SAMI Advanced Electronics Company Collaborates with Lockheed Martin to Open Software Factory in Riyadh
SAMI Advanced Electronics Company (SAMI‑AEC), a Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) company under the Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced its strategic collaboration with Lockheed Martin in the opening of a new software factory in Riyadh. This partnership is intended to accelerate local development of advanced software solutions and support Saudi Arabia’s evolving digital command-and-control ecosystem.
According to a press release issued by SAMI today, the software factory will serve as an advanced platform for end-to-end development, rapid prototyping, integration, testing, and deployment. It will enable Saudi working teams to deliver mission-relevant software enhancements more quickly and efficiently across diverse operational environments, while embedding disciplined engineering practices and structured knowledge transfer.
This collaboration supports the Kingdom’s broader objectives to grow national technical capabilities and strengthen operational autonomy in critical digital domains, aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.
Within the first two weeks of the collaboration, Saudi engineers and trainees from SAMI-AEC worked alongside Lockheed Martin teams to develop an operational capability that integrates commercial aircraft location data directly into the operational common picture within Lockheed Martin’s CommandIQ™ system. This early delivery highlights the speed and effectiveness of local technical integration. It demonstrates how close collaboration between Saudi engineering teams and global technology leaders can rapidly translate into tangible capability outcomes.
CEO of SAMI-AEC Ziad Al-Musallam said, “We are proud to collaborate with Lockheed Martin in opening the software factory in Riyadh. This initiative reflects our commitment to developing local capabilities in software and digital solutions and to building a robust environment where Saudi engineers can gain practical, high-impact technical expertise.”
The software factory, said the release, reinforces SAMI-AEC’s long-term focus on building sustainable national capabilities by enabling structured skills development and advancing a modern, resilient digital ecosystem within the Kingdom.
