CAIRO (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, a Red Sea urban and industrial development, has signed a deal with DataVolt to develop a 1.5 gigawatt (GW) net zero artificial intelligence project in its Oxagon industrial zone, the Saudi state news agency reported on Monday.
The project, which will operate as an integrated data centre, would see investment worth $5 billion in the first phase, SPA reported, adding it is set to be operational in 2028.
It comes as the kingdom races to become an artificial intelligence hub, amid regional competition from the UAE and Qatar, capitalising on booming demand for generative AI technology, which requires vast amounts of processing power.
Last year, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) Yasir Al-Rumayyan pitched the kingdom as a prospective hub for artificial intelligence activity outside the United States, citing its energy resources and funding capacity.
A plan by the Saudi government to create a fund of about $40 billion channelled for AI with foreign partners was said to be in the works last year.
NEOM, a development nearly the size of Belgium that is meant to eventually house 9 million people, is central to Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification plan dubbed “Vision 2030” and aimed at cutting dependence on oil revenue.
NEOM says on its website that Oxagon is set to become an industrial city powered by renewable energy.
However, the kingdom has scaled back some lofty ambitions to prioritize completing elements essential to hosting global sporting events over the next decade as rising costs weigh, sources told Reuters in November.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Nayera AbdallahEditing by Tomasz Janowski and David Evans)
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