---
title: "Aramco's Wa'ed Ventures earmarks $100m for AI startups"
url: "https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/waed-100m-ai-startups-2024"
language: "en"
event_date: "2024-10-28"
published: "2026-10-03"
last_verified: "2026-10-03"
category: "Investment"
publisher: "Cicada (cicadaconsultancy.online)"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Aramco's Wa'ed Ventures earmarks $100m for AI startups

- Event date: 28 October 2024 (2024-10-28)
- Topic: Investment
- In this story: Wa'ed Ventures, Aramco
- URL: https://cicadaconsultancy.online/en/news/waed-100m-ai-startups-2024

Wa'ed Ventures, Aramco's wholly owned venture arm, allocated $100 million from its $500 million fund to early-stage AI investments, aiming to position Saudi Arabia as a global AI hub. It formed an advisory board of experts from institutions including Meta, MIT and Oxford, and it had already backed Rebellions and AiXplain. The announcement cited PwC's projection that AI could add $135 billion, about 12% of GDP, by 2030.

## Key figures

- AI allocation: $100 m

## Sources

1. [Wa'ed Ventures earmarks $100 million to invest in Saudi AI sector](https://www.wamda.com/2024/10/waed-ventures-earmarks-100-million-invest-saudi-ai-sector) — Wamda, 2024-10-28

Archive report. Written in 2026 from contemporary sources and dated to the day the event happened.

---

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