Saudi Arabia to build world’s largest government data center

Saudi Arabia has broken ground on what it describes as the world’s largest government data center, launching a facility in Riyadh intended to anchor the kingdom’s digital infrastructure and support artificial intelligence services.

Construction of the the 30 million square-foot (2.8 million square-meter) Hexagon project comes as Saudi Arabia and the UAE race to position the Gulf as a global hub for AI development, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports. 

Hexagon’s size reflects Saudi Arabia’s growing use of internet-connected sensors and cameras across its cities, driving the need to process vast amounts of data.

The government already uses AI-powered systems to manage traffic – including 14,000 cameras within Riyadh’s public transportation network – generating continuous data flows that require large-scale computing capacity.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have signed agreements to use advanced Nvidia chips, expand cloud capacity and collaborate with leading model developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI.

Saudi Arabia has tied its push to new government-backed platforms and data centers, while the UAE has rolled out large AI campuses and investment vehicles to anchor partnerships with U.S. tech firms.