Groq CEO Jonathan Ross says Saudi Arabia has the potential to become a hotspot for artificial intelligence infrastructure thanks to its surplus energy.
The Middle Eastern country is known for its vast energy resources, and major technology companies have announced infrastructure deals in the region. It is also part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy, which plans to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil.
Jonathan Ross, CEO of AI chip company Groq, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” in an exclusive interview at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh that Saudi Arabia could become a net exporter of data thanks to its energy surplus.
“One of the things that is difficult to export is energy. You have to move it, it’s physical and it costs money. Electricity is very expensive to transport over power lines,” he said.
By comparison, data is “very cheap to move,” he added. “The kingdom has a lot of surplus energy, so the idea is to move the data here, put the calculations here, do the AI calculations here, and send the results.”
“What you don’t want to do is build data centers right next to people, where the land is expensive or where the energy is already being used. You want to build data centers where there are no people, where there aren’t too many people, where the energy is underutilized. That’s the Middle East. This is an ideal place to build.”
The CEO added that Chip’s operating costs in Saudi Arabia are “actually cheaper than in some Nordic countries,” which are known for having abundant access to low-cost renewable energy.
