Saudi Arabia Names 2026 the Year of AI
Saudi Arabia has officially designated 2026 as the “Year of Artificial Intelligence,” positioning Riyadh as a global AI hub and a primary base for the regional operations of major technology firms. AI-related investment commitments now exceed SR 75 billion (over USD 20 billion) as of early 2026.
Since 2023, the state has allocated around SR 375 billion (USD 100 billion) toward AI, data-center clusters, and specialized hardware to build sovereign compute infrastructure. The domestic AI market, valued at about USD 1.5 billion in 2025, is projected to reach USD 6.8 billion by 2030, with AI expected to contribute roughly USD 135 billion to GDP by that year.
Data centers at the core
The National Data Center Strategy targets 1.5 gigawatts of aggregate capacity by 2030, with more than 60 operational data centers currently supervised by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Capital deployed in the sector has reached around SR 16 billion (USD 4.26 billion), with revenues projected at USD 2.83 billion by 2030.
Humain, an AI infrastructure company backed by the Public Investment Fund, is developing twin campuses with 11 data centers of 200 MW each in Riyadh and Dammam, starting operations in 2026. The USD 2.7 billion Hexagon project at King Abdullah Economic City near Jeddah plans 480 MW of capacity for GPU-intensive AI workloads.
Global firms move in
Google Cloud and the Public Investment Fund are investing USD 10 billion in a global AI hub in Riyadh, operated with Humain. Amazon Web Services is committing USD 5.3 billion to a new Saudi data-center region by 2026, while Oracle is investing USD 1.5 billion and Microsoft about USD 2.2 billion over five years.
For residents and businesses, the expansion means faster local cloud services, new tech jobs, and a growing digital economy that supports the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.
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