HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) company, and Cohere have announced a strategic collaboration to develop sovereign AI models and expand artificial intelligence compute infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The agreement commits at least 50 megawatts (MW) of dedicated AI compute capacity to support next-generation foundation models.
The announcement occurred during the official visit of Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This initiative represents Cohere’s first international expansion outside of North America, with the new infrastructure expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2027.
Developing Sovereign AI Models for Enterprise Use
Under the terms of the agreement, HUMAIN will provide the dedicated compute capacity to support Cohere’s model research and development. The two entities will collaborate to build sovereign AI models, including Arabic-language and domain-adapted foundation models tailored for specific sectors.
These specialized systems will target enterprise use cases, helping organizations deploy secure applications to improve operational efficiency and knowledge management. The joint effort will combine HUMAIN’s full-stack artificial intelligence infrastructure with Cohere’s technical expertise.
Infrastructure Scale and Five-Year Outlook
The initial allocation of 50MW of compute capacity is designed to scale over the next five years to meet growing regional demand. Cohere has secured access to this infrastructure, which is purpose-built for model reinforcement learning, inference optimization, and future research.
This infrastructure expansion aims to support the growing digital economy in Saudi Arabia by providing localized computing power. Consequently, local enterprises will be able to process data within national borders, aligning with regional data residency requirements.
Executive Perspectives on AI Infrastructure
The leadership of both organizations highlighted the importance of localized computing power for the development of advanced systems.
“The future of artificial intelligence will be defined by access to compute. Frontier AI models require infrastructure at unprecedented scale. The fact that Cohere has selected HUMAIN for the first significant international AI compute deployment outside North America highlights the strength of the AI infrastructure we are building and our ability to support the next generation of model research and development.”
Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN
Meanwhile, Cohere emphasized that reliable access to high-performance computing is essential for building increasingly capable systems.
“To build increasingly capable AI models, you need reliable access to high-performance compute. Our partnership with HUMAIN gives us the AI infrastructure that provides the scale and flexibility needed for future generations of enterprise AI models while supporting our long-term compute requirements. In addition, we look forward to collaborating on frontier AI initiatives, including the development of sovereign AI models, that will greatly benefit Saudi Arabia and beyond.”
Aidan Gomez, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cohere
Advancing Secure Enterprise Adoption
In addition to infrastructure development, the collaboration focuses on accelerating secure technology adoption across various industries. The companies plan to deliver production-ready solutions that address real-world business challenges while maintaining strict data security standards.
By integrating secure enterprise technologies, the partnership will support organizations in implementing tools for customer engagement and productivity. This structured framework ensures that future expansions can accommodate new model programs as demand for localized cybersecurity and data protection increases.
