EqualOcean has learned that Lenovo and IBM have announced an expanded strategic collaboration to develop generative AI solutions tailored to the needs of Saudi Arabia, aimed at helping the country accelerate its vision of creating an "AI-powered" society. The partnership was unveiled at LEAP 2025, a major global technology event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
On February 11, the LEAP 2025 conference officially opened in the Saudi capital under the theme "Towards a New World". The event attracted over 1,800 innovative tech companies from around the world. Lenovo took center stage, showcasing its expertise across seven key areas, including AI, intelligent data management, and digital twins, highlighting its full-stack capabilities in "Edge-Cloud-Network-Intelligence". During a visit to the exhibition, China’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chang Hua, met with Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing, commending the company’s role in fostering China-Saudi cooperation through technological innovation.
In his keynote address, Yang Yuanqing announced that Lenovo would establish a regional headquarters in the Middle East and Africa and open a flagship retail store to deepen its market presence in the region. "We are excited to embark on a new chapter of growth, innovation, and collaboration, and we look forward to building a smarter future with our partners," he said.
The announcement of Lenovo and IBM’s strategic partnership quickly attracted attention from the tech industry. Building on a 20-year collaboration, the new initiative will integrate IBM’s watsonx AI platform, Saudi Arabia’s open-source Arabic language model ALLaM (developed by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, or SDAIA), and Lenovo’s hybrid cloud infrastructure. Together, these technologies will deliver generative AI solutions specifically designed for the Saudi market. The focus will be on areas such as fraud detection, public safety, and customer service, to use data-driven insights to improve public sector efficiency.
According to IDC, global spending on AI systems is expected to exceed $300 billion annually by 2026. Saudi Arabia is aggressively pursuing its "AI everywhere" strategy, with the National AI Center leading AI transformation projects across more than 40 government agencies. Giovanni Di Filippo, Vice President of Lenovo, said, "By combining IBM’s generative AI capabilities with Lenovo’s localized infrastructure, we can offer customers transparent and reliable technological solutions."
Ayman AlRashed, Vice President of IBM Saudi Arabia, emphasized that, "With open-source models and Lenovo’s infrastructure, we can meet the specific needs of the regional market with greater efficiency." Saudi companies can now leverage Lenovo’s hybrid cloud architecture to train and optimize the ALLaM model on the watsonx platform, enabling flexible migration of AI workloads.
As Saudi Arabia places AI at the core of its national transformation agenda, the race for local innovation among multinational tech giants is heating up. The collaboration between Lenovo and IBM not only brings fresh momentum to the Middle East’s AI ecosystem but also signals the accelerating trend of "regional customization" in the global technology industry’s evolving landscape.
Picture Source: Lenovo Group WeChat Official Account