Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Jemyung (clockwise from left in back row) on Feb. 1 poses for a group photo with Aramco Digital CEO Nabil Al-Nuaim, ‏Mohammed Makhdoum, Aramco Digital's president of digital business services, and Joh Joon Hee, chairman of the Korea AI and Software Industry Association after signing a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in artificial intelligence full stack at Aramco Digital headquarters in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. (Ministry of Science and ICT)

By Charles Audouin

The country's know-how in artificial intelligence (AI) will be exported to industrial sites in Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Feb. 1 said a consortium of seven Korean AI companies signed a memorandum of understanding on AI cooperation at the headquarters of Aramco Digital in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

As the digital subsidiary of Aramco, the government-owned Saudi oil giant, Aramco Digital integrates digital technologies into industrial facilities and supply chains, leading the Mideast country's AI transformation in all sectors.

Under the agreement, Korean companies will have wider opportunities to participate in projects that adopt or use AI at Saudi industrial sectors such as energy or manufacturing.

Both sides also agreed to develop a customized model of cooperation to optimize the technical prowess of Korean companies to the Saudi industrial environment and jointly create practical cases of application.

For this, the consortium that includes Rebellions, LG AI Research, Uracle and Megazone Cloud will provide technologies in fields like AI semiconductors, industry-specific AI models, data processing and operational management know-how.

The ministry will use this deal as the starting point to promote the competitiveness of Korean AI to the Middle East and develop it further into a benchmark expandable to other markets abroad.

"This cooperation is an opportunity to demonstrate Korea's overall competitiveness in AI to the world market," Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT Ryu Jemyung said. "The government and the private sector will actively support this to make it translate into tangible export results."

caudouin@korea.kr