Saudi’s Data Center project comprises six 50MW data center facilities to be located in Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah and Neom with the estimated budget of at least $2B for the entire project. Additionally, the plan entails building 60MW of data center capacity every year until 2026.
A Saudi-headquartered Quantum Switch Tamasuk (QST) is constructing the first phase of a 300MW data center project for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). The planning, financing, and operation of the data center facilities will fall within the purview of QST as well.
“QST’s data centers will be designed and built to meet the demands of hyper-scale cloud service providers, international gaming and media platforms, and global content delivery networks, with a view to attracting them to locate their main regional hubs in the kingdom,” the company said when the project was announced in February.
The data center facilities will house government projects aimed at building digital infrastructure, such as the Saudi Internet Exchange Point, a nonprofit initiative led by MCIT and the King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology.
Furtheremore, the facilities, according to QST and MCIT, will have the newest designs to reduce the need for cooling and in order to further improve sustainability, developing and securing renewable energy sources will be done as well.
“This effort will create a significant demand for new green energy; both parties are actively evaluating the feasibility of connecting solar photovoltaic facilities to the data centers,” said QST and MCIT.
