$SoundHound AI (SOUN.US)$ Saudi Arabia plans to pour $40B in...

04:27 PM | NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) | By: SA Editor Brandon Evans, SA News Editor

Saudi Arabia is apparently creating a fund worth about $40B to invest in artificial intelligence, according to The New York Times.

The Middle Eastern nation is serious about throwing its monetary weight into the technology that is reshaping industries, according to three people briefed on the plan, the report said.

Over the last month, representatives of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have discussed a potential partnership with Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest private venture capital firms, and other financiers, The New York Times reported.

The fund would possibly make Saudi Arabia the world's largest investor in AI, as it would be much larger than U.S. venture capital firms typically amass. Some Wall Street banks are reportedly helping to assemble the fund.

Companies such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and OpenAI are currently leading the AI race, which requires copious amounts of capital. For example, OpenAI has received billions in funding from Microsoft (MSFT). OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is attempting to raise as much as $5T to $7T for a major project that would boost the world's chip-making capacity and its ability to power AI. Potential investors include the United Arab Emirates government.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is pursuing the AI investment by drawing from its sovereign wealth fund, which holds assets worth more than $900B, The Times reported. Horowitz and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, have even discussed the firm setting up an office in the country’s capital of Riyadh.