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

Saudi AI firms Humain, DataVolt partner for data center on kingdom's Red Sea coast DUBAI, Aug 31 : 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.