World Bank: Saudi Arabia among world’s top 10 for private AI investment | CXO Insight Middle East
Saudi Arabia has ranked among the world’s top 10 countries for private artificial intelligence investment, according to the World Bank Group’s World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial. . .
Saudi Arabia has ranked among the world’s top 10 countries for private artificial intelligence investment, according to the World Bank Group’s World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence. The report points to the Kingdom’s growing position in the global AI economy, citing its ability to attract private capital, talent and infrastructure investment. It also highlights Saudi Arabia’s use of tax incentives and special economic zones to support investment in data centres and expand computing capacity. According to the report, Saudi Arabia is also among the economies attracting the highest net inflows of AI professionals per 10,000 LinkedIn members in 2025, placing it alongside markets such as Luxembourg, Australia and Switzerland. The finding reflects the Kingdom’s efforts to build AI talent capacity as demand for technical skills continues to rise. The World Bank report also highlights Saudi Arabia’s work on public sector data integration. It references a platform operated by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) that enables data integration across more than 60 government entities, while allowing data to remain within each entity’s own systems. The ranking comes as Saudi Arabia continues to increase investment in digital infrastructure and AI adoption under Vision 2030. The Kingdom’s digital economy contribution has reached 16 percent of GDP, while its communications and IT market reached SAR199 billion in 2025. Saudi Arabia also ranked second globally in the World Bank Group’s 2025 GovTech Maturity Index, reflecting its progress in digital government services. The Kingdom has designated 2026 as the “Year of AI”, reinforcing its focus on artificial intelligence across government, industry and the wider economy. The report positions Saudi Arabia as one of the emerging AI markets to watch, as countries compete to attract investment, talent and compute capacit