Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Wa’ed Ventures, the $500 million venture capital fund of Saudi Aramco, invested an undisclosed amount in London-based AI-native cloud provider Ori, to drive Saudi Arabia’s push to become a global artificial intelligence (AI) hub.
Ori, backed by Spanish telecom giant Telefónica, will establish a regional subsidiary in Riyadh to develop AI talent and advance technologies in the local sector, a recent statement revealed.
Wa’ed Ventures recently committed $100 million to AI investments. Recent investments included Korean AI chip company Rebellions, US-based startup aiXplain, and Saudi AI startup vminds.ai.
Founded in 2019, Ori provides cloud infrastructure tailored for AI and serves large corporations. It is one of the first UK companies to have deployed Nvidia Corp.’s H200 chips.
Ori recently closed a $176 million funding round backed by firms including Telefonica and U.S.-based NextEra Energy and is gearing up to complete another “larger funding round” in 2025.
