Saudi Arabia Aims to Become Computing Power Hub by 2030

Saudi Arabia is on track to become one of the world's largest exporters of computing power within eight to ten years, similar to its current position as one of the world's biggest oil exporters. Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt, credits three key factors for this vision: energy, connectivity, and geography.

According to Nanda, the cost of generating electricity from large-scale green energy projects in Saudi Arabia is about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is around 30-40% lower than comparable costs in China. The Kingdom has invested heavily in subsea cable infrastructure over the past decade and currently has 17 subsea cables landing in the country.

DataVolt's bet on Saudi Arabia rests on its ability to supply computing power to a significant portion of the world's population, including about 1.4 billion people in Africa, 2 billion in South and Southeast Asia, and 450 million in Europe, as well as another 350 million people who can be reached through Europe into the US.

DataVolt is currently building a data center project in Oxagon, the industrial city within NEOM, which is targeting a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts. The company has developed nearly $120 billion worth of new infrastructure projects over roughly two decades across the energy, water, and green hydrogen sectors in about 15 countries.

Nanda views DataVolt as an energy company that entered the data center sector from the opposite direction. He believes talent is a manageable constraint that can be addressed through training and investment, but access to advanced chips presents a different challenge due to geopolitical restrictions and regulations governing trade in advanced graphics processing units.