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Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has said technology from Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek is “really making a big difference” and improving the efficiency of its operations.
The installation of the technology in Saudi Aramco’s flagship data centre marks an example of a major company from outside China using DeepSeek’s services at a time of heightened competition with US rivals, and deepening tensions between China and the Trump administration.
“DeepSeek has definitely generated a very interesting algorithm and software. It is helping us to increase efficiency and reduce the amount of resources required to do the same job,” Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive, said on Tuesday.
The Chinese company’s technology was “really making a big difference in the way you can benefit from the current computing system you have and maximise its value”, he added.
Nasser said Saudi Aramco, which last month signed a $1.5bn deal with US chip company Groq to expand its Damman data centre, was investing heavily into AI and had deals with “all of the big high-tech companies”.
Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf countries, has courted US and Chinese tech companies as it builds out its AI infrastructure, with its venture capital arm investing in Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI last year.
DeepSeek, meanwhile, has become an AI champion in China after unveiling its open-source model R1 in late January, which it said was built with a fraction of the computing resource of western rivals.
But a handful of countries, including Italy and Australia, have banned the company’s technology from government systems because of concerns over cyber security.
Nasser made the comments on DeepSeek as Saudi Aramco reported a 12 per cent drop in profit in 2024 and cut its dividend, in a blow to Saudi Arabia’s increasing budget deficit.
Saudi Aramco’s net income for the year was $106.25bn, compared with $121bn in 2023 as energy prices fell. It said it would pay a total dividend of just over $85bn, compared with $124bn in the previous year.
The oil major’s dividend has helped to fund Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic transformation of Saudi Arabia, but the average oil price has fallen significantly from a high of more than $100 a barrel in 2022. Benchmark Brent crude was trading at $71 a barrel on Tuesday morning.
In addition, Saudi Aramco is sitting on several million barrels a day of spare capacity, after Saudi Arabia trimmed its production to help shore up oil prices. The company said that if Saudi Arabia decided to pump more oil, each extra million barrels of oil a day “could generate an additional $12bn in operating cash flow, based on 2024’s average price”.
“We have the capacity of 3mn barrels readily available to the market,” said Nasser. “And that is significant because it gives the company an upside if there is a need to put additional barrels.”
On Monday, the Opec+ oil cartel agreed to the first oil production increase by the group since 2022. “Global oil demand reached new highs in 2024, and we expect further growth in 2025,” said Nasser.
