Saudi Arabia’s AI infrastructure ambitions gained another boost as Riyadh-based deeptech startup Think secured more than $8 million in pre-seed funding, marking what the company says is the largest pre-seed round for an AI infrastructure startup in the MENA region to date.
The round was co-led by RAED Ventures and Wa’ed Ventures, with participation from Dhahran Techno Valley Ventures and a group of strategic angel investors. The fresh capital will be used to expand Think’s engineering team, scale manufacturing, accelerate product development, and support its expansion across the GCC and selected international markets.
Founded by former Meta executive Ahmed AlSharif and enterprise technology veteran Ammar Enaya, Think is developing an integrated AI infrastructure platform that combines high-density liquid-cooled GPU hardware with proprietary orchestration software. Rather than focusing on building larger AI models, the company aims to make AI infrastructure significantly more efficient, affordable, and easier to deploy.
Its platform is designed to help enterprises, governments, and startups maximize the performance of existing GPU resources while reducing deployment costs and maintaining greater control over data and infrastructure. According to the company, internal production benchmarks show GPU utilization exceeding 90%—well above the industry average of 30–50%—while delivering inference costs that are nearly ten times lower than those associated with leading frontier AI models.
The company says its technology works with commercially available GPUs and will soon support mixed-vendor AI hardware, allowing organizations to deploy both training and inference workloads without relying on proprietary infrastructure.
Building the AI Backbone of Saudi Arabia
The funding comes as Saudi Arabia continues investing heavily in sovereign AI capabilities as part of its broader digital transformation strategy. Rather than competing in the increasingly crowded AI model race, Think is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer powering enterprise AI deployments across the Kingdom.
The startup is already working on multiple proof-of-concept projects and production deployments in Saudi Arabia while collaborating with initiatives supporting the country’s emerging AI ecosystem.
CEO Ahmed AlSharif said the industry is entering a new phase where efficiency matters more than simply increasing computing power.
“AI infrastructure today is expensive, inefficient and increasingly difficult to scale. Organizations need to do more with the compute they already own rather than constantly buying more.”
Co-founder Ammar Enaya added that enterprises are increasingly seeking alternatives to hyperscale cloud providers that offer stronger control over infrastructure, data security, and long-term operating costs.
Why It Matters
Think’s funding reflects a broader shift in AI investment across the Gulf. While much attention has focused on foundation models and massive data centers, investors are increasingly backing companies building the underlying infrastructure required to operate AI efficiently at scale.
The startup also aligns closely with Saudi Arabia’s push to localize AI capabilities, reduce dependence on foreign cloud providers, and build sovereign technology infrastructure that supports government agencies and private enterprises alike.
As GPU shortages, rising cloud costs, and data sovereignty requirements become increasingly important worldwide, startups focused on AI infrastructure are attracting growing investor interest. Think is positioning itself at the center of that trend, with plans to expand across GCC markets over the next 18 months while further developing its orchestration software into a standalone platform.
With one of the region’s largest pre-seed rounds now secured, the company joins a growing wave of Saudi deeptech startups seeking to build globally competitive technologies from the Kingdom rather than simply deploying AI developed elsewhere.
