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HUMAIN has made an undisclosed strategic investment in Arabic.AI and Tarjama, partnering with the companies to deploy Arabic-language translation and document intelligence products across Saudi.
The PIF-backed AI group will combine its locally operated infrastructure, compute and models with Arabic.AI’s translation and document-intelligence software and Tarjama’s language expertise, with the plan to initially target Saudi enterprise customer segment.
The partnership will focus on three areas: an Arabic-first translation management system; software for digitising archives and legacy documents, including handwritten material; and AI agents designed to read, review and draft contracts, tenders and regulatory filings.
For Arabic.AI founder Nour Al Hassan, the deal follows a broader push to turn the translation business she founded in 2008 into an enterprise AI company. Last year, Tarjama raised a $15 million Series A led by Global Ventures, alongside Wamda Capital, TA Ventures, Phaze Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst, to scale its Arabic AI products across the region.
Al Hassan later told the FWDstart Podcast that the company had deliberately moved beyond building Arabic models alone and towards enterprise applications, where its proprietary language data and nearly two decades of translation work could be used in specific workflows.
She also singled out HUMAIN as a potential partner rather than simply a state-backed competitor, arguing that larger national AI platforms would be able to reach customers smaller technology companies couldn’t while still needing specialist providers with regional language expertise and enterprise relationships.
HUMAIN, launched by PIF last year, has been building across the AI stack, from infrastructure and compute partnerships with companies including Nvidia, AMD and AWS to Arabic models and enterprise applications.
The investment in Arabic.AI gives it an established Arabic-language software business at the application layer, while giving Arabic.AI access to HUMAIN’s infrastructure and distribution into large Saudi organisations.
“Arabic is where enterprise AI is tested hardest, and it is what we have built for,” Al Hassan said. “Together with HUMAIN, we are focused on putting Arabic-first AI into the hands of organisations across the Kingdom and helping them move from ambition to production.”
Financial terms of the investment weren’t disclosed.
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