PIF and Aramco announced on November 1 that Aramco has closed its acquisition of a 49 percent stake in HUMAIN, the Saudi artificial intelligence company launched by the Public Investment Fund in May 2025. Aramco takes the stake through a wholly owned subsidiary, identified in reporting of the transaction as Saudi Aramco Development Company, and PIF retains 51 percent. The two shareholders will jointly oversee the company.
The consideration is a contribution into the company rather than a payment to PIF. Aramco will contribute approximately SAR 9.9 billion, or $2.6 billion, in cash to HUMAIN during 2026, in addition to transferring key AI, compute and digital assets. PIF and Aramco will both contribute AI assets, capabilities and talent. No valuation for HUMAIN was disclosed in the announcement, and no figure was given for the value of the transferred assets, so the $2.6 billion should not be read as the price of the 49 percent stake.
The closing completes a process that began with a non-binding term sheet on October 28, 2025. The European Commission cleared PIF and Aramco to take joint control of HUMAIN under the EU Merger Regulation in July 2026, in case M.12417, according to reporting of the Commission decision.
HUMAIN is building full-stack AI capabilities across four areas: next-generation data centers, hyper-performance infrastructure and cloud platforms, advanced AI models including the Arabic large language model ALLaM, and AI solutions. The announcement restated the plan to deploy 3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity by 2030 to meet regional and global demand for compute.
Aramco president and CEO Amin H. Nasser said Aramco has achieved $11.3 billion in Technology Realized Value since 2023, a significant portion of it from AI solutions, and framed the deal as a way to localize the AI industry and deploy AI systems at scale across its energy operations. PIF deputy governor Yazeed A. Al-Humied said combining the two shareholders’ AI portfolios under HUMAIN aligns with PIF’s 2026 to 2030 strategy. The structure is a sovereign consolidation: the state fund keeps control, the national oil company supplies cash, assets and a large internal customer, and the combined vehicle carries the kingdom’s data center buildout.