Who’s Who: Saud Al-Saud, president of Saudi Dodgeball Federation

Saud Al-Saud
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Updated 25 February 2023
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Who’s Who: Saud Al-Saud, president of Saudi Dodgeball Federation

Saud Al-Saud became president of the newly established Saudi Dodgeball Federation in 2022. In his role, he is establishing a framework for future expansion and development of the federation’s strategic plan.

Al-Saud is also supervising the introduction of a new sports ecosystem to the country, while seeking out new participants, raising awareness, and securing sponsorships and partnerships.

He previously served as an executive director at the Riyadh International Catering Corporation, which holds the McDonald’s franchise in various regions of the Kingdom.

With the leadership, he oversaw the setting up of the organization’s three-year strategy, and supported the expansion of the company by leading the HR and admin departments.

Al-Saud also participated in social responsibility activities and events, made contributions in the areas of marketing and corporate communication, in addition to managing a staff of more than 6,500 individuals and ensured the smooth operation of more than 200 branches.

From 2018 to 2020, he served as the Ministry of Investment’s director of the sports segment for investment attraction and promotion.

Al-Saud created, implemented and oversaw the sector’s strategic, tactical, and operational plans and initiatives. He made contributions to the promotion and attraction of foreign and local investments in order to assure the sector’s successful growth and expansion.

From 2013 to 2015, he oversaw the licensing and quality department as the head of licensing for investor services at the ministry, which was previously known as the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority. He served as a core competency of the licensing committee, and used his leadership skills to manage his team of senior evaluators. During his time the department became digitized.

Before taking the helm in 2013, he led the central region’s center for investor services, which served as a one-stop shop for foreign investors.

Al-Saud managed seamless operations in his capacity by keeping an eye on the daily activities, managed teams to control the quality and level of service, and cultivated connections with both domestic and international investors.

He was previously a specialist in investor relations and served as the primary point of contact with investors, enhancing their experience, and securing notable sponsors for the Global Competitiveness Forum.  

Al-Saud graduated from the college of industry management at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He also holds a master’s in strategy and organization consultancy from EDHEC Business School in Lille, France.

He has also obtained accreditations from Harvard Kennedy School, the Stanford Center for Professional Development, Kellogg School of Management in Illinois, and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.

 


Leading AI company to partner with Saudi Arabia, CEO tells Arab News

Updated 06 February 2026
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Leading AI company to partner with Saudi Arabia, CEO tells Arab News

  • Argentum’s Andrew Sobko: ‘Very easy’ to build new infrastructure, data centers in Kingdom
  • In 2024, Saudi Arabia announced $100bn plan to establish AI hub

CHICAGO: The founder and CEO of Argentum AI, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies, has told Arab News that he is looking forward to partnering with Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian-born Andrew Sobko, based in Chicago, said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made a significant commitment to AI use.

In 2024, Saudi Arabia announced a $100 billion plan under Vision 2030 to build a hub to develop technology and data centers to handle a significant portion of the world’s AI workload.

The Kingdom reportedly expects AI to contribute more than $135.2 billion to its gross domestic product by 2030, representing roughly 12.4 percent of its economy.

“The US still is the kind of core leader of this AI innovation, development and infrastructure, but we quickly realized that Saudi Arabia sees this as an important asset class, not just as an innovation,” Sobko said.

“They’re deploying tons of capital. If you try to build some new infrastructure or data center, it’s very easy to do it in Saudi Arabia,” he added. “Saudi Arabia realizes and sees this compute as almost like a second asset class after oil.”

The term “compute” refers to the process of calculations that fuels AI development and applications in everyday use.

“The Middle East wants to be one of the largest exporters of compute. They realized that a couple of years ago and they’re aggressively expanding,” Sobko said, adding that AI is being used more and more in industries such as sports, in which Saudi Arabia has invested heavily.

Argentum AI recently added Majed Al-Sorour, CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation, to its board.

“Majed is also a huge believer in AI and AI infrastructure,” said Sobko. “With the help of Majed, we’re focusing on global expansion. He’s leading charge on that.”

Sobko said the challenge is not simply recognizing the importance of AI, but the ability to power data centers that it requires, and Saudi Arabia recognizes that need.

“If you secure a significant amount of power and you have data center capacity, you can actually control this kind of compute and AI,” he added.

“And the biggest bottleneck to continue expanding as we enter into this new age of robotics industry, it needs a lot more compute.”

Following meetings with US leadership, including President Donald Trump last November, Saudi Arabia secured agreements on AI technology transfers, aiming to avoid reliance on other nations’ systems.