Saudi Arabian data center firm races to export compute from NEOM

DataVolt, a data center construction firm backed by Saudi billionaire Mohammed Abunayyan, is racing to complete a 100-megawatt facility in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. The facility, costing around $1 billion, is set to be operational within 13 months and will specialize in exporting compute capacity. DataVolt CEO Rajit Nanda claims this timeline would make it the fastest such facility in the world.

Plans call for expanding the capacity to 360 megawatts in the future. Saudi Arabia is aiming to become a third global hub for AI, following the US and China, and is investing heavily in data centers and tech companies. DataVolt's facility in NEOM will be the first of its kind in the region, utilizing existing subsea cables and renewable energy to supply computing power to international customers.

The entire planned capacity of 1.5 gigawatts at NEOM will be sold abroad. Nanda, previously CFO and investment officer at ACWA POWER, a firm also backed by Abunayyan, is confident in the company's ability to secure financing for the first facility. DataVolt, founded in 2023 by Vision Invest, a venture set up by two Saudi families, has pledged to exclude Chinese firms from its supply chain, stating that its infrastructure will not use Chinese components, supply chain, or technology.

Despite US controls on exports of advanced American chips, Nanda remains confident about obtaining the necessary semiconductors for the data center. The Saudi and US governments signed a strategic AI cooperation agreement last year, though specifics remain undisclosed. Nanda does not anticipate an AI investment bubble and believes the world will face a compute capacity shortage for the next decade, which could impact the global economy.