Saudi Arabia ranks among top three globally for AI talent growth and model development

Saudi Arabia has ranked among the world's top three countries for artificial intelligence (AI) talent growth and the development of leading AI models, as the Kingdom expands its investments in digital infrastructure, research, workforce capabilities and public-sector adoption.

According to a comprehensive study released by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), the Kingdom ranked third globally in AI talent growth under the 2026 Stanford HAI Index and third globally, as well as first regionally, in developing leading AI models under the 2025 index.

The country also ranked fifth globally for AI sector growth in the 2025 Observer Index. In addition, Saudi Arabia secured 26 awards at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth and joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence in 2026.

The study assessed the country's progress across seven key pillars: regulatory frameworks, investments, digital infrastructure, data governance, human capital, research and innovation, and institutional adoption.

Saudi Arabia's domestic data centre capacity increased by 115.8 per cent between 2023 and 2025, reflecting the expansion of its digital infrastructure.

Its national computing capabilities include the Shaheen III supercomputer, which leads the GCC on the 2026 TOP500 list, and the Hexagon Data Centre, described in the report as the world's largest government-owned Tier IV facility, with a capacity of 480 megawatts.

By mid-2026, the Kingdom hosted nine hyperscale cloud regions, including four under development by global providers.

Progress was also reported in national data integration. A total of 515 government systems were connected to the National Data Lake under the National Data Bank, aggregating 5.87 petabytes of data from more than 90 government entities in 2026. Open datasets also exceeded 21,800, contributed by 346 public- and private-sector organisations.

Saudi Arabia's Arabic-language AI capabilities have also expanded, with more than 500 billion Arabic data units used to develop the ALLaM 34B large language model in 2025. Meanwhile, the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language's Falak platform reached 2.2 billion words.

The study highlighted growing public familiarity with AI, with 84 per cent of Saudi Arabia's population familiar with AI concepts.

More than 1.2 million people had participated in the first phase of the SAMAI initiative by July 2026. Between 2021 and 2025, more than 69,300 technical graduates entered the labour market, contributing to a 15 per cent compound annual growth rate in domestic AI talent density.

Research and innovation also recorded growth. AI-related scientific publications registered a compound annual growth rate of 37.4 per cent between 2021 and 2025, while patent filings in the field increased by 34.52 per cent between 2020 and 2024.

According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's 2026 report, domestic development has produced eight large language models and 58 specialised AI applications.

AI adoption across government entities has also reached high levels of maturity, according to SDAIA.

Around 90 per cent of public entities have an AI strategy, while 97 per cent have deployed or are developing AI tools. In addition, 77 per cent have formal AI governance frameworks, and 63 per cent comply with SDAIA's national AI principles.

Nearly half (48 per cent) of government entities adopting AI reported internal operational efficiency improvements exceeding 10 per cent.

The study also highlighted Saudi Arabia's performance across several international AI indicators, including first place globally in women's empowerment in AI, AI security, privacy and encryption, and digital readiness. The Kingdom ranked third in student adoption of generative AI, sixth in government AI strategy and seventh in financial sector funding.

The findings point to progress across Saudi Arabia's AI ecosystem, spanning talent development, computing infrastructure, research capabilities and the integration of AI into government operations.