Latest verified update: 5 September 2026.

Recent Saudi announcements add several material infrastructure signals. They are recorded by disclosed capacity and delivery stage rather than rolled into conference or campus headline totals. Nested phases, investment values and operating capacity are kept separate.

Gulf AI and data-centre additions verified 5 September 2026
Project / operatorCountryDisclosed scaleStage / treatmentPrimary source
HUMAIN + DataVolt, OxagonSaudi Arabia100MW under development within a 360MW first phase; wider campus planned at 1.5GWConstruction / development. The 100MW, 360MW and 1.5GW figures are nested stages and are not summed.NEOM
MIS data-centre expansionSaudi Arabia$1.2bn programme; target total operational capacity of 192MWExpansion announced. 192MW is a target for total operational capacity, not current live capacity.SPA
NHC Innovation / Khuzam Digital ValleySaudi Arabia65MW targeted by 2033Development announced. SPA reported $880m on 1 Sep and $800m in its 4 Sep closing summary; the value discrepancy remains open.SPA day two · SPA close
AWS Saudi Arabia RegionSaudi ArabiaMore than $5.3bn planned investment; MW not disclosedCloud region scheduled to launch in December 2026. No MW estimate is inferred.SPA
AWS + HUMAIN first AI zoneSaudi ArabiaUp to 50MW by 2028Planned AI-zone infrastructure. Kept separate from the AWS region and other HUMAIN programmes.SPA
center3 + HUMAINSaudi ArabiaAI-ready capacity starting at 250MWDevelopment programme announced. Not treated as operating capacity.SPA

These rows supplement the base tracker below. Announced, under-development and operating infrastructure remain separate states, and overlapping programme values are never added into a synthetic regional total.

Gulf Business Review · Original data

Gulf AI & Cloud Infrastructure Tracker: 20 Major Projects and Cloud Regions

A GCC-wide tracker of AI data centres, hyperscale cloud regions and sovereign-compute projects, separating operating regions from announced gigawatt-scale programmes.

Last reviewed: 2 September 2026. Values remain in their disclosed units. Missing capacity, spend or timing is not estimated. Full methodology. Research maintained by Rami Haddad, Technology Editor.

The Gulf's AI infrastructure story is no longer only a list of very large announced gigawatt targets. The region also contains operating hyperscale cloud regions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, plus local and on-premises infrastructure in markets that do not yet have a full hyperscale region.

This tracker therefore keeps three layers distinct: operating cloud infrastructure, announced or under-construction AI capacity, and distributed infrastructure such as Local Zones or Outposts. A 500MW AI-factory programme is not added to a cloud region whose operator has not disclosed MW.

Gulf AI & Cloud Infrastructure Tracker: 20 Major Projects and Cloud Regions
Project / infrastructureCountryDisclosed scale or footprintStage at review datePrimary source
Stargate UAEUnited Arab Emirates1GW AI cluster; first 200MW phase inside a wider 5GW UAE-US AI campusUnder construction; first 200MW targeted for 2026Source
Microsoft + G42 / Khazna expansionUnited Arab Emirates200MW additional data-centre capacityExpansion announced; capacity expected to start coming online before end-2026Source
Microsoft UAE cloud regionsUnited Arab EmiratesTwo cloud regions, Abu Dhabi and Dubai; MW not disclosedOperating since 2019Source
AWS Middle East (UAE) RegionUnited Arab EmiratesThree Availability Zones; MW not disclosedOperatingSource
Oracle UAE CentralUnited Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi cloud region; MW not disclosedOperatingSource
Oracle UAE EastUnited Arab EmiratesDubai cloud region; MW not disclosedOperatingSource
HUMAIN + DataVolt OxagonSaudi ArabiaApproximately 100MW initial phasePartnership announced August 2026; initial project defined, not counted as operatingSource
HUMAIN + NVIDIA AI factoriesSaudi ArabiaUp to 500MW over five years; several hundred thousand advanced GPUs referencedMulti-year strategic buildout announcedSource
HUMAIN + AMD + Cisco collaborationSaudi ArabiaNo single site-level MW figure disclosedStrategic infrastructure collaboration announced; excluded from MW totalsSource
Microsoft Saudi Arabia EastSaudi ArabiaThree Azure Availability Zones; MW not disclosedOpening to customers in November 2026Source
Google Cloud DammamSaudi ArabiaCloud region; MW not disclosedOperating; region opened in 2023 and Vertex AI services expanded thereafterSource
Oracle Saudi Arabia WestSaudi ArabiaJeddah cloud region; MW not disclosedOperatingSource
Oracle Saudi Arabia CentralSaudi ArabiaRiyadh cloud region; MW not disclosedOperatingSource
AWS Saudi Arabia RegionSaudi ArabiaAWS announced a Saudi region and approximately $5.3bn investment plan; site MW not disclosedPlanned / buildout for 2026 launchSource
Google Cloud DohaQatarThree-zone cloud region; MW not disclosedOperating since 2023Source
Microsoft Qatar datacenter regionQatarAzure and Microsoft 365 local cloud region; MW not disclosedOperating since 2022Source
AWS Middle East (Bahrain) RegionBahrainThree Availability Zones; MW not disclosedOperating since 2019Source
Google Cloud Kuwait regionKuwaitCloud region announced; MW not disclosedPlanned / forthcoming in Google's regional infrastructure roadmapSource
AWS Oman Local ZoneOmanLocal Zone rather than a full AWS Region; MW not disclosedAvailable infrastructure footprintSource
AWS Outposts GCC footprintKuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi ArabiaOn-premises AWS infrastructure availability; not equivalent to a hyperscale cloud regionAvailable; tracked separately from Regions and Local ZonesSource

Methodology

A row requires an identifiable GCC country and an operator or consortium source, or a high-quality report for a newly announced project. Hyperscale Regions, Availability Zones, Local Zones and Outposts are labelled according to the provider's own terminology because they are not interchangeable forms of capacity.

MW figures are recorded only when disclosed. Partnership announcements without site-level capacity remain in the tracker for ecosystem context but are excluded from capacity totals. A project becomes operating only when the operator confirms service availability or commissioned infrastructure.

These dataset-specific rules operate under the publication's research methodology, including its source hierarchy, refresh policy and treatment of missing values.

How to cite this dataset

Use the dataset title, publication and review date. Project and company status can change, so citations should preserve the review date rather than describing the table as permanently current.

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Gulf AI & Cloud Infrastructure Tracker | Gulf Business Review