Saudi Arabia just handed out a contract for one of the biggest AI data centre projects the region has seen, and it’s a signal of how fast the Gulf is racing to become a global AI hub. Dammam-based construction firm Al-Yamama Company for Trading & Contracting has won the job to build the infrastructure for a planned 6GW hyperscale AI data centre campus in Riyadh, and the numbers involved are hard to ignore.
The project belongs to Humain, Saudi Arabia’s AI company owned by the Public Investment Fund. Humain tendered the contract back in May, as MEED reported at the time, and the deal has now been finalised with Al-Yamama handling the groundwork. This isn’t just another construction contract. It’s part of a bigger push to build the physical backbone that AI needs to actually run, chips, power, cooling and cables, at a scale few countries have attempted.
What’s actually being built in Riyadh, and why size matters
The campus will sit on a 24-square-kilometre site in the Al-Saad area of east Riyadh. To put that in perspective, that’s a huge chunk of land dedicated purely to servers and the systems that keep them running. The project will be delivered in two phases, spread across six plots, with each plot capable of handling 1GW of capacity. Add it all up and you get 6GW, enough electricity to power a small country, all going toward AI computing.
The contract is being delivered on what’s called an early contractor involvement, or ECI, basis. In simple terms, this means Al-Yamama was brought in early to help design and plan the build, not just construct it after the fact. Contractors submit their methods and design ideas first, and the strongest proposal gets picked to carry the project through. It’s a smarter way to avoid costly redesigns later, especially on a project this size.
The infrastructure scope itself shows just how much has to happen before a single AI chip even gets switched on. The plan includes a full electrical distribution network running at 380kV, 132kV and 33kV, plus two substations with 500MVA and 200MVA capacity, and a bulk supply point rated at 2,000MVA. On top of that, there’s a water network and fire protection systems, a sewage treatment plant, wastewater and stormwater systems, roads, underground cable and fibre optic networks, and landscaping. In other words, this is essentially building a small city’s worth of utilities, just to support computing power.
Why this matters beyond Riyadh, for the whole Gulf tech race
Humain was only launched in May last year, but it’s moving fast. The company says it’s building what it calls full-stack AI capabilities, meaning it wants a hand in everything from next-generation data centres and high-performance cloud infrastructure to actual AI models, including its own model called Allam. That’s a clear statement of intent: Saudi Arabia doesn’t just want to host other people’s AI infrastructure, it wants to own the whole chain, from the physical building to the software running inside it.
For UAE and wider GCC readers, this matters for a few reasons. First, it shows the scale of investment competitors in the region are putting into AI infrastructure, which raises the bar for what “keeping up” looks like across the Gulf. Second, projects like this create real opportunities for regional contractors, engineers and suppliers who can work on power networks, water systems and fibre infrastructure, not just tech firms. Third, it’s a reminder that AI’s biggest bottleneck right now isn’t just chips, it’s power and land, and whoever secures both first gets a head start.
This kind of project also ties into a broader wave of activity happening across the region right now, something we track closely in our innovation news coverage, from data centres to clean energy to construction tech. Saudi Arabia’s approach here, pairing a state-backed AI company with experienced local contractors, could become a template other Gulf states look at as they plan their own AI ambitions.
What to watch next is how quickly Al-Yamama moves through the design and build phases, and whether Humain announces further contracts as the second phase of the campus takes shape. As reported by MEED, this is just one piece of a much larger AI infrastructure push happening across Saudi Arabia, and it likely won’t be the last major contract of its kind this year.
