Inside Saudi Arabia's AI Ambition: Tareq Amin on Building a New Tech Superpower

**Tareq Amin** (0:02)
I believe connectivity is a human right. I felt that this is a great opportunity to really build and enable a country like Saudi Arabia that has incredible potential and capability to really build a digital champion and a digital hub for the region. This is the first time I landed in a place where I feel I'm home.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Humain's Tareq Amin.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:34)
Good to see you.

**Tareq Amin** (0:34)
I did.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:38)
So, I've been spending a lot more time in the Middle East, in the region. It's changing so dramatically year after year. And I'm going to be, I announced on the podcast two weeks ago, I'll be doing Founder University in Riyadh, on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th. And I'm really excited to partner with such a dynamic country. Maybe you could fill us in on what's changed over the last five years in the region.

**Tareq Amin** (1:06)
Well, thank you very much. First of all, I must say, it's the first time I did an event that's only 45 minutes away from my home. My flight from Riyadh obviously was 23 hours, but just to give you some context, I was born in Amman, Jordan before coming to the US to finish my studies and progress in my life and my career. So I moved from Tokyo to Saudi Arabia, but this is the first time I ever worked in the region, and I didn't know what to expect.
Sometimes it depends on your perspective on how you look at the world. I wanted to really discover and understand everything I used to hear under the massive opportunity of transformation and the diversification on the economy. My first observation is really started with discovery of how amazing the people were, in terms of hospitality, welcomeness. I really felt like I'm back home. It felt very, very different feeling to me. The second thing, the population is awfully young and hungry, and hungry for new things and new advancements. So to me, it was really a pleasant surprise, because what I was really worried about and what everybody keeps talking about, maybe Tareq have done great things in his life, talent and opportunity may be a big challenge in his new venture. And it was remarkable, you know, in every aspect, whether you look at the government side, in terms of society, the transformation, it has changed dramatically. It's really, really an area that I feel the opportunity is remarkable and the embracement of the society towards looking at the future in which digital and AI is fundamental to their transformation.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:56)
Tareq, can you maybe explain what Humain is and how it came to be? Because it was sort of an evolution, right?

**Tareq Amin** (3:02)
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, for you to know, I'll tell you, we take things for granted in the US to a certain extent. Let's assume you're a startup here and you want to access compute. It's as simple as obviously going to a hyperscaler and within 30 seconds you're ready to go. So the story is fascinating because my first discovery let's say in the role I was in at the time, I was hired to really run a subsidiary of Aramco, a new company that was intended to diversify out of its core business in which digital AI was a really core component of it. One of the biggest surprises I had is lack of AI infrastructure. I mean, I did not know that the ability for startups, companies to access AI infrastructure is a challenge. I mean, it took… look how large Aramco is. It took them nine months from the process of purchase order, export control process, deployment, installation. That means we have hindered a company to really achieve its objectives by nine months. So that was the first opportunity that I saw that we need to address in the country. I tell you this story because this is how the Humain story started. So I started meeting with several ministers in the country.
I told them I see nothing but opportunity. I see something that the country could really do and participate at a global space. I think we have an abundance of land, an abundance of power, amazing connectivity, and an opportunity to really participate in the digital infrastructure. So last year during my birthday, I get a call and it was like really a strange number. So I answered it says it was from the Royal Court and it said His Royal Highness wants to meet with you. I said, okay, what did I do? It was a, so anyway, we all came in. I said, what's the topic? The topic was AI brainstorming. And this was the first time I had the opportunity to meet His Royal Highness. And Mohammed bin Salman. Yeah. And let me tell you, it was not about brainstorming. It was about really addressing what the country needs to do to accelerate, to address some of the fragmentation that exists. And the idea and the concept of Humain is in order for us to really accelerate our development. Let us now bring public and private entity combines and take AI investments, projects, initiatives, and put them under one umbrella company that is really focused on the entire AI total value chain. So honestly, in that meeting, I could tell you it took about 10 minutes to come to realization that the opportunity is massive, but we need to really unite the fragmented effort and put our energy to address the basics.