Saudi Arabia-backed artificial intelligence company Humain has partnered with digital infrastructure firm DataVolt to develop around 100 megawatts of the first phase of a planned data center at Oxagon, an industrial city under development in NEOM on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. NEOM said the facility is expected to be available in 2028, using renewable energy sources, advanced cooling technologies and high-performance computing clusters. The project will form part of DataVolt’s 360 MW first-phase AI data center campus at Oxagon and a wider 1.5 gigawatt AI campus. The companies expect the site to benefit from pre-zoned industrial land, large-scale energy resources and low-latency computing (fast data transmission) enabled by subsea cable connectivity. Humain, established last year and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has signed several agreements with global technology companies and is targeting 6 GW of capacity by 2034. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are accelerating AI infrastructure investment as global demand for computing power rises. The kingdom is investing hundreds of billions of dollars across sectors including AI to diversify its economy and reduce reliance on oil revenue. NEOM, unveiled a decade ago as a futuristic urban project, has seen its plans scaled back amid cost overruns and lower-than-anticipated global oil prices in recent years. Oxagon is planned as a base for renewable-energy manufacturing and AI-driven industries, while authorities are positioning its port within a faster regional trading corridor amid the Iran war.