Wa’ed Ventures has appointed an advisory board made up of former employees from companies including Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc, to explore early-stage investments in the sector. Money will be deployed over the next three years, according to the company.

“This investment will not only incentivise local entrepreneurs, but also support the localisation of global talent,” Anas Algahtani, acting chief executive officer of Wa’ed, said in a statement on Sunday.

The US$500 million venture capital (VC) arm of oil giant Aramco has been doubling down on AI this year, as Saudi Arabia aims to turn itself into a top 15 country for AI. The fund recently invested US$15 million in South Korean chipmaker Rebellions Inc, and also joined funding rounds for AI platform aiXplain and Peter Thiel-backed firm Tenderd.

Saudi Arabia’s AI strategy is to spend this decade using data and AI to drive the economic diversification agenda, known as Vision 2030 — and then start competing globally after 2030.

It has been competing with the UAE for AI investment, with both racing to set up expensive data centres to support the technology, and become the regional tech superpower.

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