The round lands as the MENA venture market shows signs of selectivity rather than retreat: startups across the region raised $1.7 billion across 242 rounds in the first half of 2026, an 18% decline from 2025's $2.1 billion, according to Wamda's H1 report — but with capital increasingly concentrated in larger ecosystems and startups with clearer paths to scale. The UAE led Q2 with $591 million across 37 deals; Saudi Arabia followed with $102 million across 23 transactions.
Think's pitch fits squarely into that more selective pattern: rather than a general-purpose AI product, it's infrastructure — a platform combining hardware and orchestration software specifically aimed at getting more usable compute out of existing GPU capacity, a problem that compounds as Saudi Arabia's data center buildout accelerates. The country now anchors roughly 47% of MENA's total data center capacity and is targeting 2.2 gigawatts of AI compute capacity in the coming years, more than four times the UAE's expected 500 megawatts.
The participation of Dhahran Techno Valley's venture arm alongside RAED and Wa'ed — both established Saudi venture firms — signals continued domestic institutional appetite for infrastructure-layer AI bets specifically, distinct from the application-layer startups that have historically dominated MENA's funding headlines.
