Artificial Intelligence Mission (AI.M) is a national initiative that aspires to stimulate a comprehensive system of innovation in the field of artificial intelligence and contribute to strengthening the Kingdom’s leadership role regionally and globally in artificial intelligence within the next 5 years.

The initiative was created by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s National Technology Development Program (NTDP), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA).

A core part of AI.M will be its startup accelerator program, AIM-X, which will be led by SparkLabs Group, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested in over 550 startups across the globe. SparkLabs has been investing in AI since 2016, and was one of a handful of investors who directly participated in OpenAI’s recent financing round. They have invested in other AI leaders such as Vectara, Gideon Bros, Kneron, Anthropic, Aquabyte and Lucidya.

“We are excited to have SparkLabs leading our accelerator program for AIM. They are the ideal partner since they not only bring a solid track record as investors but have proven access to top AI founders and the ability to help our local founders to become successful and build impactful companies,”

stated Ibrahim Neyaz, CEO at NTDP.

SparkLabs has brought on board various leaders in AI to assist in the accelerator program and other investments.

Their advisors include people such as Amr Awadallah, Co-founder of Cloudera and now Co-founder and CEO at Vectara, generative AI search company for enterprise; Sang Cha, Founder of the Graduate School of Data Science at Seoul National University and Transact In Memory, which was acquired by SAP. Venture Partners include Spiros Margaris, a venture capitalist and the global No. 1 fintech and leading AI influencer, recognized for his strategic advisory and board roles in these sectors; Nathan Lands, the Founder of Lore.com, which has an AI newsletter with a readership exceeding 20,000, and Co-host at the Next Wave podcast with Hubspot; Nils Westerlund, who lead the growth team at RunwayML; Joel Pazhayampallil, Co-founder and CEO at Bluespace.ai, who previously was a co-founder of Drive.ai that was acquired by Apple; and Brian Behlendorf, CTO at the OpenWallet Foundation and Chief AI Strategist at the Linux Foundation.

“We are honored and excited to be partnering with AIM to launch the AIM-X Accelerator Program. We are eager to help develop and nurture the AI ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, and have activated our global network to source the most promising AI startups, both foreign and domestic, to join our inaugural cohort slated to begin this September. We strongly believe that KSA is poised to become a key AI hub for the region as well as globally, “

said William Chu, Managing Partner at SparkLabs AI Lab.

AIM-X powered by SparkLabs will begin accepting applications on June 14th and companies can apply to the following link. Primarily early-stage (seed & series A) AI startups are encouraged to apply, and will be receiving a $200,000 investment for up to 6% of equity. The program will begin on September 17, 2024.

Featured image credit: edited from freepik