NTT DATA eyes Saudi Arabia data centers amid growing AI demand
TOKYO, JAPAN — Japanese technology firm NTT DATA is considering building data centers in Saudi Arabia, a strategic move to capitalize on the kingdom’s accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions, according to a Bloomberg report.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abhijit Dubey, confirmed the evaluation, saying that “What we see is there is a supply-demand mismatch in terms of what the country wants to achieve in such a short amount of time, versus the actual capacity we have in the country.”
“I’m here specifically because there has been so much interest around AI,” Dubey added.
Saudi Arabia targets AI leadership
The main reason for this potential investment is that Saudi Arabia has an organized national plan to diversify its economy by creating high-tech, commercially viable industries.
The kingdom is becoming more focused on areas such as artificial intelligence to generate new sources of income and make Riyadh a major technological, financial, and investment center worldwide.
Such a program also involves introducing a national AI champion, Humain, supported by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and oil corporation Saudi Aramco, to drive local growth.
This national ambition is creating tangible market opportunities for global infrastructure firms.
Humain already has a deal with Blackstone Inc. for a data center, and investment firm BlackRock is also bidding, indicating strong confidence on the international front.
This tendency is reflected in NTT DATA’s assessment, in which Dubey says the Middle East budget accounts for 70% of the kingdom’s total, and AI and cloud computing are important to its development.
NTT DATA restructures for global expansion
For NTT DATA, its recent corporate restructuring provides a strategic advantage in navigating this fast-moving opportunity.
Recently, the company was privatized by its parent, NTT Group, in an enormous $16 billion deal. This change of ownership is notable because, according to the company, it can implement new investments quickly and with less challenge, enabling more agile moves in a competitive environment.
The company also previously ranked #24 in the OA500 2025, an objective index of the world’s top 500 outsourcing companies.
In its commitment to serving clients, NTT DATA has strategically expanded its global AI and infrastructure capabilities through a multi-year partnership with ServiceNow, designating ServiceNow as a strategic AI delivery partner.
The company is concurrently executing a massive $10 billion global data center expansion, acquiring sites across North America, Europe, and Asia to add nearly one gigawatt of AI-ready capacity.
Further strengthening its regional expertise, NTT DATA recently acquired EXAH, a Salesforce and AI specialist, to bolster its market presence and solution portfolio across the Middle East and Africa.
A possible expansion of Saudi data centers would further strengthen NTT DATA’s presence in the area. The IT company has already been working with Saudi mega-project developers, including Neom, and is part of major infrastructure projects, including stadiums.
By joining other firms such as Actis and Applied Intuition in the Saudi tech rush, NTT DATA is positioning itself as a key infrastructure partner in the kingdom’s technological transformation. However, it has yet to make any firm commitments on the new data centers.
