AWS Planting Flag in Saudi Desert with $5.3B Cloud Infrastructure Investment

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to launch its first dedicated infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia by December 2026, with an investment exceeding $5.3 billion.

The project is one of the largest cloud infrastructure commitments in the Middle East to date and will allow enterprises operating in the Kingdom to store data within Saudi borders rather than relying on existing AWS regions in Bahrain or the UAE.

AWS has partnered with HUMAIN, an entity backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, to create a dedicated 'AI Zone' in the Kingdom. The partnership comes with an additional investment of more than $5 billion directed specifically at AI infrastructure and talent development.

The AI Zone will not only host GPU clusters but also train 100,000 Saudi citizens in cloud computing and generative AI skills through innovation centers and grants for graduate-level research.