STC, Humain plan gigawatt AI data centres in Saudi

Saudi Telecom Company (STC Group) has agreed to form a joint venture with Humain, Saudi Arabia’s national artificial intelligence company, to develop and operate AI–focused data centers across the kingdom, with a total planned capacity of up to 1GW.

The new company will be owned 51% by Humain and 49% by Digital Centers for Data and Telecommunications Company (center3), STC Group’s digital infrastructure subsidiary. It will start by building 250 megawatts of capacity, with further phases to be rolled out based on customer contracts. Both entities are backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which wholly owns Humain and holds a majority stake in the STC group, aligning the project with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign push into digital infrastructure under Vision 2030.

Humain is tasked with building the kingdom’s advanced AI stack, including next-generation data centers, cloud platforms, and large-scale Arabic-language models. Center3 brings a nationwide footprint of carrier-neutral data centers and connectivity assets that already support cloud providers and large enterprises. Together, the partners aim to deliver high-density, low-latency facilities tuned for AI training and inference workloads, from generative AI to industry-specific models in sectors such as finance, energy, and logistics.

The joint venture comes as Gulf markets accelerate data center investment and compete to attract hyperscalers, semiconductor partners, and AI-native startups. For decision-makers, the project promises local options for hosting sensitive workloads, stronger data residency and compliance, and lower latency for Saudi and regional users. If executed at the intended scale, the platform could anchor new AI cloud regions, support sovereign AI initiatives and help position Saudi Arabia as a core infrastructure hub for artificial intelligence across the Middle East.