Capping off a busy year for artificial intelligence in the Middle East, on Dec. 25 Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding, which is controlled by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, revealed a $400 million investment into Elon Musk’s AI firm, xAI. This came just days after Oman’s sovereign wealth fund also announced it was investing into xAI on Dec. 19, without disclosing financial details.

This growing Musk-Mideast AI connection was just the latest instance of regional players vying to capture impactful roles in the AI boom, which could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Within the Middle East, Israel also has a competitive AI industry, but it was wealthy Gulf states making waves in 2024 by pouring money into semiconductors, supercomputers, data centers and companies as they seek to future-proof their economies and become new AI industry hubs.

Consider Saudi Arabia: In November, Bloomberg reported that the kingdom is planning a new $100 billion AI project to invest in data centers, startups and other AI infrastructure — potentially creating an entity to rival G42, the growing AI conglomerate founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2018. In February, Saudi Arabia also launched Alat, a $100 billion fund tasked with boosting advanced industries domestically, including semiconductors and AI. 

The UAE is making similar moves, headlined by unveiling MGX in March, a new $100 billion state-backed tech investment firm focused on AI infrastructure and related technologies. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that chip makers, including Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung, were discussing building UAE factories that could be worth over $100 billion.