Following the surge in the new energy sector, Middle Eastern funds are now redirecting their attention to the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI). Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are leveraging their sovereign funds to make substantial investments throughout the entire AI industry chain. Among these initiatives, HUMAIN, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, has unveiled the Arabic large language model HUMAIN M3. This model is constructed on the technological bedrock of China's MiniMax M3, demonstrating the technical acumen of Chinese large-scale models.

Moreover, Middle Eastern capital has flowed into several Chinese AI enterprises, such as Zhipu and MiniMax, with certain investments reaping significant profits. These investors are also actively participating in Chinese venture capital (VC) funds as limited partners (LPs). By placing their bets on AI, Middle Eastern countries aspire to diminish their reliance on oil and facilitate economic transformation. These nations boast distinctive advantages in terms of energy, land availability, and geographical location for AI development. However, they also confront challenges such as water consumption in data centers, access to advanced chips, and talent shortages. This scenario opens up collaborative opportunities for Chinese enterprises in areas including model foundations and localization, supply chains for computing infrastructure, and AI applications and robotics.