AMD, Cisco, and HUMAIN Launch AI Joint Venture

AMD, Cisco, and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN have unveiled their joint venture and first customer.

The partnership plans to deploy up to 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure by 2030, with operations launching in 2026.

It’s a good start as they’ve already secured their first major customer. Generative video startup Luma AI has contracted to purchase the complete 100-megawatt capacity of their initial Saudi Arabia data center. While most infrastructure projects spend months searching for customers, this venture locked in full capacity before operations even begin.

This builds directly on AMD’s existing $10 billion collaboration with HUMAIN established six months ago, which included major purchases of AMD’s advanced AI chips and emerged from deals announced during President Trump’s visit to Riyadh.

Billion-dollar infrastructure play

This deal is a calculated move to capture massive market share across regions spanning Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and Africa, covering approximately 4.5 billion people. That represents more than half the world’s population potentially served by this single infrastructure venture.

The financial structure demonstrates strategic thinking. AMD and Cisco will function as exclusive technology partners while serving as minority shareholders who share in profits and losses, with HUMAIN taking the leadership role. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has already backed HUMAIN’s ambitious data center expansion plans across the country — providing a foundation most ventures can only dream of accessing.

For the initial 100-megawatt buildout, Cisco will supply networking equipment and critical infrastructure solutions, while AMD provides its MI450 Series GPUs. The infrastructure promises cost-efficient, high-performance capabilities designed to power the global AI ecosystem with modern data center capacity and lower capital expenditures.

Beyond reaching 1 gigawatt by 2030, the venture harbors ambitious plans to expand capacity to multiple gigawatts as demand grows. Such infrastructure could potentially power entire countries’ AI ambitions.

AI computing’s future

Market projections suggest growth ahead. Saudi Arabia’s data center market is positioned to surge from $1.3 billion in 2024 to nearly $4 billion within six years, while AI is projected to contribute more than $230 billion to the country’s GDP by 2030, positioning the Kingdom among the top 15 AI nations globally.

This venture represents a fundamental transformation in how AI infrastructure gets developed and deployed worldwide. The collaboration aims to create a dynamic, AI-driven economy while supporting Saudi Vision 2030’s goals of economic diversification and job creation. Beyond building data centers, the partnership includes workforce development, with plans to train half a million people and establish the Cisco AI Institute at KAUST to support research and talent development.

Analysts project this partnership will begin boosting AMD’s sales from mid-2025, with Wedbush maintaining an outperform rating and $120 price target for AMD based on rising demand and early release of new chip generations.

The Kingdom aims to achieve 2,200 megawatts in data center capacity by 2030 — significantly ahead of regional competitors like the UAE.

The implications are clear: the future of AI won’t just be determined by algorithm superiority, but by the infrastructure capacity to run them at scale.