To add quotes and details

By Max A. Czerny

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The chief executives of Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) , Cisco Systems and Saudi artificial intelligence startup Humine said on Tuesday they would all form a joint venture to build data centers in the Middle East and had secured their first customers.

Tarek Amin, CEO of Humane, said the joint venture, whose name has not yet been announced, will begin with the construction of a 100-megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia. Humane has contracted to supply the computing power for this center to Luma AI, a video-generating startup. The size of the project and its first client have not been previously disclosed.

Amin added, "They will be the first customer for this group," explaining that Luma had contracted to purchase the entire 100-megawatt capacity.

The joint venture between the three companies is one of the outcomes of a series of deals announced during US President Donald Trump's visit to Riyadh in May. This collaboration is expected to be strengthened during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's meeting with Trump in Washington this week. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is backing Humane and its plans to build massive data centers across the country, leveraging the abundance and availability of real estate and the low cost of electricity.

American technology companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm also made deals in May.

In May, AMD revealed a $10 billion collaboration with Humanine that includes the purchase of advanced AI chips from AMD.

The CEOs said that AMD and Cisco would be minority shareholders and would share profits and losses in this joint venture.

AMD CEO Lisa Su said Human will take the lead.

She added, "Together we will be truly responsible for ensuring the success of the project."

The companies did not disclose any further financial details.

Amin said the joint venture aims to serve a market encompassing Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa with a total population of approximately 4.5 billion people.

The plans include building new data centers with a capacity of up to one gigawatt to support the joint venture by 2030.

For the initial 100-megawatt construction, Cisco will supply networking equipment and other infrastructure, while AMD will provide the AI chips (MI450). Amin stated that the first phase is scheduled for completion in 2026 and will rely entirely on renewable energy. Humane will be accepting orders for some of the future buildings.

Amin added that construction work on the various projects has not yet begun.

In addition to providing infrastructure equipment, Cisco will task its sales team with helping to sell capacity in data centers that have not yet been built.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins stated that the company has 25 years of experience in providing incentives to sales teams and intends to leverage this experience to help Humane sell its data center capabilities.

(Prepared by Muhammad Aysam and Muhammad Ali Faraj for the Arabic Bulletin)