There’s a new celebrity in the world of data centers. It’s Saudi Arabia. The country swiftly emerged as the new global data center hotbed over the past few weeks.
In the middle of May 2025, U.S. President, Donald Trump, visited the country and brought with him the crème de la crème of several key U.S. industries. Among them were top CEOs and representatives of several IT giants and big names in the data center and digital infrastructure fields. Pretty much all of them signed multibillion-dollar deals with Saudi Arabia and pledges massive investments over the next few years.
The scale of the investments, both financially and technological, is very impressive. While we are used to hearing about $1-2 billion deals in many countries, here we’re talking about deals in the tens of billions – not just one or two, but multiple. If they all are completed, this will result in a massive digital transformation of the country within the span of just a few years, before the end of the decade. It’s a mixture of scale and speed that hasn’t been seen before. Here’s a quick overview of the main deals that were signed and that are giving a pretty good idea of what’s happening.
Humain is the center of it all
You will be seeing the name Humain a lot. – they’re the main beneficent of a lot of investments. Humain is a new company, launched by Saudi Arabia and will operate and invest across the AI value chain. “Chaired by HRH the Crown Prince, Humain will provide a comprehensive range of AI services, products and tools, including next-generation data centers, AI infrastructure and cloud capabilities, and advanced AI models and solutions. The company will also offer one of the world’s most powerful multimodal Arabic large language models (LLMs). The company will enable capabilities to develop and deliver AI solutions locally, regionally, and globally. Humain aspires to both enhance human capabilities and support the unlocking of new possibilities through the digital economy,” says the official press release about the new project.
“Humain will also streamline various data center initiatives, procure hardware and accelerate the adoption of AI technologies. The company will serve as a regional and global AI hub for strategic sectors, including energy, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services. The company will foster local innovation and the creation of intellectual property, and achieve national AI aspirations. This will include consolidating Saudi Arabia’s position as a global leader in enabling the most advanced data and AI technologies and in attracting investment opportunities as well as the best talents in the sector, both locally and globally,” it adds.
Humain will have to do the majority of the work to turn the big ambitions into reality, and it will need a lot of computing power, big data centers, and capable infrastructure. This is where the big U.S. players come in with the investments and know-how.
AWS will spend $5 billion for a new AI Zone
The deals Humain made featured a $5.3 billion pledge by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for a new AI Zone in the Kingdom. This one will be separate from the cloud region AWS is already being built in the country which is also costing $5.3 billion and is set to come online next year.
The new AI Zone will feature AWS AI infrastructure, servers, and UltraCluster networks. It will also feature multiple other AWS services, like SageMaker, Bedrock, Amazon Q, etc. Humain will use the AI Zone to develop AI solutions for end customers. Both companies will also develop a unified AI agent marketplace, AI software for the Saudi Arabia government, and more.
Oracle commits $14 billion for Saudi Arabia
Oracle will invest a total of $14 billion in the Kingdom over the next ten years. The majority of the money will go towards the expansion of the cloud and AI offerings of the company in the region.
“Thanks to the decisive actions and strong leadership of President Trump and his administration, Oracle is providing the world’s most advanced cloud and AI technology to Saudi Arabia. Our expanded partnership with the Kingdom will create new opportunities for its economy, deliver better health outcomes for its people, and fortify its alliance with the United States, which will create a ripple effect of peace and prosperity across the Middle East and around the world,” said Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
Oracle already has two cloud regions in Saudi Arabia called Saudi Arabia West, and Saudi Arabia Central, and are located in Jeddah and Riyadh respectively. The company is also planning a third one in the Neom City which is also another massive project under construction in the country.
AMD will invest $10 billion for data centers
Humain will also work with AMD which will spend $10 billion for a joint project – to deploy 500MW of data center capacity over the next five years. All of them will use AMD hardware, and the data centers will be built both in the US and Saudi Arabia.
“At AMD, we have a bold vision to enable the future of AI everywhere – bringing open, high-performance computing to every developer, AI start-up, and enterprise around the world. Our investment with Humain is a significant milestone in advancing global AI infrastructure. Together, we are building a globally significant AI platform that delivers performance, openness and reach at unprecedented levels,” AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su said.
“This is not just another infrastructure play – it’s an open invitation to the world’s innovators. We are democratizing AI at the compute level, ensuring that access to advanced AI is limited only by imagination, not by infrastructure,” says Humain CEO Tareq Amin, the former CEO of Rakuten Mobile and Aramco Digital.
Nvidia will also contribute 500MW of data center capacity
This project is separate from the one with AMD. So, Humain will basically build 1000MW of data center capacity with just two companies (but wait, there’s more…).
Nvidia’s deal features multiple deliveries of chips. The first batch will feature 18,000 GB300 chips all of which will be used for a single supercomputer. Then, over the next five years, multiple deliveries will follow, totaling “several hundred thousand” superchips. The deal also features the deployment of the Omniverse platform, along with the creation of “sovereign AI” for Saudi Arabia. This follows Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s statement that: “AI, like electricity and Internet, is essential infrastructure for every nation.”
Nvidia and Humain will also work on upskilling and training initiatives for Saudi citizens. Huawei also plans to build a Future Skill Center in the country and will train 25,000 people in AI, cloud and big data over the next five years.
Groq enters the chat as well
Humain will also work with Groq, a smaller chip company which develops inference hardware along with its own GroqCloud. Groq already has a cluster in Saudi Arabia which launched in December 2024. In February 2025, the company announced an additional $1.5 billion deal to expand with a data center in Dammam.
The deal may seem small compared to the rest of the project, but it’s still important, and it sends a message that indeed all companies are welcome in the country if they have innovations and investments to offer. It’s a clever move by the Kingdom as it gives freedom because it will not rely on just a single or a couple of main vendors and platforms.
Cisco will also take part
Cisco will be yet another name which will participate in the massive data center builds for Humain. Cisco will fund the Cisco AI Institute at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. It wants to upskill up to 500,000 citizens (yes, that many) and will provide networking and security solutions in the data centers. The exact details though and the scale of the financial investment remain unclear for now.
“AI can unlock groundbreaking opportunities for economic growth and innovation, accelerating KSA’s Vision 2030. Today marks a new milestone in more than 25 years of partnership with the Kingdom. Together, we are embracing the future and empowering organizations across the public and private sectors to harness the potential of AI and be at the forefront of this revolution,” says Chuck Robbins, Cisco chair and CEO.
Qualcomm is coming as well
Qualcomm has signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Humain to develop AI data centers, along with hybrid AI across Edge and cloud and AI chips. Both companies will work together not only in Saudi Arabia, but for projects around the world as well.
“Saudi Arabia is making impressive strides toward becoming a global AI leader, and Qualcomm Technologies is pleased to be working with Humain to support the realization of these goals. We are incredibly excited help build the advanced AI data center infrastructure required to launch reliable and cost-effective next-generation hybrid AI services in the Kingdom and globally using our industry-leading CPU and AI solutions,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon says.
Let’s not forget DataVolt
DataVolt is a Saudi Arabian data center company. It also is planning some big moves. One of them is a $20 billion agreement with Super Micro Computer. The funds will be used over multiple years and will result in Supermicro delivering GPU platforms and rack systems for DataVolt’s hyperscale AI campuses built both in the U.S. and in Saudi Arabia.
“We are thrilled to partner with Supermicro and build on the strong foundations laid in these first 100 days of the Trump administration. The policies and engagement of President Trump’s administration and the strategic vision of His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, created a welcome business environment. Our vision is to pair gigawatt-class renewable and net-zero green hydrogen power with the industry’s most advanced server technology, giving customers access to unprecedented scale and sustainability. Partnering with Supermicro guarantees us a US-made supply chain for critical GPU systems and positions DataVolt to accelerate our investment plans,” says Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt.
So, Saudi Arabia is poised to become a global data center player. One that will certainly foster a lot of data center innovations. At the very least because of the country’s hot climate which will require some clever and innovative cooling solutions which will be both effective and will keep the costs reasonable.