RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and Turkey have signed eight agreements in Istanbul in the presence of Commerce and Investment Minister Majid Al-Qassabi and Turkish Economy Minister Nihad Zabka to boost bilateral trade.
The signing of agreements took place during the Saudi-Turkish Joint Business Council meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Speaking after the signing of the agreements, Zabka said that Turkey has set up an investment-friendly climate for foreigners to do businesses with a sense of security, which would protect their interests in the country. "We have removed all obstacles and facilitated smooth investment procedures in Turkey,” Zabka noted, adding that Saudi and Turkish businessmen can harness these incentives for mutual interests.
Responding to Zabka's speech, Al-Qassabi said that such incentives are important for the two countries to forge ahead.
Mazen Rajab, head of the Saudi side of the business council, said that Saudi investments in Turkey have reached $10 billion which is a healthy growth of bilateral trade.
Saudi companies mainly invest in the industrial sector in Turkey in collaboration with the Turkish private and public sectors. They can also increase their investments in agricultural, finance, tourism and communications sectors.
Turkey, on the other hand, has had a sizable number of highly qualified and technologically superior contractors who are present today in every part of the globe, including the Arabian Gulf states.
In the field of tourism, Turkey has been doing very well. A total of 39 million tourists visited Turkey in 2013, raising revenue from tourism to reach $32 billion.
“Economic ties between the two countries are strongly backed by identical approaches on the whole range of bilateral and regional issues,” Yunus Demirer, the Turkish ambassador in Riyadh, said in an earlier interview.
Trade between Turkey and Saudi Arabia has been growing consistently. Around 80 percent of Turkey’s exports to the Kingdom are industrial products, whereas agricultural products account for 10 percent of exports.
On the other hand, the bulk of Turkey’s imports from Saudi Arabia come from crude oil and petrochemical products.
A close observation of the imports shows that the share of crude oil in total imports declined from 79 percent to below 40 percent between 2000 and 2014, while the share of petrochemicals increased drastically (the value of imports of polypropylene rose to $1 billion) in the same period. On the other hand, the decrease in the last two years was mainly related to the decline in crude oil prices.
Speaking about the upswing in trade and investment, Ambassador Demirer said that there is a genuine opportunity to establish a long-term partnership between the Turkish and Saudi business communities. Saudi visitors feel at ease in Turkey, says the envoy.
“As neighbors and two of the world’s oldest civilizations, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have shared a long history of religious, cultural, scientific and economic linkages,” said the envoy, adding that Turkish imports from Saudi Arabia have been traditionally dominated by fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey sign 8 agreements to promote business
Saudi Arabia, Turkey sign 8 agreements to promote business
How AI is powering Saudi Arabia’s video games industry
- Technology is boosting efficiency and supporting local content development
RIYADH: Artificial intelligence is becoming a central force in Saudi Arabia’s rapidly expanding gaming and esports sector, shaping everything from game development and publishing to player analytics and competitive tournaments.
As the Kingdom accelerates its ambitions under Vision 2030, AI is increasingly being deployed not only as a technical tool but also as a strategic driver for industry growth and global competitiveness.
Saudi Arabia is integrating AI across studios, publishing platforms and esports operations to improve efficiency, expand local content creation, attract international investment and streamline tournament management. The broader goal is to position the Kingdom not only as one of the world’s largest gaming markets but also as a global hub for game development and esports infrastructure.
According to Saudi Arabia’s National Gaming and Esports Strategy, the Kingdom is home to more than 23.5 million gamers — around 67 percent of the population. Market revenues are projected to reach $1.36 billion by 2026. By 2030, the sector aims to contribute more than SR50 billion to the national GDP and create about 39,000 jobs.
Women represent 42 percent of gamers and 18 percent of esports players, among the highest participation rates in the region.
The Public Investment Fund, through its gaming arm Savvy Games Group, has invested billions of dollars in game studios, publishers and esports platforms worldwide. The investments are designed to strengthen local content creation while attracting global developers and investors to Saudi Arabia.
INNUMBERS
23.5 million Number of gamers in Saudi Arabia, representing about 67% of the population
$1.36 billion Revenue the Kingdom’s gaming market is expected to reach by 2026
SR50 billion Amount the gaming and esports sector aims to add to GDP to create 39,000 jobs by 2030
A spokesperson for Savvy Games Group told Arab News that AI is already integrated across its portfolio, particularly within ESL FACEIT Group.
“AI is used across our businesses. At ESL FACEIT Group, AI is already embedded in operations, particularly around data analytics and fair play,” the spokesperson told Arab News. “For example, EFG uses Minerva, an AI-powered moderation system that identifies and reduces toxic or abusive behavior by analyzing player communications and behavior patterns at scale. This enables faster and more consistent decisions and helps create healthier competitive environments for players.”
However, the spokesperson said AI itself does not automatically create a competitive advantage.
“AI tools are increasingly accessible to studios everywhere, which means they are not a competitive advantage on their own,” the spokesperson told Arab News. “The advantage comes from how clearly studios define their use cases and how effectively they apply AI to support their goals.”
For Saudi studios seeking international audiences, understanding how AI systems generate results is also critical to maintaining cultural accuracy and relevance in game content.
Within development studios, AI is helping accelerate production while lowering costs. AI-powered tools assist with concept art, 3D modeling, animation and world design, while automated testing systems can simulate thousands of gameplay scenarios to identify bugs and balance issues before release.
Steer Studios, for example, is applying AI in asset production and testing workflows. Automating repetitive tasks allows creative teams to devote more time to storytelling, gameplay design and world-building — key elements that distinguish successful games.
AI is also playing an important role in localizing content for Arabic-speaking audiences. Studios including Fahy Studios, Starvania Studio and Lobah Game Studio use AI for dialogue generation, translation and other localization tasks, helping Saudi-developed games reach global markets more quickly without losing cultural context.
For live-service and mobile games, maintaining player engagement is crucial to long-term revenue. AI systems track player behavior in real time, adjust difficulty levels, refine matchmaking systems and personalize in-game experiences.
Publishing platforms such as Nine66 and Sandsoft also rely on AI-driven analytics to support developers. These tools help predict player lifetime value, optimize marketing campaigns and manage online gaming communities.
“Our approach aligns closely with KSA’s focus on digital transformation, innovation and long-term capability building under Vision 2030,” the Savvy Games Group spokesperson told Arab News. “We see AI as an enabler of productivity, operational efficiency and ecosystem sustainability.”
The spokesperson added that partnerships, including collaboration with Humain, allow Saudi companies to explore scalable and responsible applications of AI across studios.
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“We take a pragmatic approach,” the spokesperson told Arab News. “We focus on technologies that provide real benefits. Any AI solution we use must improve efficiency and make day-to-day work easier.”
Artificial intelligence is also transforming the esports ecosystem.
Esports Infra — a platform created by Singapore-based Samarium in partnership with Saudi AI firm Wakeb — is designed to streamline the management of players, teams and content creators.
“Esports suffers from fragmentation,” Jonas Moaz, Esports Infra founder, told Arab News. “Talented players often don’t have a clear path to professionalism. Organizations struggle to find players, and content creators lack tools to connect with audiences.”
The platform uses machine learning to classify player skill levels, computer vision to analyze gameplay and predictive analytics to forecast development potential.
“We expect to improve the efficiency of building esports organizations — particularly in talent discovery and time management — by up to 50 percent,” Moaz told Arab News.
In addition to player analytics, the platform assists with scheduling, contract management and sponsorship evaluation, giving teams and brands clearer insights into performance and commercial value.
Despite AI’s growing role, its use in esports competition itself remains tightly regulated. Organizations such as the International Esports Federation prohibit AI from influencing live matches.
“We fully respect those regulations,” Moaz told Arab News. “Our tools support analysis but do not play on behalf of players. AI operates outside match time or as a statistical layer.”
Protecting player data and ensuring fairness remain key priorities for developers and platform providers.
“This is a top priority for us,” Moaz told Arab News. “Player data is encrypted and used only to improve the experience. To ensure fairness, we regularly audit our algorithms to prevent bias.”
Saudi Arabia’s gaming sector is steadily evolving from a consumer-driven market into a center for game creation and esports infrastructure. AI is embedded throughout this transformation — from accelerating game development and localization to analyzing player behavior and professionalizing competitive gaming.
If the targets outlined in Vision 2030 are achieved, AI will play a defining role not only in improving industry operations but also in helping Saudi Arabia compete globally in a sector increasingly driven by data, efficiency and advanced technology.
