Saudi Arabia plans to invest in AI with an investment plan estimated to be around $40bn, according to a report in the New York Times. The announcement was made in the same week as Nvidia held its developer conference in San Jose, California, which it billed as a conference “for the era of AI”.

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AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept.

This one of the world’s most generous AI investment plans, dwarfing the current lead spender, the USA. The country invested round $68m in 2023 and $328.5m from 2019-2023, according to AIPR.

China invested $15m in 2023, which is a third less than the 2019 spend, said AIPR. The country spent $132.6m between 2019-2023.

The research firm rated the UK as the third largest investor at $25.5m between 2019-2023.  In February this year, the UK government announced it would spend over $125m (£100m) on nine new AI research hubs.

The EU’s AI innovation Strategy came into operation in February. The fund is valued at around $4bn and made up of private and public funding.

Ranked fourth, is India, which spent $16m on AI in the last five years. The country with the most significant growth in AI investment in the last five years is Sweden, according to AIPR, with a 2310% increase, spending $8.2m in the last five years.

Another significant growth in investment was seen in South Korea, which saw a 238% increase and an investment in AI valued at $10.3m in the last five years.