Riyadh

The Regional Headquarters (RHQ) program was announced in February 2021. Since 1 January 2024, an eligible company must have its MENA headquarters in Saudi Arabia in order to contract with Saudi government entities, with an exception for contracts of SAR 1 million or less. Licensing runs through the Ministry of Investment together with the Royal Commission for Riyadh City.

• Operations must begin within six months.
• 15 full-time employees in the first year, three of them at C-level.
• 0% corporate income tax and 0% withholding tax on qualifying activities for 30 years.
• A 10-year exemption from Saudization requirements.

SDAIA is headquartered in Riyadh, and its three affiliated executive entities (NCAI, NDMO and NIC) sit with it. KACST is also in the city; The Garage occupies 28,000 m² on KACST's main campus, its headquarters having opened on 18 September 2023. HUMAIN, the PIF-owned AI company led by CEO Tareq Amin, is headquartered here too.

The city also hosts ICAIRE, the UNESCO-affiliated international center for AI research and ethics, and King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), which is owned and managed by a wholly owned PIF subsidiary.

The Global AI Summit (GAIN) is held in Riyadh, hosted by SDAIA under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a biennial cycle. The first edition ran from 21 to 22 October 2020 and the third from 10 to 12 September 2024; the fourth is scheduled for 15 to 17 September 2026.

Tuwaiq Academy launched in 2019, is affiliated with SAFCSP and is based at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. It runs bootcamps in web and mobile programming, cybersecurity, cloud and game programming, and states a target of qualifying 100,000 programmers by 2030. Ten global technology companies operate academies there, among them Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, IBM and Cisco.

King Saud University, founded in 1957 as the Kingdom's first university, runs the College of Computer and Information Sciences with an MSc in AI. Prince Sultan University, also in Riyadh, offers an AI and Data Science track, PhDs in AI, data science and cybersecurity, and hosts the AIDA Lab.

SDAIA Academy runs data and AI bootcamps from the city, and SAMAI (“One Million Saudis in AI”) was launched at GAIN in September 2024 with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Published beneficiary figures differ sharply between snapshot dates, so this page fixes none.

The Garage offers an Accelerator for revenue-generating companies and an Incubator taking an idea to MVP. Facilities and workspace are free of charge and open to all nationalities; grants run to around SAR 100,000 with potential investment above SAR 500,000. Its own site, read on 10 September 2026, reports more than 950 startups graduated over two years.

NTDP, run by MCIT, groups its live products into innovation (AIM, MVPLAB, Nextera, Transform+), financing (Fuel, Lendtech, Loan Guarantee), talent (Boost, Lead It, Source Tech, Tech Crew, Tamkeen), growth (Bridge, Empowering Accelerators, Saudi Unicorns) and market access (Connect). Monsha'at, whose board is chaired by the Minister of Commerce, runs sector accelerators, Monsha'at Academy, Business Atlas, Kafalah and a Venture Capital Initiative.

Saudi Venture Capital (SVC), founded in 2018 as a subsidiary of the SME Bank under the National Development Fund, states that it has invested in 65 private capital funds reaching more than 1,000 startups and SMEs.