Saudi Arabia is no longer content to be seen merely as an oil giant. Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kingdom is driving Vision 2030, a reform blueprint that puts technology at the very core of its economic diversification and modernisation.
Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced telecom networks, and smart cities are not peripheral ambitions; they are the very foundation of Riyadh’s plans for global relevance. Nearly 70 per cent of Vision 2030’s objectives, according to official estimates, directly involve AI or data.
The stakes could not be clearer: whoever partners with Saudi Arabia on this technological leap will secure not just lucrative contracts, but deep influence over the Kingdom’s digital infrastructure and standards.
A new report from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), authored by Vivek Chilukuri and Ruby Scanlon, lays out how China and the United States are vying for that role.
For Beijing, the so-called Digital Silk Road has become a flagship project to export not just hardware but political influence. Huawei, ZTE, Chinese cloud providers, and AI companies have already embedded themselves in Saudi telecom, data centres, and smart city ventures. This is clearly part of a larger strategy to draw Riyadh into China’s digital orbit.
The United States is hardly starting from scratch. It remains the Kingdom’s principal security partner, and decades of cooperation in defence, energy, and technology have created enduring institutional trust. U.S. technology, as the CNAS report notes, still carries the cachet of being “best in class”. Saudi leaders themselves express a preference for top-tier systems rather than cheaper substitutes.
But these advantages are not unassailable. Chinese firms are gaining ground, and political frictions between Washington and Riyadh over issues like Yemen, Iran, and human rights have sometimes made Beijing look like a more accommodating partner.
The scale of Saudi ambition makes the contest especially urgent. With 99 per cent population connectivity, mobile internet speeds roughly double the global average, and what it describes as the largest and fastest-growing digital economy in the Middle East, Riyadh has positioned itself as a hub of technological transformation.
Mega-projects like Neom are meant to showcase this future, but they rely heavily on foreign investment and expertise. That creates both an opening and a risk: an opening for the U.S. to reassert its technological leadership, and a risk that Chinese firms could lock in long-term influence over the Kingdom’s infrastructure.
The CNAS report argues that Washington cannot afford to be passive. It recommends a phased strategy to provide Saudi Arabia access to advanced AI chips, under strict oversight and security safeguards. It suggests encouraging the Kingdom to build legacy semiconductor fabrication facilities, while keeping cutting-edge design tools off the table unless there is stronger alignment with U.S. standards. It calls for streamlining investment from allied countries, ensuring high levels of IP protection and cybersecurity.
Beyond hardware and contracts, the report highlights the need to expand educational and professional exchanges, strengthening people-to-people ties and cultivating Saudi talent through U.S. universities and institutions. And it proposes creative regulatory measures, such as designating American-operated data centres in the Kingdom as “data embassies” under U.S. jurisdiction, alongside joint security frameworks around sensitive AI systems.
What emerges from the CNAS study is a simple but powerful point: Saudi Arabia is not just another participant in China’s Digital Silk Road. Its wealth, geopolitical clout, and reform ambitions make it a bellwether for how global technology competition will unfold.
If the United States moves decisively, it can secure a partnership that advances both Saudi modernisation and U.S. strategic interests. If it hesitates, it risks watching the Kingdom slip further into Beijing’s embrace.
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
