Saudi fund-backed Alat removes CEO Amit Midha and reportedly abandons chip ambitions

What happened

It has been reported that Alat, the $100 billion electronics manufacturing vehicle backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has removed CEO Amit Midha earlier this year. Dr. Muhammad Nasser Aldawood, head of industrials and mining at the nearly $1 trillion Public Investment Fund (PIF), has been named acting CEO, a move Alat’s spokesperson said “is consistent with its long‑term strategic plans.” The shakeup is striking: Alat was launched with fanfare, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and billed as a linchpin of the kingdom’s industrial pivot. Big ambitions. Bigger expectations.

Why the chip plans were shelved

It has been reported that Alat has dropped plans to invest in semiconductor production, reassigning a dedicated team and, allegedly, laying off some staff as part of a wider spending review. The reasons read like a checklist of modern geopolitical and economic pain points: fabs cost tens of billions, need heavy subsidies, and face ferocious competition as governments from Asia to the US and Europe race to on‑shore chipmaking after the pandemic exposed supply‑chain fragility. Add regional security worries — recent Iranian attacks have damaged Gulf facilities — and the math for building advanced fabs in Saudi Arabia suddenly looks a lot harder. Can the region safely host the most sensitive factories on Earth? That question now hangs over the plan.

The pivot — and the fallout

Alat isn’t folding. It has been reported that the firm will shift resources originally earmarked for chips toward a new national push to become a global data‑center hub, and it remains committed to other manufacturing deals — from air conditioners and robots to a $2 billion investment in Lenovo and a TK Elevator partnership. But this is a meaningful retreat from one of the sexiest parts of the Vision 2030 playbook: chips are a prestige project and a strategic signal. Losing them changes the narrative. Midha didn’t respond to requests for comment, and while Alat insists operations and partnerships remain “firmly in place,” the moment feels like a sobering reality check for Saudi industrial dreams — pragmatic, costly, and now a little less dazzling.

Sources: semafor.com