Saudi Arabia poised to become AI data center hub: Groq CEO at FII
Saudi Arabia is poised to become a hotspot for AI infrastructure due to its energy surplus, according to Groq CEO Jonathan Ross.
The Middle Eastern country is known for its vast energy resources, leading major technology companies to make infrastructure deals in the region. It is also part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy beyond oil.
Jonathan Ross, CEO of artificial intelligence chip company Groq, said in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh that Saudi Arabia could become a net data exporter thanks to its energy surplus.
“One of the things that is difficult to export is energy. You have to transport it, it’s physical and costly. Electricity is very expensive to transport over transmission lines,” he said.
By comparison, data is “very cheap to move,” he added. “So since there is a lot of excess energy in the Kingdom, the idea is to move the data here, put the computation here, do the computation for the AI here, and send the results.”
“What you don’t want to do is build a data center right next to people where it’s expensive in terms of land, or somewhere where energy is already being used. You want to build the data center somewhere where energy is underutilized, where there aren’t a lot of people, where energy is underutilized. And this is the Middle East, so that’s an ideal place to build it.”
The CEO added that the cost of running chips in Saudi Arabia is “actually cheaper than some Scandinavian countries” known for their access to abundant low-cost renewable energy.
