Amazon Web Services (AWS) has confirmed that its first cloud infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia remains on track to launch in December 2026.
The region represents an investment of more than $5.3B and will expand AWS’s global infrastructure network to 40 regions, according to the company.
AWS has also expanded its partnership with HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund-owned company, committing up to 50MW of computing capacity for Saudi Arabia’s first AI Zone by 2028. The facility will combine AWS Trainium chips with NVIDIA infrastructure for AI training and inference workloads.
HUMAIN’s ALLaM Arabic large language model will be made available through Amazon Bedrock, while its HUMAIN Fabric platform will be listed on the AWS Marketplace.
AWS said its regions are designed to support local data residency requirements, allowing startups, developers and enterprises to run applications from data centers within the country.
The company cited an IDC report estimating that AI could contribute $130B to Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030. Existing Saudi organisations using AWS infrastructure include Abdul Latif Jameel, Almosafer and stc Group.
AWS also said its Amazon Academy initiative aims to train more than 100,000 Saudi citizens for digital careers, including 10,000 women through a dedicated program.
Source: Middle East AI News
