Saudi Arabia will get more than $9B from tech giants
Several blue-chip tech corporations plan to invest in Saudi Arabia’s future technologies industry. The United States giants – Oracle Corp and Microsoft are among those companies. Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Minister of Communication and Information Technology, stated that Oracle would invest $1.5 billion. It wants to build a new cloud region in Riyadh. Meanwhile, Microsoft has put aside $2.1 billion for developing a global superscaler cloud. Overall investment will be more than $9 billion.
According to a government minister, the corporations have already started building cloud regions in the Kingdom. He also added that these investments would strengthen Saudi Arabia’s position in the Middle East and North Africa. Currently, it boasts the largest digital market in the MENA region.
The government has been investing hundreds of billions of dollars in “Vision 2023”. The latter is the economic plan developed under the leadership of the Kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. One of the main goals of this plan is to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and create more resources for generating profit. Currently, the Kingdom depends on its oil, but Crown Prince wants to encourage other profitable ventures.
The authorities are pouring vast amounts of funds into this plan. Still, one of its main goals is to attract foreign investors. Thus far, the Kingdom has struggled to get more FDI (foreign direct investment). But it seems it managed to secure the West’s partnership at last.
With the development of cloud computing, demand has increased worldwide, pushing tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, and others to set up data centers around the globe. Saudi Arabia will benefit from such extensions this time.
The Minister didn’t outline the timeframe, but Oracle plans to distribute the investment funds over several years. China’s Huawei will also sink $400 million into the Kingdom’s cloud infrastructure.
UN official applauded the Arab region’s efforts toward climate change
Saudi Arabia’s capital is currently hosting the IAEE Conference. COP27 ended recently in Egypt, while COP28 will begin shortly. These conferences are important as they aid the region in making a seamless transition to renewable energy.
On Monday, Rola Dashti, the executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, stated that the Arab region was making big headway toward climate change. She applauded Saudi Arabia’s green projects and initiatives. The country has already taken various measures for the renewable energy transition. It also works to develop a circular carbon economy and move forward with its hydrogen energy program.
Noura Alissa, the senior international policy analyst at the Saudi Energy Ministry, also spoke about the energy transition’s importance. She pointed out that having a diverse energy mix is crucial to maintaining energy security.
Meanwhile, Sausan Al-Riyami, the Director of The Oman Hydrogen Center German University of Technology in Oman, noted that green hydrogen plays a key role in the Kingdom’s energy transition plans. The authorities aim to decarbonize the economic sectors in the region gradually. However, Al-Riyami believes that Arab countries and Oman should cooperate to achieve that goal.
According to Sarah Najm, an assistant professor at King Saud University’s Department of Economics, international involvement is important for the energy transition to be successful.
