Hexagon Data Center will change the digital environment in Saudi Arabia. Dubai: With the announcement of the Hexagon Data Center, which will be the largest government data center in the world and a key component of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia formally began an ambitious $2.7 billion (Dh9.9 billion) digital infrastructure development. The Hexagon facility, which is categorized as Tier IV, the highest international grade for dependability, is intended to facilitate the quick development of digital services throughout the public sector and hasten Saudi Arabia’s transition to a data-driven economy. The project is a component of Riyadh’s efforts to increase economic diversification outside of oil while maintaining technical sovereignty over its national data.
At a time when data has become the main force behind global economic and social change, the center will use cutting-edge technology to support critical development areas. Hexagon, which is located in Riyadh and has a capacity of 480 megawatts and a total size of more than 30 million square feet, is anticipated to make Saudi Arabia a global center for state-of-the-art digital infrastructure. Under the direction of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, the effort is in line with the Vision 2030 reform plan and the strategic goals of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA). The Kingdom already holds the top spot in the world on a number of metrics, including government policy in the Global AI Index.
Since their inception in the 1950s, when they were big, climate-controlled spaces that housed early supercomputers, data centers have undergone significant change. With the development of the internet in the late 1990s and the introduction of cloud computing in the mid-2000s, their significance increased even more. By 2020, governments all around the world were giving data infrastructure top priority. This tendency was exacerbated by generative artificial intelligence’s increased demand for processing capacity. SDAIA has led the Kingdom’s national data and AI strategy since its founding in 2019. Saudi Arabia is positioned as a significant participant in the global digital economy and a regional destination for foreign technology investment thanks to the authority’s oversight of data governance, big data, artificial intelligence research, and regulation.
With the help of SDAIA, the Kingdom has developed the most cutting-edge integrated data ecosystem in the area, producing cutting-edge digital goods with a big social and economic impact. In order to protect privacy and data integrity, the authority has also implemented a thorough legislative and regulatory framework that includes the Personal Data Protection Law, generative AI standards, an AI adoption framework, and international best practices. As part of SDAIA’s planned expansion to fulfill the increasing demand for national digital infrastructure services while guaranteeing systems stay operational with maximum uptime, the Hexagon Data Center will serve as the foundation for a statewide network of interconnected facilities.
According to the authority’s plan, the network will have a total economic impact of more than 10 billion Saudi riyals ($2.67 billion) and save more than 1.8 billion riyals ($480 million) annually. By increasing digital maturity across government services, these advantages are anticipated to boost non-oil economic growth and improve quality of life. The Hexagon Data Center, which was built to the highest standards, uses cutting-edge energy-efficiency and intelligent cooling technologies, such as direct liquid cooling and hybrid cooling systems, to minimize power consumption. It is one of the biggest green data centers in the world, certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold standard, thanks to the integration of renewable energy sources into its operations.
Additionally, the facility has received international accreditation under the TIA-942 engineering standard, which is a top level for infrastructure resilience and data center design. It has earned ISO/IEC 22237 certification for technical and environmental risk protection as well as Tier IV certification, guaranteeing 99.995 percent operational availability. The project will host over 290 government systems, cut carbon emissions by over 30,000 tonnes annually, and provide a vital platform for the public and business sectors of Saudi Arabia to implement AI and digital technologies. Beyond technical infrastructure, Saudi Arabia is working on projects like Humain, a recently founded business supported by the oil giant Aramco and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
Humain was established to assist the Kingdom’s aspirations in artificial intelligence, with the goal of placing Saudi Arabia in the top three countries among the world for AI infrastructure, alongside the US and China.
