Humain hires Goldman Sachs for data centres

Saudi Arabia-backed artificial intelligence company Humain has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on a financing package for data centres in the kingdom worth at least 20 billion riyals, or about $5.33 billion, according to two sources cited by Reuters on May 19. The mandate covers data-centre construction and graphics-processing-unit chips for 2 gigawatts of capacity, roughly one-third of Humain’s target for 2034, the report said. One source told Reuters the facilities are planned for the Riyadh area. Humain and Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while the Public Investment Fund, which owns Humain, referred Reuters to the company. ### How big is the financing package Humain is trying to raise? Reuters reported the package could be worth at least 20 billion riyals and is tied to 2 gigawatts of capacity. That figure matters because Humain is not just funding buildings; the mandate also includes GPU chips, which are a major part of AI infrastructure spending. Reuters said the 2-gigawatt build-out would represent about one-third of Humain’s stated 2034 target. (money.usnews.com) The International Energy Agency estimated last month that cumulative global investment in data centres could reach $3.9 trillion between 2026 and 2030, and said that scale is too large to be funded solely from AI companies’ balance sheets, Reuters reported. That helps explain why Humain is seeking structured financing rather than relying only on sovereign capital. (money.usnews.com) ### Where would these data centres be built? Reuters said the planned sites are in the Riyadh area, according to one of its sources. Saudi Arabia is pitching the kingdom’s energy costs as an advantage for large data-centre projects, and Reuters said that is part of a broader Gulf push to capture demand for AI computing power. (money.usnews.com) Reuters also said Saudi Arabia is trying to diversify beyond hydrocarbon revenue through spending on infrastructure, transportation, tourism and technology, including AI. The Public Investment Fund has been central to that strategy, even as Reuters reported the fund has recently scaled back some domestic giga-projects. (money.usnews.com) ### What projects has Humain already lined up? Humain and AirTrunk announced a strategic partnership on October 28, 2025, to build data centres in Saudi Arabia. Blackstone, which backs AirTrunk, said the initial project involves an approximately $3 billion investment for a data-centre campus in the kingdom. (money.usnews.com) xAI announced on November 19, 2025, that it had signed a framework agreement with Humain and Saudi Arabia to design, build and operate hyperscale GPU data centres in the kingdom. Humain separately said the partnership would include a network of GPU data centres anchored by a flagship facility of more than 500 megawatts and the deployment of xAI’s Grok models in Saudi Arabia. Reuters also reported that Amazon Web Services is investing billions of dollars in Saudi Arabia and has teamed up with Humain to build a new “AI zone” in the kingdom. (blackstone.com) ### Why is Goldman Sachs involved now? Goldman Sachs was hired recently, Reuters reported, as Humain moved to secure financing for the next phase of its build-out. (x.ai) The choice of a Wall Street bank suggests the company is moving from partnership announcements to capital-raising for physical infrastructure and chip procurement, though Reuters attributed the details of the mandate to unnamed sources because the matter is not public. (money.usnews.com) Argaam, citing the Reuters report, also said Humain selected Goldman Sachs to advise on arranging the financing package. That matches the core details reported by Reuters on the size of the mandate and Humain’s ownership by the Public Investment Fund. ### What risks are hanging over the build-out? Reuters said the push comes during a period of regional uncertainty after Iranian drone strikes hit data centres belonging to Amazon cloud unit AWS in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. (money.usnews.com) Reuters included that detail as part of the backdrop for local investment decisions tied to digital infrastructure. (argaam.com) The next visible step is financing execution. Reuters reported Goldman Sachs is advising on the package, while Humain already has named projects with AirTrunk, xAI and AWS in Saudi Arabia. Any formal debt package, project announcement or site-level disclosure in Riyadh would show whether those agreements are moving into funded construction. (money.usnews.com)