Humain Pumps $3B into xAI Amid SpaceX Acquisition, Eyes Global AI Dominance

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 19-02-2026

3 min

Humain invested $3 billion in xAI’s Series E funding round.

After SpaceX’s acquisition, its stake converted into shares in SpaceX.

The firms plan over 500MW of AI-ready data centres in Saudi Arabia.

Humain is backing “transformative AI” and long-term global technology platforms.

Saudi Arabia signals it is no longer watching the AI race.

Humain, the artificial intelligence firm backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has committed a hefty $3 billion to xAI in its Series E funding round, just weeks before SpaceX completed its acquisition of the company in early February 2026.

The timing is not a small detail. The investment came at what many would call a pivotal moment, as xAI and SpaceX moved towards deeper integration. Following the acquisition, Humain’s stake in xAI was converted into shares in SpaceX, effectively placing the Saudi AI player inside one of the world’s most closely watched technology ecosystems. And believe it or not, this deal now sits among the largest tech mergers globally.

From where I stand, watching the MENA startup scene evolve over the years, this feels like one of those “blink and you’ll miss it” shifts. One minute you’re covering funding rounds. The next, regional capital is tied directly into Elon Musk’s expanding universe of companies. It’s quite something.

This move also builds on a broader partnership first unveiled at the Saudi–US Investment Forum in November 2025. At that time, Humain and xAI pledged to collaborate on developing more than 500 megawatts of AI-ready data centre capacity in Saudi Arabia. That’s not just a few server rooms tucked away somewhere, we’re talking about serious, large-scale infrastructure designed to power advanced computing and future Grok models within the Kingdom.

Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain, described the investment as a reflection of the company’s strong belief in “transformative AI” and its ability to deploy meaningful capital into exceptional technology opportunities where long-term vision meets technical excellence and practical execution.

That language may sound polished, but the strategy underneath is clear enough. Humain is positioning itself as a long-term strategic investor in global technology platforms, while continuing to develop integrated AI solutions across four core pillars, though the specifics of those pillars have not been detailed publicly in this announcement.

On the flip side, some might wonder about concentration risk when AI infrastructure and frontier models are increasingly tied to a handful of powerful players. I reckon that’s a fair question. Still, Saudi Arabia’s approach appears deliberate: invest upstream in compute, partner with frontier model developers, and anchor capacity locally. It’s a bet that AI will be as critical to future economies as oil once was, perhaps even more.

For readers at Arageek who follow every twist in regional venture capital, this is the kind of story that signals ambition at scale. We’ve seen founders chuffed to bits with six-figure seed rounds, and rightly so. But this? This is a different league entirely.

Humain has indicated it will continue expanding its investments in AI, advanced technologies and critical infrastructure, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s broader push to position itself as a global AI hub and to connect with top-tier international players. Whether this strategy proves spot on will depend on execution, integration and, well… the unpredictable pace of AI innovation itself.

One thing is definately clear: the MENA region is no longer just observing the AI race from the sidelines. It’s writing very large cheques, and stepping directly onto the field.

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