The Future Investment Initiative (FII9) kicked off yesterday with a focus on attracting foreign capital and advancing Saudi Arabia’s tech ambitions. Once known as a capital exporter, the Kingdom seems to be realigning the four-day forum to draw investment into domestic projects that advance Vision 2030’s diversification goals.

This year’s edition also marks a shift to tech, with 52% of speakers from the sector, compared to previous finance-heavy lineups, Chairman of the FII Institute Executive Committee Richard Attias told Bloomberg (watch, runtime: 10:02). He predicts agreement volumes to rise 20–25% from last year’s USD 40 bn, with the event attracting 12k attendees and 900 C-suites executives. “We didn’t create FII for people to come, take the money and run, We created FII for people to understand where the money should go,” Attias said.

The forum builds on a solid track record, having generated close to USD 190 bn in investment agreements since its debut in 2017.

This year’s opening panels bring together finance and tech leaders representing firms valued at nearly USD 3 tn, according to Bloomberg. Among high-profile attendees are Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, both reportedly interested in investing in Humain, while Goldman Sachs Group CEO David Solomon is turning his attention to openings in the private credit market. Dignitaries from 20 countries are also attending, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Syria’s Ahmed Al Sharaa.

FROM DAY ZERO- A trade agreement with the GCC can be reached “very soon,” Reuters quoted UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves as saying yesterday. Reeves — on the first visit to the region by a British finance minister in six years — met with Commerce Minister Majid Al Qasabi to talk trade, economic relations, and promising sectors and will hold talks with counterparts from Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar to advance negotiations with the block.

ALSO- Kosovo is eyeing a deeper cooperation with the Kingdom in AI, technology and innovation, President Vjosa Osmani told Arab News during the conference, aiming at securing support for Kosovo’s Digital Agenda 2030 and attracting foreign investment.

AI AT CENTER STAGE-

Humain x Qualcomm: PIF’s AI champion Humain is collaborating with tech giant Qualcomm to offer global AI inference services in the Kingdom to enterprises and government organizations, according to a statement from Qualcomm. Humain is targeting 200 MW of Qualcomm’s AI200 and AI250 solutions starting in 2026, touting “industry-leading performance per total cost of ownership (TCO).” No financial details were disclosed

Humain also plans to launch its new operating system Humain One this week during FII9, allowing users to operate computers through voice commands instead of traditional icon-based interfaces like Windows or macOS, Reuters quotes CEO Tareq Amin as saying at the Fortune Global Forum yesterday. The company aims to be the first to bring the technology to market, and it has been testing the operating system internally for payroll and HR use since its launch in May, a spokesperson said.

AND- More data center capacity: Humain will develop around 6 GW of data center capacity, Amin revealed without specifying the location.

More announcements are expected from the company in FII9’s coming days. The FII institute inked a strategic partnershp with Humain on Monday to advance “human-centeric AI innnovation,” with the press release hinting at “major product and partnership announcements”” set to take place during the conference.

Saudi is “primed to become a hotspot for artificial intelligence infrastructure” by leveraging its surplus energy, Groq CEO Jonathan Ross told CNBC on the sidelines. The Kingdom could become a “net exporter of data” by using its hard-to-export energy to power local AI computation, as data is “very cheap to move.” Ross called the Middle East the “ideal place” for data centers, citing underutilized energy, inexpensive land, and chip-running costs that are “cheaper than some of the Nordic countries.”

The US-based AI chipmaker is building a 20k-chip cluster in Dammam in partnership with Humain, with 19k chips already deployed and running, making it the largest computing cluster in the Middle East and potentially Europe, Ross said. From its Saudi base, the cluster currently serves users in about 150 countries, with new services set to be announced this week to join Humain chat, he added.

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