The Middle East AI Revolution under the PIF strategic layout: How Lenovo (00992) leverages the opportunity to become a hidden winner.

In May 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an AI revolution driven by oil dollars is overturning the power structure of the global technology industry. NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun and AMD leader Su Zifeng appeared at the Saudi-US Investment Forum, with the former signing a large order for 18,000 GB300 chips for desert computing power, and the latter launching a $10 billion Transatlantic China Welding Consumables, Inc. AI Corridor Plan, triggering a collective frenzy of AI concept stocks on the US stock market. However, behind this feast, the true hidden manipulator is emerging - the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF is weaving a "technology sovereignty" network with $940 billion in assets, breaking down the global AI industry chain into a three-stage battlefield of "chip research and development - hardware manufacturing - scene implementation." Chinese tech giant Lenovo, by taking an early position in manufacturing, is becoming the biggest variable and beneficiary in this geopolitical game. Saudi AI strategist PIF In recent years, Saudi Arabia has slowly become a major consumer of AI chips. The country has always sought to transform its oil resources into AI advantages and drive economic transformation, making it one of the most ambitious countries in the Middle East in terms of AI. In 2020, Saudi Arabia formulated the National Data and Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NSDAI), with the goal of entering the top 15 worldwide in the AI field by 2030. Saudi Arabia also plans to leverage billion-dollar investment projects like "Project Transcendence" to create a technology center that can compete with the UAE and attract global resources. Over the next few years, Saudi Arabia has frequently hosted global AI summits, "LEAP" technology exhibitions, and other large international events, attracting global political and business leaders and industry experts to focus on the development of the Saudi AI industry. Market analysts believe that for the US government and US tech companies, wealthy Middle Eastern countries are a crucial battleground for expanding the AI ecosystem and maintaining a leading position. Of course, the Middle East market is equally important in the eyes of China. According to forecasts from Statista and PwC, the size of the AI market in the Middle East is expected to reach around $34.18 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.55%. It is easy to purchase computing power infrastructure with oil revenue, but it is difficult to build an independent and controllable AI industry chain. Therefore, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, which is behind the scenes of this international-level strategy, has established a comprehensive layout of the AI industry chain through its holdings in Humain (technology research and development) and Alat (manufacturing and implementation), taking on the tasks of developing large Arabic language models and building a global computing power network. Alat is responsible for local hardware manufacturing. This division of labor model requires deep integration of international technology and local production capacity, and Lenovo plays a crucial role in this aspect. In May 2024, Lenovo (00992) signed a $2 billion strategic cooperation agreement with Alat, establishing a manufacturing base in Saudi Arabia that can produce millions of PCs and servers annually (just a 15-minute drive from Riyadh International Airport), and setting up its headquarters for the Middle East and Africa. This layout was a whole year earlier than the orders signed by NVIDIA and AMD, making Lenovo the only hardware supplier in the PIF industry chain to advance lock in production capacity. Under the agreement, Lenovo's Saudi factory will start production in 2026, coinciding with the first batch of data center deliveries planned by Humain (early 2026). Lenovo may cash in on the trillion-dollar infrastructure dividend When Lenovo signed a $2 billion strategic agreement with Alat in May 2024, the outside world only saw it as a normal capacity transfer. However, combined with the latest details of the Saudi AI strategy exposed, this deal will definitely become an important part of the Saudi AI strategy and have a strong competitive advantage. First, there is the advantage of local hardware delivery. Saudi policy stipulates that government projects must procure domestically manufactured hardware. After Lenovo's Riyadh factory starts production in 2026, it will be the only enterprise in the Middle East with scalable server production capacity, directly meeting the 1.9 gigawatt data center demand planned by Humain (equivalent to 1.5 times the size of AWS global availability zones), which will drive demand for millions of servers. Lenovo's local factory can not only reduce logistics costs but also avoid geopolitical risks. In addition, the 18,000 GB300 chips delivered by NVIDIA need to be integrated into servers to realize their value, and AMD's Zen4 architecture also requires hardware adaptation. Lenovo is both a global partner of NVIDIA and AMD and a joint venture partner of Alat, so this "chip-hardware" collaboration is crucial in Saudi Arabia - according to the latest US export policy, although the channels for the Middle East to obtain advanced chips have been opened, hardware implementation still needs to be completed through trusted partners. As the holder of the "Saudi manufacturing" label, Lenovo can undertake server orders for these projects. PIF works with several companies through Humain, while Lenovo can penetrate a broader ecosystem through the Alat platform. For example, when developing AI data center CPUs, Lenovo can participate in hardware design based on its manufacturing experience; the Arabic language model project also requires local computing support, providing Lenovo servers with application scenarios. Therefore, Lenovo is likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this AI strategy. The AI industry chain reconstructed by PIF through capital power is essentially a dual competition for "technology sovereignty" and "manufacturing sovereignty." Lenovo's "global resources delivered locally" model demonstrated in this process provides a new paradigm for Chinese tech companies going global - leveraging sovereign funds to embed manufacturing capabilities in the strategic industries of host countries, ultimately transitioning from suppliers to ecological leaders. As the Saudi AI infrastructure enters an explosive period (2026-2030), Lenovo's hidden advantages may billion-dollar revenue growth: in the short term, the factory starting production in 2026 will undertake the first batch of hardware orders from Humain; in the long term, the size of the IT services market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach $38 billion by 2027, and Lenovo's local layout can help it seize share ahead of others.