United

Joe Biden

April

The Saudi Arabian government is reportedly mulling the creation of a $40 billion investment fund to pour money into artificial intelligence, which could take place in the second half of the year.
Representatives behind Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are also considering a partnership with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to oversee the AI investments, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/business/saudi-arabia-investment-artificial-intelligence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a> on March 19 citing three people familiar with the matter.
Other venture capitalists may also participate in the AI fund and the a16z partnership could see it setting up an office in the country’s capital, Riyadh.
One of a16z’s founders, Ben Horowitz, is friends with the fund’s governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Times reported.
If the $40 billion investment goes ahead, it would make Saudi Arabia the largest investor in the AI space. Two of the three people familiar cited by the Times predicted the fund could be launched in the second half of 2024, but the plans could still change.
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/de8d8682-4fcb-4a3c-96ef-f871d4897289.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">List of the large language model providers that have received investments from a16z. Source:&nbsp;a16z
 </figcaption>
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For comparison, Microsoft has poured <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/irish-council-civil-liberties-microsoft-open-ai-partnership-must-be-investigated-merger" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$13 billion into ChatGPT creator</a> OpenAI over several investments — less than half the size of Saudi Arabia’s proposed fund.
Saudi Arabia’s AI fund would be sourced through the Kingdom’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund and it’s looking to invest in chip makers and large data centers that have the capacity to power AI technology.
It has even considered <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/saudi-arabia-china-arabic-ai-system" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">starting its own AI companies</a>.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/saudi-arabia-launches-cultural-metaverse" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Saudi Arabia launches ‘cultural’ metaverse to celebrate founding day</a>
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-31/adam-neumann-angles-to-take-new-startup-flow-to-saudi-arabia?sref=gni836kR" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Discussions</a> of a potential partnership between Saudi Arabia and a16z have been in the works since at least April 2023.
Horowitz <a href="https://twitter.com/twistartups/status/1643452945940267008" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">praised</a> Saudi Arabia as a “startup country” in an April 2023 interview with former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann while suggesting the United States is starting to lose traction in the startup scene.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 .<a href="https://twitter.com/a16z?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@a16z</a> founders <a href="https://twitter.com/bhorowitz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@bhorowitz</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/pmarca?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@pmarca</a> spoke with Adam Neumann about Saudi Arabia at a Saudi-sponsored conference last week: some takeaways: -- praised SA as a "startup country" -- "his royal highness" acts as SA's de facto "founder" -- US is slow, SA is fast <a href="https://t.co/eUIM1ZN1cv" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/eUIM1ZN1cv</a>— This Week in Startups (@twistartups) <a href="https://twitter.com/twistartups/status/1643452945940267008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">April 5, 2023</a>
</blockquote>
U.S. President Joe Biden issued an <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/biden-administration-executive-order-ai-safety-standards" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">executive order for new AI safety standards</a> last October, which received commitments from 15 leading AI firms.
One of the recently implemented measures includes using the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/biden-administration-ai-actions-executive-order" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Defense Production Act</a> to urge AI firms to report “vital information,” including AI safety test results, to the Department of Commerce.
It comes as OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman last month <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/openai-seeking-trillions-ai-chip-development" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">sought $7 trillion</a> from Saudi Arabia’s neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, to build more advanced semiconductor chips.
Magazine:<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/ai-killed-translation-industry-easytranslate-boss-change-human-jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> ‘AI has killed the industry’: EasyTranslate boss on adapting to change</a>

Saudi Arabia plans $40B AI investment fund overseen by a16z: Report

Cointelegraph

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