βTo the Futureβ: Saudi Arabia Spends Big to Become an A.I. Superpower NYT: Technology By: Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur 26 April 2024 at 10:43 The oil-rich kingdom is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence. Β© Iman Al-Dabbagh for The New York TimesMore than 200,000 people converged on the Leap tech conference in the desert outside Riyadh in March.