Think, the Saudi startup building integrated hardware and software infrastructure for artificial intelligence, has closed a pre-seed round of more than $8 million — the largest pre-seed raise to date in the MENA region specifically focused on AI infrastructure and deeptech. The round was co-led by RAED Ventures and Wa’ed Ventures, with participation from Dhahran Techno Valley, and the capital will be used to accelerate industrial deployment of Think’s platform.
Record pre-seed for regional AI infrastructure
The financing will allow Think to scale headcount, increase manufacturing capacity, further develop its product, and accelerate international expansion — starting with increased commercial deployments in Saudi Arabia, then across the GCC and other selected markets. Investors cited sovereignty, cost-efficiency and economic competitiveness as core drivers for backing a local stack for AI infrastructure.
Hardware and software architecture designed for efficiency
Think combines high-density, liquid-cooled hardware nodes with a proprietary orchestration layer called ILM. According to the company, this approach enables the use of commodity GPUs already on the market without relying on specialized inference-only hardware. In production tests, Think says the platform sustained GPU utilization above 90% — compared with industry averages it estimates at 30–50% — and reports a per‑million‑token cost “almost ten times” lower than usage of frontier models from providers like Google, OpenAI or Anthropic.
Cost reduction, simpler operations and data sovereignty
Founders emphasize cost reduction and data control as central to the proposition. CEO Ahmed AlSharif — a former executive at PlayStation, EA and Meta — frames Think’s tech as ushering in a “new age of efficiency,” enabling organizations “to do more with the compute they already own” and offering an alternative to the arms race for ever‑larger models and hyperscale data centers. Co‑founder Ammar Enaya, with a background in enterprise infrastructure (Cisco, HPE Aruba, Vectra AI), highlights customer demand from enterprises, startups and public institutions for performance, control and ownership rather than dependency on hyperscale cloud providers.
Deployments and product roadmap
Think says it is already running several proofs of concept and production deployments in Saudi Arabia and has strategic partnerships within the national ecosystem, including initiatives such as HUMAIN. The platform is scheduled to add support for hybrid configurations that combine specialized inference accelerators with standard GPUs to cover a broader range of training and inference workloads.
Why this matters for the region
With Saudi Arabia aiming to become a major AI hub, local infrastructure is a strategic priority across economic, security and environmental dimensions. Investors argue that a sovereign, efficient AI stack can speed large‑scale adoption while controlling costs and energy use. For RAED Ventures, Wa’ed Ventures and Dhahran Techno Valley, Think represents regional capability to build critical technical components instead of remaining a consumer of foreign services.
In short, Think stands out by claiming ambitious utilization and cost gains from an integrated hardware‑software offering ready for industrialization. The next challenge will be converting this funding into broader commercial traction and scalable deployments.
