Technology

Luma AI has announced plans to open a new regional office in Riyadh and form a strategic partnership with Publicis Groupe Middle East to accelerate AI-driven creative communications across the MENA region, while supporting the development of Arabic-native AI systems through the HUMAIN Create platform.

The expansion marks a significant step in Luma AI’s Middle East strategy and strengthens its collaboration with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s generative AI initiative focused on locally grounded, Arabic-first AI models and tools.

Riyadh Office to Drive Regional AI Development

The new Riyadh office will serve as Luma AI’s regional hub for client engagement, partnerships, and advanced AI research and deployment. The company said the move will help deepen its work with HUMAIN Create, which aims to deliver Saudi-built, Arabic-native foundation models trained on regional language and cultural data.

Luma AI’s technologies will be integrated into HUMAIN Create’s generative AI platform, enabling public and private sector creators to produce content that reflects local language, culture, and creative context.

As part of the expansion, the company plans to recruit local talent across multiple functions, including AI and software engineering, go-to-market leadership, and forward-deployed creative and technical teams supporting customers across Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region.

Amit Jain, CEO and Co-Founder of Luma AI, said Saudi Arabia offers a strong foundation for regional AI growth, citing the Kingdom’s technical workforce and innovation ambitions. He noted that a local presence will allow the company to build AI systems more closely aligned with regional needs while strengthening its HUMAIN partnership.

HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin said the collaboration supports the development of culturally fluent, Arabic-native AI systems and is backed by large-scale computing capacity through Project Halo — a planned 2GW AI supercluster in Saudi Arabia designed to support training and inference for next-generation generative AI applications.

Publicis Groupe Middle East Names Luma AI Preferred AI Creative Partner

Alongside the Riyadh expansion, Luma AI confirmed a strategic partnership with Publicis Groupe Middle East, under which it becomes the group’s preferred generative AI technology partner across Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region.

Through the agreement, Publicis Groupe Middle East will integrate Luma AI’s generative video and multimodal AI technologies into its creative and production workflows. The aim is to help brands produce faster, more personalized, and culturally relevant advertising across channels and markets.

Bassel Kakish, CEO of Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey, said the partnership embeds generative AI directly into creative development and production processes, enabling teams to scale ideas more efficiently while maintaining cultural relevance and creative quality.

Jason Day, Head of EMEA at Luma AI, said the collaboration will bring generative video and multimodal AI tools directly into regional creative pipelines, supporting greater speed, scale, and creative flexibility for brands operating across MENA.

Focus on Arabic-Native, Multimodal AI

The combined initiatives position Luma AI, HUMAIN, and Publicis Groupe Middle East to expand the use of multimodal and generative AI across marketing, communications, and content production, with a specific emphasis on Arabic-language capability and regional context.

The Riyadh office is expected to support ongoing model development, enterprise adoption, and partner-led innovation across the region.

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