Valkyrie Fund, Gloventures team up to push U.S. AI infrastructure startups into Saudi Arabia

Valkyrie Fund and Gloventures Investments Holding formalized a partnership at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh to help selected U.S. technology companies pursue AI infrastructure opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region. The first cohort includes Ferveret, Etherdyne Technologies and Zillion Network, highlighting wireless power, cooling and GPU cloud infrastructure.

Why it matters: - Saudi Arabia is pouring money into the infrastructure needed for AI, creating a market for U.S. companies building the systems that support compute-heavy workloads. - The Valkyrie–Gloventures partnership is designed to help startups move from introductions to pilots, commercial deals and broader regional expansion. - The initiative aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s push to become a regional hub for artificial intelligence and advanced technology.

What happened: - Valkyrie Fund and Gloventures Investments Holding formalized a strategic partnership at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh. - The partnership is meant to help selected U.S. technology companies explore Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East and North Africa region. - Valkyrie portfolio companies Etherdyne Technologies, Inc. (ETI), Ferveret and Zillion Network make up the first cohort introduced to the Saudi market through the program. - ETI and Ferveret also took part in company-level signing ceremonies with Gloventures at LEAP.

The details: - Valkyrie Managing Partner Jinpei Li said the goal is to help portfolio companies engage with Saudi Arabia in a meaningful way, not just make introductions. - Gloventures brings local relationships and market knowledge to the effort, while Valkyrie contributes technologies aimed at core AI infrastructure constraints. - Ferveret won the US$150,000 Scaling Star Award in LEAP’s Rocket Fuel Pitch Competition. - LEAP’s 2026 startup and scale-up program included more than 725 companies from over 60 countries. - The Rocket Fuel competition featured 100 selected pitches across seven award categories and a total equity-free prize fund of US$1 million. - Ferveret was founded by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. - Ferveret develops Adaptive Phase Cooling technology for AI and high-performance computing data centers. - Ferveret’s system is designed to reduce the energy and natural resources required for cooling, leaving more data-center power available for computing. - Ferveret CEO Reza Azizian said, “Every watt we save is another watt for AI.” - ETI presented EtherPower™, its intelligent wireless-power infrastructure technology. - ETI’s Jeff Yen demonstrated a fully wire-free workspace with a monitor, keyboard, mouse and other devices powered wirelessly. - ETI is developing technology that embeds power delivery into the surrounding environment instead of charging devices one by one. - Through the partnership, ETI is evaluating commercial applications, local partnerships and potential pilots in retail, workplace, industrial and electric-infrastructure settings across Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf region. - Zillion Network operates an agentic GPU cloud for AI developers and researchers. - Zillion’s platform works with developers’ coding agents to provision sandboxes and compute on demand, then release those resources when work ends. - Beneath that layer, Zillion automates cluster orchestration, network fabric, inference optimization and site reliability. - Zillion says the system helps sustain high utilization across large GPU fleets without proportionally expanding operations teams. - Zillion is evaluating opportunities with Saudi enterprises and research institutions that want to run GPU capacity and model inference in environments they control. - The partnership is building a structured pathway for selected portfolio companies to assess the Saudi market, establish local relationships, identify use cases and partners, and pursue pilots and commercial opportunities. - Saudi Arabia may also serve as a base for broader regional expansion, depending on each company’s strategy and requirements. - Valkyrie and Gloventures expect to expand the program beyond the initial cohort by adding more U.S. technologies with potential in Saudi Arabia and across the MENA region. - Valkyrie Fund focuses on early-stage companies building foundational systems for AI across infrastructure, energy, computing, cooling, semiconductors and physical technologies. - Gloventures Investments Holding supports market expansion, localization and business development across advanced technology, AI infrastructure and Industry 4.0. - Valkyrie Fund’s website is More information. - Gloventures Investments Holding’s LinkedIn page is Company profile.

Between the lines: - The partnership suggests Saudi buyers are looking beyond headline AI software and into the less visible layers that make AI deployments work, including power delivery, cooling and GPU operations. - The first cohort spans three distinct infrastructure bottlenecks, which signals a broad go-to-market strategy rather than a single-product pilot. - Ferveret’s award gives the cohort an early proof point, while ETI and Zillion show the program is already moving into demonstrations and market evaluation.

What's next: - Valkyrie and Gloventures will use the partnership to identify additional pilot opportunities and commercial pathways in Saudi Arabia. - The companies will continue evaluating local partnerships and regional use cases across the Kingdom and the broader Gulf. - The program is expected to expand as the partners add more U.S. companies with relevant AI infrastructure technologies.

The bottom line: - Valkyrie Fund and Gloventures are trying to turn Saudi Arabia’s AI spending into a repeatable market-entry route for U.S. infrastructure startups.