Fielding a question from Chinese state media on Sunday, a senior government official from Saudi Arabia touted a “great wave” of scientific innovation emerging from China, and pledged the two countries would further deepen their ties, Xinhua reported.

The press conference in Riyadh kicked off LEAP, a major technology event, earlier this week. In the days since, a flood of deals have been announced to bring Chinese robotaxis, laptops, AI models, and data centers to the kingdom — while putting the competition for tech dominance between China and the US into stark relief.

Once viewed only as a source of capital, today Saudi Arabia is enticing technology companies to come and do business. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pouring billions of dollars into developing a domestic tech ecosystem under his Vision 2030 program, even as some mega-projects are delayed. The young, gaming- and smartphone-obsessed population has a huge appetite for apps and computing power.

The Gulf “is of vital importance for China’s tech outreach,” James Kynge, senior research fellow for China and the world at Chatham House, told Semafor. “It is a really important focal point for China to show the whole world, not just the region, that its tech is often better to buy and to operate than US tech. It’s a crucial node that shows the world that Chinese tech can go around the world and out-compete American tech.”