NTT Data, a global digital business and technology services provider, is reportedly considering developing digital infrastructure across Saudi Arabia, driven by the Middle Eastern kingdom’s unprecedented appetite for artificial intelligence.
According to a recent report by The Japan Times, the company that was recently taken private by the NTT Group is evaluating opportunities in Saudi Arabia. NTT is already working on infrastructure giga-projects like NEOM, and as much as 70 percent of its Middle East budget is reportedly allocated for Saudi Arabia.
The publication quoted excerpts from an interview CEO Abijit Dubey gave in Riyadh, saying, “What we see is there is a supply-demand mismatch in terms of what the country wants to achieve in such a short amount of time, versus the actual capacity we have in the country.” Dubey added, “I’m here specifically because there has been so much interest around AI.”
According to Mordor Intelligence, Saudi Arabia’s big data and artificial intelligence market size reached US$ 0.51 billion in 2025, and is forecast to climb to US$ 2.22 billion by 2030, translating into a 34.24 percent CAGR. “The surge is propelled by Vision 2030 investment pledges, a USD 40 billion sovereign AI fund launched in 2024, and NEOM’s sensor network that now streams more than 1 petabyte of data every day,” says its research.
Meanwhile, according to PwC, AI is expected to contribute over US$135.2 billion in 2030 to the Saudi Arabian economy, equivalent to 12.4 percent of GDP.
Readers would recall that earlier this year, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation, has decided to take NTT Data, its data center business, private in a US$ 16 billion deal. The move was seen as an enabler for initiatives to enhance growth investments by leveraging NTT group’s cash flow and financing capabilities. These initiatives include expansion in the North American market, expansion of AI-enabled services, and upgrading data center infrastructure, among others.
The expansion in Saudi Arabia appears to be in line with its AI related expansion goals. At present NTT Data operates over 150 data centers in 20 countries across the world spread across APAC, South Asia, the Americas and EMEA.