U.S. Start-Up Partners With Saudi Arabia for Data Center
New York Times · LC · trust 43/100
Together AI, which serves open-source artificial intelligence models, announced a deal to use compute from Humain in Saudi Arabia, where it can bypass U.S. backlash over data centers.
Listen · 4:21 min Share full article Many of Saudi Arabia’s new data centers are being built by Humain, which was started last year as part of the country’s effort to jump-start its A.I. industry and diversify its economy away from oil. Credit... Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Niko Gallogly
Data centers require enormous amounts of power and A.I. chips. Increasingly another important factor is at play: Is there enough local support for them?
In the United States, the answer is increasingly no, as the backlash against data centers is rising . And that’s causing some companies to look abroad to power their A.I. ambitions.
In the latest example, the U.S.- based start-up Together AI on Monday announced a partnership with the Saudi Arabia artificial intelligence company Humain. The deal will provide Together AI with 250 megawatts of electricity and 120,000 semiconductors from a Saudi-based data center. Together AI, which was valued at $8.3 billion in July and serves open-source artificial intelligence models to customers, will use Humain’s chips and offer a share of its revenue in exchange. Together AI said it expected business from the data center to bring in $5 billion annually.
“More and more, local communities don’t want data centers in their backyards, and there are a lot of cancellations and moratoriums, so U.S. capacity is becoming even more constrained,” said Vipul Prakash, a co-founder and the chief executive of Together AI.
Saudi Arabia, where the state often has a hand in the dealings of private businesses, is luring chip-hungry American companies to its new data centers. Many of them are being built by Humain, which was started last year by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of the country’s effort to jump-start its A.I. industry and diversify its economy away from oil.
“Everybody is chasing capacity,” said Tareq Amin, the chief executive of Humain. “My G.P.U.s sell before they are ordered,” he added, referring to the silicon chips used in data centers to power A.I. models.
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