AWS Saudi Arabia cloud region to anchor a $5.3 billion expansion of cloud and AI infrastructure
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is on track to launch its first cloud infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia in December 2026, expanding the company’s presence in the Kingdom as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) services continues to grow.
The announcement was made at LEAP in Riyadh, where AWS also revealed an expanded strategic collaboration with HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund-owned AI company. Under the agreement, AWS plans to provide up to 50 megawatts (MW) of computing capacity by 2028 within Saudi Arabia’s first AI Zone.
The AI infrastructure will combine AWS Trainium chips with the latest NVIDIA AI computing technology, giving organizations access to resources for AI training and inference workloads.
The new AWS Region, originally announced in March 2024, represents a planned investment of more than $5.3 billion in cloud infrastructure. Once operational, it will give Saudi businesses, government organisations, startups and developers the ability to run applications and serve users from AWS data centres located inside the Kingdom.
AWS said the region will also provide customers with access to services including Amazon Bedrock, its managed platform for developing and deploying generative AI applications.
AWS CEO Matt Garman said the new infrastructure would support Saudi organisations ranging from startups and enterprises to public-sector institutions deploying AI at scale.
“The launch of our new Region and our partnership with HUMAIN will deliver the full-stack cloud and AI infrastructure to help power new industries, create jobs, and accelerate the goals of Vision 2030.” He said.
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha said the AWS investment would help strengthen the Kingdom’s computing infrastructure and accelerate the development of new AI-driven industries.
“The launch of AWS’s new Region and its expanded partnership with HUMAIN will help accelerate AI innovation, enable new industries, and advance the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.” He added.
Several Saudi organisations are preparing to run cloud and AI workloads on AWS, including Abdul Latif Jameel, Almosafer, stc Group and Red Bull Mobile. AWS has also expanded its work with regional technology providers, including ZainTECH and Accenture, to support cloud adoption, security and compliance.
The company is also investing in developing Saudi Arabia’s digital workforce. Through the Amazon Academy, established with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, AWS aims to train more than 100,000 Saudi citizens in areas including cloud computing and AI.
AWS is additionally working with 11 higher education institutions in the Kingdom and plans to provide free training to up to 10,000 women through its Saudi Arabia Women’s Skills Initiative.
Once launched, the Saudi Arabia Region will become the 40th AWS Region worldwide, adding further cloud capacity to a market where government and private-sector organisations are increasingly adopting AI and cloud technologies.
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