This December, W.Media has returned to Riyadh, with a new and improved second edition of the Saudi Cloud & Datacenter Convention. The day-long event, that will be held at the Hotel Crowne Plaza Riyadh Minhal on December 10, is expected to draw over 300 of the crème-de-la-crème of Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure industry. These include industry experts and thought leaders, C-level executives, digital infrastructure professionals including architects, engineers and consultants (AECs), key buyers, decision makers, data center owners and operators.
Saudi Arabia: One of the fastest growing markets in the Middle East
According to Mordor Intelligence, “The Saudi Arabia Data Center Market size is estimated at 345.3 MW in 2024, and is expected to reach 854.8 MW by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 19.88%. Further, the market is expected to generate colocation revenue of USD 5,287.1 Million in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 13,577.6 Million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 20.76% during the forecast period (2024-2029).”
Things are moving quickly in Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure space. Just a few weeks ago, Gcore and Ezditek launched a joint venture focused on providing high-performance Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The joint venture will develop an ‘AI factory’, which can be used for building, training, and deploying generative AI solutions locally and across the globe.
Before that, in October, Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and Google Cloud, announced a strategic partnership to create a new global AI hub. The new AI hub will be based near Dammam, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
Shortly before that, Aramco Digital, the digital and technology subsidiary of Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned petroleum and natural gas company, entered into a partnership with Groc, an AI Inference company, to set up one of the world’s largest inferencing data centers in Saudi Arabia.
In July this year, DataVolt had revealed plans to build and operate 300 MW data centers in Saudi Arabia by 2030, powered by an investment of US$ 5 billion in digital infrastructure and AI.
Earlier this year, IBM had announced plans to invest over 200 million dollars in talent and infrastructure in a new IBM Software Lab that will come up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Oracle opened its second Cloud Region in Saudi Arabia. The new Riyadh Cloud Region is part of Oracle’s US$ 1.5 Billion investment to cater to the needs of an economy undergoing rapid digital transformation. Then there is the futuristic NEOM project, and the industrial hub of Oxagon, where there are plans to build a 1 GW data center.
Stellar line-up of speakers at Saudi CDC 2024
The who’s who of the region’s digital infrastructure industry will participate in a series of panel discussions at Saudi CDC. Some of our speakers include: Amjad Hafez (CEO, NourNet), Stuart Manby (Chief Sales Officer, Ezditek), Nishil Dhanani (Director – Project Development, DataVolt), Colm Shorten (Senior Director – Data Centres, JLL), Syed Mohamed Beary (Founder & Chairman, Bearys Group), Naif Alharbi (IT Director, Mitsubishi Electric Saudi Ltd.), Hassan Abbas (Sr. Director – Infrastructure, Ooredoo Qatar), Dr. Mohammed Al Dighriri (General Director of Environmental Data Modeling and Analysis, National Center for Environmental Compliance KSA), Fadwa AlBawardi (Founder & CEO, FSAB Consulting), and many more.
So, what are you waiting for? Join us at Hotel Crowne Plaza Riyadh Minhal on December 10. To learn more about the conference agenda and to register, please Click here.