Saudi Arabia's largest telecoms operator STC on Thursday ‍announced a ‍joint venture with the kingdom's artificial ​intelligence company Humain to develop and operate data ⁠centres.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding ⁠to establish the ‌venture, in which Humain will hold a 51% stake, while STC ⁠will own 49%.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to accelerate its AI development to capitalise on the massive demand for ⁠computing power, as part ​of a broader effort to diversify away from oil ‍revenues.

Humain, an AI company backed by Saudi ​Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF, has secured several agreements including deals with Elon Musk's xAI and Blackstone-backed AirTrunk for data centre projects in the country, and is targeting a capacity of about 6 gigawatts by 2034.

The joint venture will aim to develop infrastructure ⁠capable of supporting operations with ‌a required load of up to 1 gigawatt, beginning with an initial ‌deployment of ⁠up to 250 megawatts.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti ⁠in Dubai Editing by Tomasz Janowski)