Saudi AI firms Humain and DataVolt partner on Red Sea data center

Humain, the Saudi AI company backed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is partnering with DataVolt on a major computing facility at Oxagon, the industrial city being developed on NEOM’s Red Sea coast.

The first phase will provide about 100 megawatts of capacity and is expected to be available in 2028. The facility will combine renewable energy sources, new cooling technologies and high-performance computing clusters, according to a NEOM statement.

The project will be part of DataVolt’s 360-megawatt first-stage data center campus at Oxagon. The wider AI campus is planned to reach 1.5 gigawatts. The companies expect the site to benefit from pre-zoned industrial land, large-scale energy supplies and subsea cable connections that can provide low-latency computing.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are accelerating AI infrastructure investment as global demand for computing power grows. Humain, established last year, has signed several agreements with international technology companies and is targeting 6 gigawatts of capacity by 2034.

The investment sits within Saudi Arabia’s broader effort to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on oil revenue. NEOM, unveiled a decade ago as a futuristic urban development, has faced scaled-back plans amid cost overruns and lower oil prices in recent years. Oxagon is also intended to host renewable-energy manufacturing and AI-focused industries, with authorities positioning its port within a faster regional trade corridor amid the war involving Iran.