KAUST opens as Saudi Arabia's graduate research university
By Cicada DeskEvent date: 1 min read
Added to the archive: Last verified:
In brief
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was established and inaugurated on 23 September 2009 at Thuwal on the Red Sea coast, the Kingdom's first mixed-gender university campus.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was established and inaugurated on 23 September 2009 at Thuwal on the Red Sea coast, the Kingdom's first mixed-gender university campus. It opened with a reported endowment of about $10 billion and operates the Shaheen supercomputer, once the fastest in the Middle East.
KAUST has since become the Kingdom's main research base for computing and AI, and in 2024 it added Centers of Excellence, including one on generative AI.
Key figures
- $10bninitial endowment
Sources
This report is compiled from the sources below. Cicada links to every source we rely on.
- 1King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Wikipedia
- 2King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Saudipedia
Archive report. Written in 2026 from contemporary sources and dated to the day the event happened.
Cite this story
Cicada Desk. "KAUST opens as Saudi Arabia's graduate research university". Cicada, 23 September 2009. https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/kaust-opens-2009
Free to quote and reuse with attribution under CC BY 4.0.
