Saudi Arabia Backs Elon Musk's xAI With Data Center Deal

Source: NYT

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"... The project was part of a package of military and tech deals announced on Wednesday during Prince Mohammed’s visit to Washington. The United States and Saudi Arabia appear to have reached an agreement that clears the path for the kingdom to buy the U.S. semiconductors needed to power artificial intelligence, as the United States has used A.I. chips as part of geopolitical diplomacy.

... The Washington trip has been a victory for Humain, an A.I. company created by Prince Mohammed in May with backing from the kingdom’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund. On Wednesday, the company said it had reached deals with Nvidia and Amazon that include putting up to 150,000 top-end A.I. chips in data centers in an “A.I. Zone” in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The Saudi company also announced a venture with Cisco and AMD to develop up to one gigawatt of A.I. infrastructure by 2030. (A gigawatt is equal to one billion watts, or the capacity of a large power plant.)

... Human rights issues, once a deterrent for many companies to working with Saudi Arabia, no longer appear to be a major concern. On Tuesday, executives from many of the biggest tech companies attended a dinner hosted by Mr. Trump honoring Prince Mohammed, including Mr. Musk."

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