Saudi AI firms Humain, DataVolt partner for data center on kingdom’s Red Sea coast

By Federico Maccioni

DUBAI, Aug 31 (Reuters) –  Saudi Arabia-backed artificial intelligence company Humain has partnered with digital infrastructure firm DataVolt to develop around 100 megawatts (MW) of the first phase of a planned data center at Oxagon, an industrial city under development in NEOM, on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast, NEOM said in a statement on Monday. 

• The facility is expected to be available in 2028, integrating renewable energy sources, innovative cooling technologies, and high-performance computing clusters.

• It will form part of the 360 MW first phase of DataVolt’s planned AI data centre campus at Oxagon. The development is part of a wider 1.5 gigawatt (GW) AI campus.

• Firms expect the project to benefit from Oxagon’s pre-zoned industrial land availability, at-scale energy resources, and access to low-latency computing via subsea cable connectivity.

• Saudi Arabia and its Gulf peers are accelerating their AI build-out to capitalise on surging global demand for computing power.

• Set up last year and backed by Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund PIF, Humain has secured several agreements with global technology firms. It is targeting 6 GW of capacity by 2034.

• The kingdom is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars to transform its economy and cut reliance on oil revenue, investment in various sectors including AI.

• NEOM was unveiled a decade ago as a futuristic urban project part of the transformation but plans have been scaled back amid cost overruns, lower-than-anticipated global oil prices in recent years.

• Oxagon is set to host renewable‑energy manufacturing and AI‑driven industries, with a port that authorities are now positioning as part of a faster regional trading corridor amid the Iran war.

(Reporting by Federico MaccioniEditing by Tomasz Janowski)