AWS to launch first cloud infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia by December 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced at the LEAP tech conference in Riyadh that its first infrastructure cloud region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will officially launch in December 2026. The milestone represents a multi-year investment commitment of over $5.3 billion (SAR 19.88 billion).
As part of an expanded partnership, AWS will collaborate with PIF-backed HUMAIN to supply 50 megawatts (MW) of specialized capacity for Saudi Arabia’s premier AI Zone by 2028. AWS is positioned as HUMAIN’s preferred AI partner to power digital sovereignty and generative AI workloads across enterprise and public sectors.
The AI Zone hardware stack will integrate proprietary AWS Trainium silicon alongside next-generation NVIDIA compute platforms to support large-scale model training and real-time inference. Additionally, HUMAIN’s flagship Arabic Large Language Model, ALLAM, will become natively available on Amazon Bedrock, and HUMAIN Fabric data infrastructure will launch on AWS Marketplace.
According to IDC estimates cited by AWS, AI is projected to add approximately $130 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030. Executive leaders – including AWS CEO Matt Garman and Saudi Minister of MCIT His Excellency Engineer Abdullah Alswaha – highlighted that localized cloud data centers ensure strict compliance with digital sovereignty frameworks while accelerating Vision 2030 targets.
To build long-term local capacity, the Amazon Academy (in partnership with MCIT) is committed to training 100,000 Saudi nationals in cloud and AI technologies. The initiative also includes upskilling 10,000 women through targeted skills programs and establishing two physical innovation hubs in KSA to mentor regional tech entrepreneurs.
