

Groq, a US-based company specializing in AI inference hardware, provides a custom-built processing platform designed to deliver consistent, high-speed performance.

HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin described the development as a step forward in achieving technological self-reliance.

"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," he said.

The company claims that the gpt-oss-120B model operates at more than 500 tokens per second, while the gpt-oss-20B exceeds 1,000 tokens per second on its platform.

The establishment of HUMAIN by PIF in May, backed by commitments from Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, and Amazon Web Services, illustrates this push, with multi-billion-dollar agreements to expand local AI compute capacity, data centers, and foundational models.

The infrastructure is positioned as fully sovereign, meaning all data handling complies with Saudi regulations.

This could be significant for organizations in the public and private sectors that require local hosting of data-intensive applications. The companies did not disclose commercial terms or usage projections.

Groq CEO Jonathan Ross said the partnership expands the company's reach into the Middle East.

"Our partnership with HUMAIN gives us a powerful regional and globally central presence in one of the fastest-growing AI ecosystems on the planet," Ross said.

The announcement builds on a partnership first disclosed in May and aligns with Saudi Arabia's national strategy to become a competitive player in global AI development.

HUMAIN had previously stressed its ambition to develop AI capabilities across infrastructure, foundational models, and sector-specific applications.

Arab News