Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are exploring a collaboration to make capacity from KAUST’s Shaheen III supercomputer available through HUMAIN Cloud.
The proposed access would serve selected enterprises and researchers working on compute-intensive applications, including biotechnology, materials science, oil and gas, and manufacturing. Potential uses include data processing, scientific research, engineering simulations and digital twins.
Shaheen III is an HPE Cray EX system with separate CPU and GPU partitions. The CPU partition, which is the focus of the proposed collaboration, is ranked 64th on the June 2026 TOP500 list, while its GPU partition ranks 22nd, according to the announcement.
KAUST would retain ownership and operational control of the supercomputer, with existing allocations for its researchers unchanged. The organisations also plan to develop industry blueprints and reference architectures for HUMAIN’s HPC-as-a-Service platform.
No commercial agreement has been signed. Any broader access to Shaheen III capacity will depend on definitive agreements and regulatory approval. KAUST said the system operates in line with applicable export control regulations and licence conditions.
Source: Middle East AI News
