Groq and Aramco will build the world's largest AI center in Saudi Arabia, with the aim of promoting AI applications in the energy industry and affirming the country's position in the technology sector.
Groq, a California-based AI startup, is partnering with oil giant Aramco to build the world's largest AI center in Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg.
The center will initially be equipped with 19,000 language processing units, with the potential to expand to 200,000 units in the future. Aramco will finance the project at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. The center is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Aramco Digital, a new unit of Aramco, will partner with Groq to leverage AI to support its energy business operations. Aramco sees this as a strategic move to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil.
Groc representative stepped forward to announce breakthroughs in many areas. Source: Aramco.
Building data centers in Saudi Arabia benefits from low energy costs, abundant land and the ability to quickly connect 4 billion people within 100 milliseconds (ping time) – a measure of the speed of data transmission between the processing location and the user.
Saudi Arabia is now striving to become a global technology hub, especially in the field of AI, to promote the modernization of the economy and find new sources of income beyond oil.
Although Saudi Arabia’s growth plans have been hit by restrictions on exports of advanced AI chips from the U.S., Groq said it is not concerned about the issue. CEO Jonathan Ross said the company has been working closely with the U.S. Department of Commerce and voluntarily stopped selling to Chinese companies even before the restrictions were imposed.
In the future, Groq may expand its cooperation with Aramco to many other projects. Ross expects this cooperation to open up great opportunities not only in Saudi Arabia but also in other regions where Aramco is operating.