Riyadh-based Think has raised more than $8 million in pre-seed funding, in what it describes as the largest AI infrastructure and deeptech pre-seed round in the MENA region to date.
Backers Behind the Round
The round was co-led by RAED Ventures and Wa’ed Ventures, two prominent Saudi venture capital firms. Aramco wholly owns wa’ed Ventures and focuses on economic diversification within the Kingdom, while RAED Ventures manages more than $550 million in assets across MENA. Dhahran Techno Valley’s venture capital arm and a group of strategic angel investors also participated.
What the Company Builds
Think develops an integrated hardware and software infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to reduce the cost and complexity of deploying AI at scale. Its approach combines proprietary AI Node hardware, built on high-density, liquid-cooled multi-GPU compute nodes, with ILM, a software orchestration layer designed to maximise GPU utilisation and lower token costs.
The company says its platform has achieved sustained GPU utilisation above 90 percent in production benchmark testing, compared with industry averages typically between 30 and 50 percent. It also claims per-million-token costs nearly ten times lower than those of frontier models from major AI labs, achieved using widely available GPUs rather than specialised inference hardware.
Founders With Big Tech Backgrounds
Think was founded in 2025 by Ahmed AlSharif and Ammar Enaya. AlSharif previously held senior roles at Meta, Sony PlayStation Europe, and EA Games, while Enaya’s background spans leadership positions at Cisco, HPE Aruba, and Vectra AI.
Where the Funding Goes
The company plans to use the capital to expand its team, scale manufacturing, accelerate product development, and support deployments across Saudi Arabia over the next 18 months. Think also intends to expand into the wider GCC and selected international markets, while advancing ILM as a standalone software platform.
The startup already has strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem, including engagement with HUMAIN, the Public Investment Fund-backed AI initiative.
Positioning Around Sovereignty and Cost
Co-founder Ammar Enaya said customers want the benefits of AI without the rising costs, security concerns, and dependence tied to hyperscale cloud providers, pointing to strong demand from enterprises, startups, and government organisations seeking infrastructure that gives them more control over their AI capabilities.
Wael Nafee, General Partner at RAED Ventures, said the next generation of AI leaders will be defined as much by infrastructure as by the models built on top of it, describing Think as a category-defining company with global potential.
The round comes as organisations worldwide look for alternatives to traditional AI deployment models amid rising GPU costs and growing pressure around data sovereignty, positioning Think’s infrastructure-first approach within a broader shift toward cost efficiency and control in AI deployment across the Gulf.
