According to an official, Saudi Arabia is preparing to export industrial robots that can complete manufacturing tasks more quickly than humans to foreign markets by the end of May 2025.
Speaking on February 12 at the Private Sector Forum in Riyadh, Amit Midha, CEO of Alat, a company supported by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), emphasised that these machines will transform the production and assembly processes both in the Kingdom and around the world.
Amit Midha disclosed that this historic accomplishment was led by the strategic partnership agreement that Alat and SoftBank Group signed in February 2024 to establish a joint venture to produce industrial robots in Saudi Arabia.
By the end of this decade, the Kingdom hopes to become a global centre of innovation and technology, which is in line with its larger “Vision 2030” economic diversification objective.
Amit Midha said, “By May of this year, we will be exporting robots all over the world, and they will be built in Riyadh. We are investing in a fully automated manufacturing and engineering hub which is dedicated to producing cutting-edge industrial robots.”
“Imagine the robots that can programme themselves. Imagine the robots that have three times to five times the speed of a normal labourer. These robots can really revolutionise how, where and what can be manufactured,” he added.
Amit Midha claims that because these robots will be so affordable, they will “redefine” the conventional manufacturing industry.
“Some of the manufacturing centres developed in the last few decades will get reshaped because now the cost of robots and automation is going to be the same as hiring a person or an operator in a manufacturing facility,” he noted.
According to Amit Midha, Saudi Arabia will also export laptops and personal computers to foreign countries by the end of 2025 as a result of Alat’s USD 2 billion deal with Lenovo, a major Chinese tech company.