Nvidia's stock experienced a 5.6% surge on Tuesday, fueled by a substantial artificial intelligence (AI) investment plan between the US and Saudi Arabia. Despite this, the AI powerhouse's stock remains down 4.5% year-to-date as of May 13, facing challenges related to US-China trade tensions and the emergence of China’s DeepSeek, a lower-cost AI model. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined other US tech leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, during President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia.

The White House announced a $600 billion investment pledge from Saudi Arabia into the US, featuring a $142 billion defense sales deal and an $80 billion commitment to transformative technologies. Trump also pledged to lift sanctions against Syria to improve relations with key Middle East countries and planned meetings with leaders from Qatar and the UAE.

Nvidia announced a partnership with HUMAIN, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), to transform Saudi Arabia into a global leader in AI, cloud computing, digital twins, and robotics. Nvidia will supply its most advanced AI chips over five years, including 18,000 units of the GB200 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputer with InfiniBand networking in the initial phase, supporting HUMAIN's AI factory project with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts. A deal with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) involves deploying up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs for a sovereign AI factory to enable smart city solutions. Aramco Digital, the technology arm of Saudi Aramco, will also collaborate with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia aims to diversify its economy, targeting $100 billion in annual foreign direct investment under its Vision 2030 strategy. The Trump administration is reportedly considering a deal with the UAE to permit the import of over one million advanced Nvidia chips, exceeding current export limits. Other US tech firms like AMD, Global AI, Amazon, Cisco, and OpenAI also announced AI investment plans in Saudi Arabia during the event.

President Trump's Middle East trip is poised to significantly benefit US AI chipmakers, with moves to ease export restrictions to China. The US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the rescission of the AI diffusion rule imposed during the Biden administration, which had restricted AI chip exports to China and other countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The DOC stated its commitment to advancing American AI technology with trusted partners while preventing access by adversaries and introduced new guidance to strengthen controls over overseas AI chip exports to limit China’s access.

Nvidia has also announced a partnership to transform Saudi Arabia into a global powerhouse in AI, cloud and enterprise computing, digital twins and robotics. Humain will leverage Nvidia platforms and expertise to establish Saudi Arabia as a global leader in AI, GPU cloud computing and digital transformation to drive innovation and growth worldwide, according to a statement. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, emphasized that AI is essential infrastructure for every nation, adding, "Together with Humain, we are building AI infrastructure for the people and companies of Saudi Arabia to realise the bold vision of the Kingdom."

Humain is making a major investment to build AI factories in Saudi Arabia with a projected capacity of up to 500 megawatts powered by several hundred thousand of Nvidia's most advanced GPUs over the next five years. The first phase will involve an 18,000 Nvidia GB300 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputer with Nvidia InfiniBand networking. These hyperscale AI data centers will provide a secure foundational infrastructure for training and deploying sovereign AI models at scale, enabling industries across Saudi Arabia and worldwide to accelerate innovation and digital transformation. Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain, stated that the partnership with Nvidia is a bold step forward in realizing the Kingdom's ambitions to lead in AI and advanced digital infrastructure.

Humain will deploy the Nvidia Omniverse platform as a multi-tenant system to drive acceleration of the new era of physical AI and robotics through simulation, optimization, and operation of physical environments by new human-AI-led solutions.