Humain
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersBelfast, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
Humain firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Humain
- Legal name
- HUMAIN Ltd.
- Website
- https://humain-studios.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Humain industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Digital Animation Services
- NAICS
- Motion Picture and Video Production (512110)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Modding Platforms & Tooling (mods, maps, servers, script hubs) (MPAFAIAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- XR/AR/VR/MR Development Frameworks & Toolchains (MPAFAFAF)
Keywords
Where Humain is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Belfast
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices4 records
Markets served
Humain business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations
Revenue model
- AI Infrastructure Services: Building and operating AI data centers providing compute capacity for AI workloads. Revenue generated through data center hosting, compute leasing, and infrastructure services to hyperscalers and AI companies.
- AI Investment Returns: Strategic investments in AI companies (xAI, Luma AI) generating returns through equity appreciation and stake conversion following acquisitions.
- AI Platform Licensing: Licensing of AI operating systems (Humain One) and AI models to government entities and enterprises.
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels3 records
Humain product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Humain is a Belfast-based animation studio that creates facial and body rigs for video game developers and entertainment companies. They combine psychology and anatomy with animation, coding, and art to produce realistic, emotionally expressive character rigs. Their proprietary EKER framework, based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), serves as the foundation for delivering pipeline-friendly rigs compatible with Maya, offline renderers, and real-time game engines.
Product overview
Humain is a Belfast-based animation studio offering specialized facial and body rigging services for video game developers. The company's core product is EKER, a FACS-based facial rigging framework that creates anatomically accurate and emotionally expressive character rigs. Services include facial rigging leveraging the EKER system with support for keyframe animation, motion capture, and AI-driven characters, as well as body rigging that integrates with industry-standard tools like Maya, offline renderers, and real-time game engines.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Humain One: Agentic AI operating system for enterprise automation, enabling organizations to automate complex tasks using natural language. Already deployed across Saudi government and in pilot programs with three PIF entities.
- Humain Chat
- Humain Create
- EKER
Products and services
- EKER Facial Rigging Framework
Quantifiable outcome
- Target to handle 7% of world's AI workloads by 2030
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Humain
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Humain technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Humain partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.
- stc GroupcoreJoint venture to develop AI data centers capable of hosting up to 1 GW of workloads. Partnership combines data center expertise with AI capabilities with target of 6 GW by 2034.
- Saudi Ministry of InteriorcoreStrategic partnership to enhance Ministry's technological capabilities with AI and advanced computational infrastructure. Launch of Humain Chat on Absher platform.
- Global AImajorPartnership to develop large-scale AI data centers in the United States. Global AI providing sovereign AI infrastructure as NVIDIA Cloud Partner with advanced liquid-cooled NVIDIA systems.
- NVIDIAcoreExpanded partnership to deploy up to 600,000 NVIDIA AI infrastructure GPUs over three years, including establishing data centers in Saudi Arabia and the US. Part of broader $1 billion approved chip export deal.
- AMDcoreJoint venture to deploy up to 1 GW of AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia by 2030. Initial 100 MW deployment utilizing AMD GPUs in Humain data centers starting 2026.
- CiscocoreJoint venture with AMD and Humain to develop AI infrastructure starting with 100 MW deployment. Cisco provides infrastructure solutions.
- AdobecorePartnership to develop culturally intelligent generative AI for the Arab world. Integrating Arabic language model into Adobe creative applications using Firefly Foundry.
- AWScoreExpanded partnership to deploy up to 150,000 NVIDIA GB300 AI accelerators in new AI Zone in Riyadh. Integration of AWS Trainium chips supporting advanced AI workloads.
- xAIcorePartnership to develop AI infrastructure including hyperscale GPU data centers and Grok model deployment. Creating 500 MW+ flagship AI data center - xAI's first large-scale compute deployment outside the US.
- DataVoltmajorStrategic partnership to develop multi-gigawatt AI data centers supporting demanding AI workloads. Focus on sustainable, high-performance data centers leveraging Humain's AI ecosystem.
- Savvy Games GroupmajorMoU to deploy AI across Savvy Games operations. Collaboration on research, development, and new AI applications with access to Humain data centers and cloud infrastructure.
- QualcommcorePartnership to deploy 200 megawatts of Qualcomm AI200 and AI250 rack solutions from 2026. Qualcomm establishing AI Engineering Centre in Riyadh. Humain is Qualcomm's first AI data center customer.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights3 records
Humain competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Industrial Light & Magic: Lucasfilm's VFX powerhouse offering character creation, rigging, and animation as part of a much larger feature-film and streaming portfolio. Comparable because it operates in the same high-end character/animation services value chain, but at far greater scale and breadth than Humain Studios' niche focus.
- Weta FX: New Zealand-based VFX leader known for character animation, rigging, and digital humans across film and interactive content. Overlaps with Humain's emotive character rigging value proposition but operates a much larger multi-service model.
- Digital Domain: Hollywood VFX and digital human studio with a long track record of facial performance capture and emotionally expressive characters. Comparable technology stack (facial capture/animation) and overlap with Humain's FACS-rooted approach, but at significantly larger scale.
- Framestore: Global VFX and immersive content studio producing feature-film character work as part of a broad creative services portfolio. Comparable on the character animation/rigging axis but with substantially greater scale and broader scope than the Belfast studio.
- DNEG: International VFX and post-production group with deep capability in digital characters and facial animation for film and episodic content. Competes indirectly with Humain Studios in the high-end character services segment, but as part of a much wider services catalogue.
- MPC (Moving Picture Company): Global VFX studio recognized for high-fidelity digital humans and character animation on blockbuster features. Comparable technology overlap with Humain's character rigging focus, but operating at enterprise scale across film, episodic, and advertising work.
Direct peers
- Axis Studios: Glasgow-based animation and CG studio offering character and creature animation services across games, TV, and commercials. Closest geographic and size analogue to Humain Studios, and explicitly referenced in the company data, making it the most directly comparable peer.
- Zoic Studios: US VFX and animation studio with a gaming/real-time division delivering character work for AAA titles and episodic content. Comparable mid-sized peer to Humain Studios with overlapping video-game and real-time engine focus.
- Trixter: Munich-based character animation and VFX studio focused on CG characters for feature films and games. Direct peer given similar scope of high-end character services, comparable scale, and shared emphasis on emotional performance capture/rigging.
- Plasticwax Studios: Sydney-based animation and rigging studio producing character and creature work for film and games. Comparable peer on rigging-led animation services and pipeline engineering, at a similar boutique scale to Humain Studios.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Humain social profiles
Digital presenceHumain financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Humain leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Humain funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Humain M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Humain
What does Humain do?
Humain is a Belfast-based animation studio that creates facial and body rigs for video game developers and entertainment companies. They combine psychology and anatomy with animation, coding, and art to produce realistic, emotionally expressive character rigs. Their proprietary EKER framework, based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), serves as the foundation for delivering pipeline-friendly rigs compatible with Maya, offline renderers, and real-time game engines.
Is Humain a public or private company?
Humain is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Humain founded?
Humain was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Humain based?
Humain is headquartered in Belfast, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Humain make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. AI Infrastructure Services are the primary driver. The others are AI Investment Returns and AI Platform Licensing.
Who are Humain's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Industrial Light & Magic, Weta FX, Digital Domain, Framestore, DNEG and MPC (Moving Picture Company). Direct peers are Axis Studios, Zoic Studios, Trixter and Plasticwax Studios.
Does Humain have an API?
No public API is recorded for Humain.
What industry is Humain in?
Humain's product category is Digital Animation Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAFAIAB, Modding Platforms & Tooling (mods, maps, servers, script hubs), with a secondary code of MPAFAFAF, XR/AR/VR/MR Development Frameworks & Toolchains. Its NAICS code is 512110.