JEDDAH: Saudi energy giant Aramco has announced agreements and a memorandum of understanding with French companies worth a potential combined value of more than $3.7 billion.
The arrangements cover drilling equipment, oil country tubular goods and cooperation in industrial artificial intelligence and digital technologies, according to Aramco. The company said the partnerships are expected to improve supply-chain resilience, operational continuity and efficiency while creating economic value for Saudi Arabia and France. Aramco did not disclose the names of the French companies involved in the latest agreements.
The agreements were announced during the Saudi-French Investment Roundtable in Paris, attended by Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser, as part of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman’s official visit to France.
Following the meeting, France and the Kingdom issued a joint statement reaffirming their strategic partnership and their commitment to deepening cooperation in defense, investment, energy, artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, culture, and tourism.
The latest deals come as Saudi Arabia and France broaden economic ties beyond energy into technology, investment and industrial development. The two countries have also moved to deepen cooperation through the Saudi-French Strategic Partnership Council.
“The collaborations focus on project support, capacity building and capability development, technology transfer and innovation, and supply chain resilience,” Aramco said in its statement.
Aramco Digital also signed an MoU establishing a framework for potential cooperation in industrial AI, virtual twin and digital twin technologies, including applications in the energy sector.
The deals build on a longstanding relationship between Aramco and French companies. In 2018, Aramco announced commercial cooperation worth more than $12 billion with French firms, including a $9 billion MoU with Total for the joint development of a petrochemical complex integrated with the existing SATORP refinery in Jubail.
Aramco expanded its French technology partnerships in 2021, signing an MoU with Alteia on AI-driven geospatial imagery capabilities in the Kingdom. It also signed arrangements with Air Liquide covering low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production, logistics and carbon capture and sequestration, and with Axens to explore local manufacturing and maintenance services for furnaces and fired heaters.
Quantum push
Aramco has also worked with French quantum-computing company Pasqal. In May 2024, the companies agreed to deploy a 200-qubit quantum computer in Saudi Arabia.
The system was successfully deployed at Aramco’s data center in Dhahran in November 2025. Aramco described it as Saudi Arabia’s first quantum computer and the Middle East’s first dedicated to industrial applications.
In May, Aramco and Pasqal launched what they described as the Middle East’s first commercial Quantum Computing as a Service platform, extending their cooperation into commercial applications.
