Can Saudi Arabia’s center3 Win the Gulf’s 1GW AI Infrastructure Race?
Saudi Arabia’s center3 is aiming for 1 gigawatt of AI-ready data centers by 2030 a bold play that could redefine the Gulf’s digital power balance.
Welcome to Global Data Center Hub. Join investors, operators, and innovators reading to stay ahead of the latest trends in the data center sector in developed and emerging markets globally.
Saudi Arabia’s center3 is making one of the boldest moves in the history of the Middle East’s digital infrastructure market.
Targeting 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity by 2030.
Only 13 markets in the world have reached that milestone.
If center3 succeeds, Saudi Arabia will join a small, elite group of global hyperscale hubs.
And it’s doing so with a war chest of $13 billion, a national plan that calls for $18 billion in total hyperscale investment, and the full weight of Vision 2030 behind it.
By 2027, the company plans to cross the 300 megawatt threshold. The build-out spans not only Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, but Bahrain and other strategic Gulf locations.
The design focus is clear: facilities that can handle the power and cooling demands of AI training and high-performance computing (HPC) the fastest-growing segment of global data center demand.
Center3’s 1 GW target by 2030, backed by Vision 2030 and a $13 billion investment plan, marks Saudi Arabia’s most aggressive push yet into AI infrastructure a move detailed in Saudi Arabia: The Middle East’s Rising AI & Data Center Powerhouse.
The Gulf Rivalry
This is not happening in a vacuum.
Across the border, Abu Dhabi’s Stargate project (joint effort by OpenAI, G42, Oracle, and others) is on a similar trajectory. It’s targeting 1GW as well, with 200MW expected online by 2026.
Both countries are playing for the same prize: becoming the AI-era infrastructure capital of the Gulf.
UAE: Strong lead in live capacity and established hyperscaler tenants.
Saudi Arabia: Competitive edge in energy costs, land availability, and the scale of planned renewable build-out.
Which advantage matters more will depend on how quickly each can convert announcements into operational megawatts.
It’s targeting 1GW as well, with 200MW expected online by 2026, part of a broader push examined in Why the UAE-NVIDIA Alliance Redefines Global AI Infrastructure.
The Four Levers of Advantage
Center3’s strategy is built on structural advantages that few markets can match.
Energy costs: Solar power at $0.016 per kilowatt-hour ranks among the cheapest globally.
Land economics: Industrial parcels can be 10–15 times cheaper than in Northern Virginia, the world’s current hyperscale leader.
Connectivity: Sixteen subsea cables including the Africa 2 Pearls project provide low-latency reach into Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Capital access: Backing from STC and alignment with Vision 2030’s $18 billion national plan give it the financial firepower to scale rapidly.
The Execution Risk
There is, however, a clear vulnerability in the plan.
Building 1GW of hyperscale and AI-ready capacity is one challenge; operating it at a world-class standard is another.
Saudi Arabia’s local pool of engineers, network architects, and sustainability experts is still developing. Without rapid growth in human capital, the sector risks:
Operational bottlenecks that delay deployments.
Greater dependence on costly expatriate expertise.
The Bigger Play
If Center3 meets its target, Saudi Arabia will move beyond being a national cloud hub. It would become a bridge linking Asia, Africa, and Europe the transit point for the AI economy’s most demanding workloads.
That positioning is not only economic; it is geopolitical. Control the infrastructure, and you do more than host the data you shape the flow of intelligence itself.
The Gulf’s AI infrastructure race is shifting focus:
From building the most capacity
To building the most strategically valuable capacity the kind that becomes indispensable to the global AI supply chain.