Amazon Web Services has announced it will launch an AWS infrastructure Region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2026, to provide developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as healthcare, education, gaming, and nonprofit organisations, greater choices for running their applications and serving end users from data centres located in the Kingdom.
AWS has also revealed its intention to invest more than $5.3 billion (around SAR 19.88 billion) in the Kingdom.
The cloud region will enable customers to securely store content and run workloads while offering higher speed for its users. Some of the customers in the region that currently rely on AWS to run its workloads include Saudi Telecom Company, Seera Holding and Mobily.
The new AWS Region is expected to consist of three Availability Zones at launch, adding to the existing 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally.
“Today’s announcement supports the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation with the highest levels of security and resilience available on AWS cloud infrastructure, helping serve fast-growing demand for cloud services across the Middle East,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS.
“The new AWS Region will enable organisations to unlock the full potential of the cloud and build with AWS technologies like compute, storage, databases, analytics, and artificial intelligence, transforming the way businesses and institutions serve their customers.”
Last month, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) sovereign wealth fund stated the Kingdom’s intentions to become a global hub for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation.
“The partnership with AWS and their announcement of an AWS Region, backed by a $5.3 billion investment, ignites a new era of technological excellence and innovation for the Kingdom,” said His Excellency Engineer Abdullah Alswaha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
AWS has also pledged to help accelerate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goal of empowering women to increase participation in the workforce, by launching a new upskilling program, “AWS Saudi Arabia Women’s Skills Initiative,” in partnership with Skillsoft Global Knowledge. AWS will train up to 4,000 women on AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, at no charge.
The company has also revealed it will also establish two new innovation centres and provide startups in the Middle East and North Africa with technical mentorship and training on AWS technologies such as AI and ML.