Saudi Arabia's Ambition to Become Regional Data Hub

Saudi Telecom plans to invest about $1 billion to transform the kingdom into a regional data hub. The company may sell a stake in its Center3 business to finance the plans.

The investment would help Saudi Arabia host more media, gaming and corporate data, according to Mohammed Alabbadi, STC’s chief carrier and wholesale officer and chairman of Center3. It would also follow an initial investment of $1bn on building data centers and submarine data cables. STC may sell a stake in the company in future:

We have already had talks with potential investors. Whether it’s direct equity share or an IPO, those things will be analysed in due course.

STC is expanding into a range of services beyond its core telephone network business. In the past few years, its digital payments arm has grown to be worth more than $1bn and the company has listed a stake in its Internet services arm.

With the growing demand, there’s a rising need to host that content locally, Mohammed Alabbadi added.