IDC and AMD Dinner Roundtable Riyadh
2026: The Year to Build Saudi Arabia's AI Sovereignty
Advanced By
Overview
Saudi Arabia has declared 2026 its Year of Artificial Intelligence, building on a sovereignty-first model that already mandates data residency under the Personal Data Protection Law. As Vision 2030 pushes enterprises to move faster on AI, CIOs are discovering that the infrastructure choices they make today will decide how much control they actually keep over their own AI future.
IDC and AMD are convening a closed-door roundtable in Riyadh for senior CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders to work through these decisions together, away from the sales pitch, in a room built for a real working conversation.
Attendees leave with a practical framework for evaluating sovereign AI infrastructure investments, grounded in IDC research and real-world deployment models from the region.
Agenda
IDC and AMD Dinner Roundtable Riyadh
One Day Event
Registration & Networking
IDC Keynote: Sovereign AI in Saudi Arabia
IDC presents current data on sovereign AI infrastructure adoption in Saudi Arabia, as Vision 2030 and NSDAI accelerate national AI investment.
Shahin Hashim
Associate Research Director (META), IDC
AMD keynote: Open Infrastructure, Sovereign Outcomes
AMD shares how open, full-stack AI compute, from silicon to software, gives Saudi enterprises a path to sovereign AI at scale without proprietary lock-in.
Zaid Ghattas
General Manager – METAP, AMD
Panel Discussion: Beyond data residency, what sovereignty actually requires from infrastructure and governance
Shahin Hashim
Associate Research Director (META), IDC
Zaid Ghattas
General Manager – METAP, AMD
Summary and Key Takeaways
Dinner & Networking
Speakers
Shahin Hashim
Event Sessions
One Day Event 7:40 pm
Panel Discussion: Beyond data residency, what sovereignty actually requires from infrastructure and governance
One Day Event 7:00 pm
IDC Keynote: Sovereign AI in Saudi Arabia
IDC presents current data on sovereign AI infrastructure adoption in Saudi Arabia, as Vision 2030 and NSDAI accelerate national AI investment.
Zaid Ghattas
Zaid Ghattas, the Senior Regional Manager at AMD, plays a pivotal role in propelling AMD’s revenues across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. He steers the ICT strategy for top-notch customers in the region and champions AMD’s business initiatives. With a distinguished career, Zaid has been privileged to work with leading global IT portfolio vendors, including Intel Corporation, Vmware, Hewlett Packard (HP), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), EPSON, and OKI Printing Solutions. He has successfully executed numerous technology infrastructure projects across 15 different markets, from opportunity creation to seamless execution. Zaid’s professional journey includes a job rotation at Intel Headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he served as a Global Sales Manager within the global Oracle account teams. A highly qualified and passionate entrepreneur, Zaid brings a wealth of experience in diverse business aspects, including crafting successful sales strategies, leadership and people management, as well as go-to-market strategy and account planning. Before embarking on his career, Zaid spent 7 years in Sydney, Australia, where he worked and pursued higher education in Information Technology and Network Engineering.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 7:40 pm
Panel Discussion: Beyond data residency, what sovereignty actually requires from infrastructure and governance
One Day Event 7:20 pm
AMD keynote: Open Infrastructure, Sovereign Outcomes
AMD shares how open, full-stack AI compute, from silicon to software, gives Saudi enterprises a path to sovereign AI at scale without proprietary lock-in.