On August 31, 2026, during LEAP, the major technology conference held in Riyadh, HUMAIN and DataVolt announced an expansion of their partnership to develop 100 MW of AI-dedicated data center capacity at Oxagon, NEOM’s industrial hub on the Red Sea.

HUMAIN is a key player in Saudi Arabia’s emerging AI strategy. Established in May 2025 by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the company is tasked with building a Saudi AI ecosystem spanning the entire value chain: data centers, infrastructure and cloud services, AI models and applications. It is notably developing ALLAM, a large language model designed with a particular focus on Arabic.

A long-term strategy

To accelerate its expansion, HUMAIN has forged partnerships with some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, AWS, Qualcomm and Microsoft. Together with Nvidia, the company notably plans to develop “AI factories” in Saudi Arabia with up to 500 MW of capacity over five years, equipped with hundreds of thousands of GPUs.

At NEOM, the 100 MW being developed with DataVolt will form part of an initial 360 MW phase. The first 100 MW are expected to come online in 2028, while DataVolt ultimately aims to expand its entire Oxagon campus to 1.5 GW.

The project goes far beyond the construction of another data center. Riyadh wants to build the computing capacity and physical infrastructure required to support the development of AI on Saudi soil, while also attracting international capital, technology companies and talent.

With HUMAIN serving as the PIF’s flagship vehicle in the sector, artificial intelligence is emerging as another pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification, alongside energy, tourism and industry. The objective is to turn part of the Kingdom’s financial and energy resources into a competitive advantage in the global digital economy.

Sources: PIF / NEOM