Saudi Arabia strikes deals with US companies

US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia has triggered a flurry of deals, ranging from AI and data centre infrastructure to investments in private credit. Followings are some of the key deals:

Oracle to invest US$14 billion

The American database and cloud company pledged US$14 billion in investments over the next 10 years in Saudi Arabia, with the aim of bringing AI technology to the kingdom. CEO Safra Catz credited Trump for the deal, adding the expanded partnership with Saudi “will create new opportunities for its economy”.

Nvidia to send 18,000 chips

In a flurry of deals that saw Nvidia’s market value hit US$3 trillion, the US chipmaker announced a partnership with Saudi sovereign wealth fund-owned AI startup Humain, which will include a shipment of 18,000 chips to the kingdom, to help power a new data center project.

Another deal with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) will see Nvidia deploy up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs for a sovereign AI factory and enable smart city solutions. Nvidia and SDAIA will train government and university scientists and engineers on how to develop and deploy models for physical and agentic AI.

Aramco Digital will also collaborate with Nvidia’s startup ecosystem to develop AI computing infrastructure.

AMD US$10 billion collaboration

AMD and Humain will invest up to US$10 billion over the next five years to deploy 500 megawatts of AI compute capacity. The AI superstructure will power workloads across enterprise, start-up and sovereign markets, the companies said.

Humain will oversee end-to-end delivery, including hyperscale data centre, sustainable power systems, and global fibre interconnects, and AMD will provide its software ecosystem.

Initial deployments are already underway across key global regions, the companies announced. 

Qualcomm to build data centres

Qualcomm Technologies, also partnered with Humain for the development of next-generation AI data centres, infrastructure and cloud-to-edge services across the globe, including Saudi.

Franklin Templeton’s US$150 million commitment

US investment firm Franklin Templeton signed a deal with Saudi’s Hassana Investment Company, valued at US$150 million to explore investments in Saudi private credit. The companies said the partnership aims to mobilize institutional capital into the Saudi private sector and to strengthen access to alternative financing in the kingdom.

Hassana is one of the region’s most active institutional investors, with over 1.2 trillion Saudi riyals ($320 billion) of assets under management.

AviLease takes off with 30 Boeing aircraft

The PIF-backed aircraft lessor AviLease also announced it had signed an agreement with Boeing for an order of 30 Boeing 737-8 aircraft, its first direct OEM order.

Deliveries are scheduled through 2032, with chairman Fahad AlSaif saying the deal was part of the PIF mandate to invest in the kingdom’s aviation sector.

The agreement builds on the Riyadh Air deal Boeing, a new airline launched by PIF, which placed an order of up to 72 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner airplanes in a multi-billion-dollar deal, earlier this year.

 

Intel historic collapse erases US$8 billion from market value

Intel Corp saw about US$8 billion wiped off its market value on Friday after the US chipmaker stumped Wall Street with dismal earnings projections, fanning fears around a slump in the personal-computer market.

The company predicted a surprise loss for the first quarter and its revenue forecast was US$3 billion below estimates as it also struggled with slowing growth in the data center business.

Intel shares closed 6.4% lower, while rival Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia ended the session up 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively. Intel supplier KLA Corp settled 6.9% lower after its dismal forecast.

"No words can portray or explain the historic collapse of Intel," said Rosenblatt Securities' Hans Mosesmann, who was among the 21 analysts to cut their price targets on the stock.

The poor outlook underscored the challenges facing Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger as he tries to reestablish Intel's dominance of the sector by expanding contract manufacturing and building new factories in the United States and Europe.

The company has been steadily losing market share to rivals like AMD, which has used contract chipmakers such as Taiwan-based TSMC to make chips that outpace Intel's technology.

"AMD's Genoa and Bergamo (data center) chips have a strong price-performance advantage compared to Intel's Sapphire Rapids processors, which should drive further AMD share gains," said Matt Wegner, analyst at YipitData.

Analysts said that puts Intel at a disadvantage even when the data center market bottoms out, expected in the second half of 2022, as the company would have lost even more share by then.

"It is now clear why Intel needs to cut so much cost as the company's original plans prove to be fantasy," brokerage Bernstein said.

"The magnitude of the deterioration is stunning, and brings potential concern to the company's cash position over time."

Intel, which plans to cut US$3 billion in costs this year, generated US$7.7 billion in cash from operations in the fourth quarter and paid dividends of US$1.5 billion.

With capital expenditure estimated to be around US$20 billion in 2023, analysts said the company should consider cutting its dividend.