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IBM and Lenovo have announced they will expand their 20-year partnership by delivering AI solutions aimed at clients in Saudi Arabia.
Under the partnership, the pair will deliver generative AI solutions built using technology from the IBM Watsonx portfolio of AI products, including the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) open-source Arabic large language model (ALLaM) and Lenovo infrastructure.
Currently, organisations in Saudi Arabia can access ALLam through watsonx; use AI capabilities to train, tune, and deploy ALLaM; and run their AI workloads on Lenovo infrastructure for both on-premises and cloud use cases.
“Today’s announcement represents an important step in the longstanding relationship between IBM and Lenovo,” said Giovanni Di Filippo, Group EMEA president of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions.
“We’re pleased to deepen our partnership to bring IBM’s fit-for-purpose generative AI offerings together with Lenovo’s infrastructure solutions for both on-premises and cloud use to provide customers in Saudi Arabia with solutions designed to meet their unique needs in this fast-paced growing market.”
IBM hopes the new solutions will help “improve public services and make data-driven decisions in areas such as fraud detection, public safety, customer service, code modernisation, and IT operations”.
“IBM and Lenovo have a rich history of joint innovation and partnership that spans two decades,” said IBM Saudi Arabia Regional VP Ayman AlRashed.
“We look forward to this new collaboration to bring together Lenovo’s infrastructure offerings and IBM’s AI portfolio, which utilizes small, efficient, open-source models targeted for specific use cases and geographic requirements.”
But this partnership with IBM is not Lenovo’s only foray in the Middle East. The tech giant has also broken ground with Alat, a Saudi Arabia-based sustainable manufacturing firm, ahead of building a new manufacturing base in Riyadh. It comes after Lenovo and Alat signed a strategic partnership in May 2024.
The factory, which is expected to begin production in 2026, will manufacture laptops, desktops and servers.
“Through this powerful strategic collaboration and investment with Alat, we gain greater global presence, a strong regional foothold, and the ability to capitalise on the incredible growth momentum in KSA and the wider MEA region,” said Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang.
“We are excited to have Alat as our long-term strategic partner and are confident that our world-class supply chain capabilities as well as our innovation will benefit KSA as it drives its Vision 2030 goals of economic diversification, industrial development, innovation, and job creation.”
