Saudi Telecom Co. to Invest $400 Million Expanding Data Centers

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Telecom Co., the biggest telecommunications company in the Middle East, will invest 1.5 billion riyals ($400 million) to build the largest cloud-enabled data center in the region as the oil rich-kingdom seeks to become a center for digitalization, according to a spokesman for the company.

STC, as the firm is known, is implementing the third phase of its data-center program with a facility that has an allocated land area of more than 180,000 square meters, according to a statement. 

The Riyadh-based telecommunications company completed the first phase of the project in 2019 and the second phase is already is in the final commissioning stage. STC’s data-centers program consists of 16 data centers in six cities, the statement said.

“We have big plans for our data centers to become a gateway for the MENA infrastructure,” Chief Technology Officer Haithem Alfaraj said in the statement. “STC is geared up to grow-on-demand.”

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