Saudi Arabia has announced a substantial investment of over $9 billion in its technology sector, aimed at advancing its digital transformation and preparing for the future economy. Leading the investments is Microsoft with a commitment of $2.1 billion, which will result in the construction of a super-scaler cloud in the kingdom. Other notable investments include Oracle’s plan to invest $1.5 billion to increase the kingdom’s cloud computing capacity, and Huawei’s $400 million investment to enhance the cloud infrastructure. In addition, $4.5 billion has been invested in global and local assets across various technology sectors.
The announcement was made during the Leap 2023 conference in Riyadh and surpasses the investments of $6.4 billion made at the inaugural Leap event last year. The investments align with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for the empowerment of the technology sector, which is considered one of the most promising sectors in Saudi Arabia due to its rapid growth in the kingdom’s digital economy.
Some of the areas of focus for the kingdom include financial and health technology, the Internet of Things, quantitative science, satellites, and space. As part of its Vision 2030 strategy, Saudi Arabia is diversifying its economy away from oil, with technology as one of the key pillars of the plan.
The global digital transformation market is expected to reach $3.95 trillion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of over 23%. Riyadh is actively encouraging entrepreneurship and seeking investment both domestically and internationally to develop the technology sector.
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