--- title: "Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA)" url: "https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/entities/sdaia" language: "en" type: "GovernmentOrganization" --- # Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) The Kingdom's national authority for data and artificial intelligence, established by royal decree in August 2019. Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) appears in 25 stories in the Cicada archive, from 2019 to 2026. ## Every story, oldest first - 2019-08 — [Abdullah Alghamdi appointed to lead SDAIA by royal order](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/alghamdi-leads-sdaia): Dr. - 2019-08-30 — [Royal decree establishes SDAIA as national data and AI authority](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/sdaia-established-2019): A royal decree dated 30 August 2019 established the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), linked directly to the Prime Minister. - 2020-05 — [SDAIA's Tawakkalna app, launched in 2020, is reported to serve 34m users](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/tawakkalna-launched-2020): The Tawakkalna app was launched in May 2020, originally for COVID-19 management, and is built and operated by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA). - 2020-10-21 — [SDAIA launches National Strategy for Data and AI at first Global AI Summit](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/nsdai-launched-gain-2020): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) unveiled the National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI) on 21 October 2020 at the first Global AI Summit, held virtually. - 2021-09-16 — [Saudi Arabia issues its first Personal Data Protection Law](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/pdpl-royal-decree-2021): Royal Decree M/19 of 16 September 2021, approving Cabinet Resolution 98 of 14 September, issued the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), which was published in the Official Gazette on 24 September 2021. - 2022-09-13 — [Second Global AI Summit draws 15,000 participants in Riyadh](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/gain-2022-second-edition): The second Global AI Summit, organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), ran for three days from 13 September 2022 at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center, with more than 15,000 participants and more than 200 speakers from more than 90 countries. - 2023-03-27 — [Royal decree amends the Personal Data Protection Law](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/pdpl-amended-2023): Royal Decree M/148 of 27 March 2023 amended the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL). - 2023-07-25 — [Cabinet approves International Center for AI Research and Ethics](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/icaire-cabinet-approval-2023): On 25 July 2023 the Cabinet approved the creation of the International Center for AI Research and Ethics (ICAIRE) in Riyadh, with legal personality and financial and administrative independence. - 2023-09-14 — [SDAIA publishes AI Ethics Principles version 2.0](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/ai-ethics-principles-v2-2023): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) published version 2.0 of its AI Ethics Principles on 14 September 2023. - 2023-09-14 — [PDPL takes effect; full enforcement follows in September 2024](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/pdpl-in-force-2023): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) published the Implementing Regulations of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) and the Personal Data Transfer Regulations on 7 September 2023, a week before the amended law took effect on 14 September 2023. - 2024-01-10 — [SDAIA issues generative AI guidelines for government and the public](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/genai-guidelines-2024): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) published its Generative AI Guidelines for government entities on 10 January 2024 and a companion version for the public on 11 January. - 2024-05-21 — [SDAIA and IBM launch ALLaM Arabic LLM on watsonx](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/allam-on-ibm-watsonx-2024): On 21 May 2024, at IBM's Think Boston, SDAIA and IBM announced that SDAIA's Arabic large language model ALLaM is available on IBM's watsonx platform, where clients can train, tune and deploy it through watsonx.ai. - 2024-09 — [SDAIA launches 'One Million Saudis in AI' (SAMAI) program](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/samai-one-million-saudis-launched-2024): In September 2024, at the third Global AI Summit, Education Minister Yousef Al-Benyan and SDAIA President Abdullah Alghamdi launched the One Million Saudis in AI initiative, known as SAMAI, with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. - 2024-09-10 — [Third Global AI Summit draws 30,000 delegates to Riyadh](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/gain-2024-third-edition): The third Global AI Summit, organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), ran from 10 to 12 September 2024 and reported more than 30,000 delegates, more than 450 speakers from 100 countries, 150 sessions, more than 25 launches and more than 80 agreements and MoUs. - 2024-09-11 — [SDAIA announces UNESCO Category 2 status for ICAIRE at Global AI Summit](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/icaire-unesco-category-2-2024): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) announced on 11 September 2024 at the Global AI Summit that the International Center for AI Research and Ethics (ICAIRE) had been classified as a UNESCO Category 2 center, through a tripartite agreement between the Kingdom, UNESCO and ICAIRE. - 2024-09-12 — [SDAIA publishes national AI Adoption Framework](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/ai-adoption-framework-2024): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) published its AI Adoption Framework on 12 September 2024, during the Global AI Summit. - 2025-03-06 — [SDAIA lists ALLaM 7B on Hugging Face](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/allam-7b-hugging-face-2025): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) announced on 6 March 2025 that its ALLaM 7B model was listed on Hugging Face, making the Arabic-focused model available to developers and researchers worldwide. - 2025-06 — [MCIT and SDAIA issue National Data Center Strategy targeting 1.5GW by 2030](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/national-data-center-strategy-2025): In June 2025 the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) launched the National Data Center Strategy, targeting up to 1.5 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2030, one of the Middle East's largest planned national builds. - 2025-11-09 — [SAMAI trains more than one million Saudis in AI, 52% of them women](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/samai-one-million-reached-2025): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development announced at a gala in Riyadh on 9 November 2025 that the SAMAI program had trained more than one million Saudis in AI after its September 2024 launch. - 2026-01 — [SDAIA lays foundation stone for 480MW Hexagon government data center](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/hexagon-government-data-centre-groundbreaking-2026): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) laid the foundation stone in early January 2026 for Hexagon, a 480 MW government data center in Riyadh covering about 30 million square feet, which SDAIA describes as the world's largest government data center and says it has designed to Tier IV. - 2026-01-28 — [SDAIA launches SAMAI 2 and 40 AI academic programs at ICAN 2026](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/ican-2026-samai-2-academic-programmes): At the International Conference on Data and AI Capacity Building (ICAN 2026) at King Saud University, Education Minister Yousef Al-Benyan and Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Abdullah Alghamdi launched SAMAI 2 with 11 government ministries, aimed at upskilling the government workforce of about 1.2 million people and building on SAMAI 1's 1.1 million trainees. - 2026-02-22 — [Saudi Arabia becomes first Arab country to join the Global Partnership on AI](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/saudi-joins-gpai-2026): Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) President Abdullah Alghamdi announced at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 that Saudi Arabia had become the first Arab member of the OECD-hosted Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, which has about 46 members. - 2026-03-10 — [Cabinet designates 2026 as Saudi Arabia's 'Year of Artificial Intelligence'](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/year-of-ai-2026-cabinet): The Council of Ministers, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by video conference on Tuesday 10 March 2026, designated 2026 the Year of Artificial Intelligence. - 2026-04-03 — [SDAIA opens consultation on draft Responsible AI Policy with four risk tiers](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/sdaia-responsible-ai-policy-draft-2026): On 3 April 2026 the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) opened a one-month consultation, closing 3 May 2026, on a draft Responsible AI Policy applying to the government, private and non-profit sectors and to individuals who develop or publish AI applications. - 2026-09-15 — [Riyadh hosts Global AI Week with the fourth GAIN Summit and UNESCO ethics forum](https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/gain-2026-fourth-edition-riyadh): The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) scheduled the fourth Global AI Summit (GAIN) for 15-17 September 2026, at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center under the patronage of the Crown Prince. --- Cicada · The signal in Saudi AI. License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Full archive for language models: https://cicadaconsultancy.online/llms-full.txt