Saudi-based data center developer DataVolt aims to build a campus in Saudi Arabia’s new Neom city.
At the LEAP 2025 event this week DataVolt and Neom signed a $5bn agreement to develop a 1.5GW data center campus in Neom’s Oxagon industrial area.
The first 300MW phase of the site will reportedly go live in 2028. Further details were not shared.
Neom is a city being built by Saudi Arabia in Tabuk Province. Oxagon is the floating industrial city under development in the southwest corner of the Neom development, on the Red Sea Coast.
Oxagon will lease DataVolt the land for the development of the facility and provide the operator with infrastructure support. The site will reportedly be powered by Neom’s wind and solar assets.
Vishal Wanchoo, CEO of Oxagon, said: “The agreement with DataVolt highlights the potential impact of the sustainable infrastructure Oxagon offers its tenants and sets the foundations for the first green-AI workload to come on-stream in KSA along with the necessary computing power for regional and global impact.”
Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt, added: “This agreement with Neom and Oxagon underscores our unwavering commitment to support the Kingdom's vision of becoming a regional digital and AI hub. The Kingdom’s strategic location, coupled with its abundant green energy resources, aligns perfectly with DataVolt’s mission in providing state-of-the-art sustainable data centers.”
Riyadh-based DataVolt was founded in 2023 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vision Invest, a Saudi Arabian development and investment holding company focused on critical infrastructure. It has committed to investing more than $5 billion in developing around 300MW of data center capacity in the country, and previously announced plans for data centers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan.
Neom has several data centers for development and operations. These include an 18,000 sqm (193,750 sq ft) data center developed by Tonomus and inaugurated in July 2023.
Oracle is also developing a cloud region in Neom.
In October 2021, Neom announced a $500m joint venture with EzdiTek – later named ZeroPointDC – to develop and operate data centers in Oxagon.
Reports surfaced last year that Oxagon was in talks to host a 1GW data center development, though details at the time were sparse.
First announced in 2017, the Neom initiative hopes to create a data-intensive, highly automated smart city with a starting investment of $500 billion. The company behind the project is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund.
The site is being built on the home of the Huwaitat tribe, with at least 20,000 members of the tribe facing eviction. While well behind the original schedule, some buildings have since launched.
DataVolt, GDH Ezditek sign data center deals in Saudi
Several other data center deals were announced as part of LEAP 2025 this week. The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones announced data center contracts with DataVolt, GDH, and Ezditek.
DataVolt signed a 2.5 billion riyals ($670m) investment contract to establish a 55,000 sqm (592,015 sqm) data center in the technical zone in Riyadh. Further details were not shared.
Gulf Data Hub (GDH), which recently secured investment from KKR, signed a 1.3 billion riyals ($350m) investment contract to establish a 163,000 sqm (1.75m sq ft) data center in the second industrial city in Dammam and Jeddah Oasis. Further details were not shared.
Ezditek signed a 2.64 billion riyals ($700m) investment contract to establish a 55,000 sqm (592,015 sq ft), 64MW data center in the technical zone in Riyadh. Further details were not shared.
