Minister of Communications: The Kingdom established advanced digital infrastructure with investments exceeding $10.6 billion in cloud computing

Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, confirmed that the Kingdom will continue its approach to transforming towards an innovative and sustainable economy based on artificial intelligence and innovation with the support and empowerment of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, noting that the current economic transformations represent an unprecedented opportunity to enhance international cooperation and build a comprehensive and sustainable future based on artificial intelligence to serve humanity.

He explained, during a dialogue session entitled “Economic Transformations in the Kingdom” within the activities of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, that success in the era of artificial intelligence requires a combination of realistic optimism and a focus on the basics. He stressed that the Kingdom has established an advanced digital infrastructure that has contributed to attracting investments exceeding $10.6 billion in cloud computing by major global companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

He also pointed out that the Kingdom, with the support and empowerment of the leadership “may God support it”, has achieved qualitative leaps in empowering digital competencies within Vision 2030, as the percentage of women’s participation in the technology sector increased from 7% to 35%, and the number of workers in technology doubled to reach 381,000 talented men and women. Engineer Al-Sawaha added that the Kingdom seeks to bridge the digital gap in the field of artificial intelligence by focusing on international cooperation and bridging gaps in computing, data and algorithms. He cited notable successes such as the use of artificial intelligence in the health and energy sectors, in addition to innovation in medical robotics, which culminated in the first heart transplant using a robot.