More Than $9 Billion to be Invested in Saudi Arabia by Tech Firms

According to a government minister, Saudi Arabia has drawn more than $9 billion in investments in cutting-edge technology, notably from US powerhouses Microsoft and Oracle Corp, which are establishing cloud regions in the Kingdom.

Microsoft will invest $2.1 billion in a global superscaler cloud, according to Abdullah Alswaha, the Saudi Minister of Communication and Information Technology, while Oracle has committed $1.5 billion to the construction of a new cloud area in Riyadh.

In collaboration with the world's largest oil company, Aramco, Huawei of China would also spend $400 million in cloud infrastructure for its services in Saudi Arabia and another cloud location.

At LEAP, an international technology summit taking place in Riyadh, Alswaha stated that “The investments will enhance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position as the largest digital market in the Middle East and North Africa."

The timing was not specifically stated by Alswaha. According to Oracle, the investment would be carried out over a period of time.

To avail benefit of government contracts, Saudi officials have pushed foreign businesses to invest in the country and move their regional headquarters to Riyadh.