Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a major game-changer in the global economy, and much value remains to be tapped. Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates that AI could contribute up to USD15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, more than the GDP of China and India combined. Of this, $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity, while $9.1 trillion is likely to come from benefits to consumers.
However, the narrative that Middle Eastern countries are falling behind in the global AI race is misleading as they seek to consolidate their position as pivotal hubs in AI supply chains. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf countries are intensifying their investments, leveraging their strategic geographic location, energy resources, and vast financial reserves.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates that the Middle East will benefit from two percent of the total global benefits of AI by 2030, equivalent to $320 billion.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers predicts that Saudi Arabia will achieve the largest gains, with AI expected to contribute over $135.2 billion to the economy by 2030, equivalent to 12.4 percent of GDP. In the UAE, AI is expected to contribute nearly $96 billion to the economy, or 14 percent of GDP, in 2030. In Egypt, the figure will reach $42.7 billion, or 7.7 percent of GDP, in 2030. In the Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar), this contribution will reach $45.9 billion, or 8.2 percent of GDP, in 2030.
The expected impact on the Saudi and Emirati economies is not surprising, given their relative investment in AI technology compared to the rest of the Middle East. Both countries rank among the top 50 countries in the world in the 2017 Global Innovation Index, in terms of innovation capacity and innovation output.
The Nicosia-based "Investing.com" reports that despite the dominance of the US and China in AI innovation, countries in the Middle East are moving toward building infrastructure, expanding partnerships, and adopting datacentric strategies to avoid being marginalised in this global race.
Middle Eastern countries, led by Saudi Arabia, are increasing their bets on infrastructure and strategic partnerships to secure an influential position in the global AI race. At the LEAP Technology Conference 2025, Riyadh announced $14.9 billion in investment pledges, underscoring its ambition to become a global hub for artificial intelligence.
(LEAP was founded in 2022 and is an annual tech event by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Saudi Arabia) (MCIT), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and Tahaluf, an Informa company.)
Among the most notable of these initiatives is a $1.5 billion partnership with American chip company Groq to build the world's largest data centre dedicated to processing AI applications in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with Aramco Digital.
Saudi Arabia is expanding its data center capacity sevenfold through major projects such as the Desert Dragon Data Centers in Riyadh and NEOM, adding 2.2 gigawatts of technical capacity by 2025. The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) is also continuing to implement the National Data and Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which aims to place the country among the top 10 countries in the world in this sector by 2030.
The US maintains a 10-fold, computing advantage over China thanks to advanced chips such as NVIDIA's H100. Although the Chinese DeepSeek R1 model offers prices 96 percent lower than its American counterpart, OpenAI, the Middle East's role has become pivotal in the global AI landscape. There are three main reasons.
First, its strategic geographic location. The region is at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa, making it ideal for time-sensitive AI applications that require immediate response. Second, its energy advantage, especially that low-cost renewable energy sources and abundant oil and gas reserves provide a cheaper operating environment for data centres compared to California or China. Third, its growing diplomatic influence, through strategic partnerships with the US, such as collaborations with Groq, and China, and Huawei's surveillance technologies, have strengthened the Gulf States' geopolitical position.
Photo: Saudi Arabia is likely to see the largest gains from AI (by Adobe).