Atlas News Middle East | Amr Yehia

Saudi Arabia has emerged among the world’s top 10 countries for private investment in artificial intelligence, according to the World Bank’s World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, as the Kingdom expands computing infrastructure, attracts specialized talent and develops public-sector data systems under its broader economic transformation strategy.

The World Bank report provides a broad assessment of how artificial intelligence could affect developing economies, examining both the opportunities created by the technology and the conditions governments will need to establish in order to translate AI adoption into sustained economic and institutional gains.

Its analysis is structured around three dimensions: capabilities, referring to AI’s potential to widen access to expertise and improve decision-making; concentration, reflecting the fact that advanced models, semiconductor production and computing infrastructure remain concentrated among a relatively small number of countries and companies; and complements, including connectivity, data, skills and institutions.

Within this framework, Saudi Arabia is cited in several areas ranging from private AI investment and computing infrastructure to talent attraction and government data integration.

Saudi Arabia enters the global AI investment map

The World Bank places Saudi Arabia among the ten leading countries globally in private AI investment, positioning the Kingdom within a relatively limited group of economies attracting significant private capital into the sector.

The report also points to Saudi Arabia’s use of investment incentives and special economic zones as part of its effort to expand data-center infrastructure and computing capacity.

The approach reflects a wider competition among governments to secure the physical and financial infrastructure required for increasingly compute-intensive AI systems. For Saudi Arabia, this strategy is being developed alongside efforts to attract technology companies, startups and specialized workers.

Separate figures published by the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology indicate that the Kingdom’s data-center capacity increased from 68 megawatts in 2021 to 440 megawatts in 2025, reaching 467 megawatts during the first quarter of 2026.

The ministry also reports that 4G and 5G coverage had reached 99% by the end of 2025, while average internet speeds stood at 216 Mbps.

These indicators are relevant to Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions because large-scale deployment increasingly depends not only on access to models, but also on cloud infrastructure, computing capacity and reliable high-speed networks.

Competition for AI talent

The World Bank report also identifies Saudi Arabia as one of the economies recording a significant net inflow of AI professionals.

In 2025, the Kingdom was among the countries with the highest net inflow of AI workers per 10,000 LinkedIn members, alongside economies including Luxembourg, Australia and Switzerland.

The report also records a net inflow indicator of 3.08 among highly cited AI authors and creators, suggesting that Saudi Arabia is increasingly capable of attracting specialized expertise in a field where global talent remains heavily concentrated.

Domestic workforce expansion has accompanied this trend.

According to Saudi government data, the number of technology-sector workers increased from around 150,000 in 2018 to approximately 426,000, while women accounted for 35% of employment in information and communications technology professions.

The figures illustrate a broader policy objective: expanding the domestic skills base while simultaneously attracting foreign expertise capable of supporting the development of an AI-intensive economy.

Government data infrastructure becomes a strategic asset

Another area highlighted by the World Bank is Saudi Arabia’s approach to public-sector data.

The report cites infrastructure managed by the Saudi Data and AI Authority – SDAIA as an example of how government entities can exchange and integrate information without requiring all underlying data to be transferred into a single centralized system.

The framework connects data from more than 60 government entities while allowing institutions to retain information within their respective systems.

Such arrangements are increasingly important as governments attempt to deploy AI across public administration while addressing questions surrounding governance, institutional control, privacy and data security.

The World Bank’s wider argument is that access to advanced AI models alone is insufficient to produce meaningful development gains. Countries also require complementary infrastructure, usable data, institutional capacity and a sufficiently skilled workforce.

AI becomes part of Saudi Arabia’s wider economic transformation

Saudi Arabia’s increased AI investment comes as digital industries occupy a growing role in the Kingdom’s economic strategy.

According to official Saudi figures, the digital economy accounts for around 16% of GDP, while the information and communications technology market reached approximately 199 billion Saudi riyals in 2025.

Saudi authorities have also highlighted the Kingdom’s performance in the World Bank’s 2025 GovTech Maturity Index. The Saudi Digital Government Authority describes the result as corresponding to second place globally. The World Bank, however, specifies that the index itself is not designed as a formal ranking of economies, but as a measure of GovTech maturity across several institutional dimensions.

Saudi Arabia also participated directly in discussions surrounding the preparation of the World Development Report. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha served on the report’s High-Level Advisory Panel, while Saudi institutions participated in consultations with the World Bank.

The report was published during a year in which Riyadh has elevated artificial intelligence further within its national policy agenda. On March 10, 2026, the Saudi Council of Ministers designated 2026 as the “Year of Artificial Intelligence”.

For Saudi Arabia, the significance of the World Bank assessment extends beyond the headline investment ranking. The report points to a broader combination of capital, computing infrastructure, talent and government data capabilities — precisely the complementary factors that the World Bank considers necessary if countries are to convert AI adoption into wider economic and institutional gains.

Whether that investment ultimately translates into durable technological competitiveness will depend not only on the scale of spending, but on Saudi Arabia’s ability to develop local capabilities, sustain innovation and convert imported technology and expertise into a broader domestic AI ecosystem.

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