Huawei Technologies has launched a cloud data center in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the Chinese telecoms firm announced on September 4, 2023.
It’s Huawei’s 30th data center worldwide and will support the kingdom’s artificial intelligence (AI) applications and language models in Arabic, Huawei said.
“The implementation of Huawei cloud is not just about us but is a bridge that will bring other Chinese companies to Saudi Arabia,” said Steven Yi, the company’s regional president.
Read: Huawei’s revenue soars to $42.9 bn in H1 2023
Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali, vice minister at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, said: “Huawei is a proud partner in our country’s technological progress, having worked with the ministry, service providers, enterprises and universities in various collective efforts toward digital transformation. We look forward to the transformative impact the Huawei Cloud Riyadh Region will have on our digital ecosystem, creating new avenues for innovation and growth.”
Huawei said earlier this year that it would invest $400 million in Saudi’s cloud region over the next 5 years. The company said it will train 200,000 developers in Saudi over that time period and plans to build joint solutions with 1,000 local partners and launch the Huawei Cloud Startup Program to help 2,000 startups grow.
Eric Yang, CEO of Huawei Saudi Arabia, said: “Toward 2030, we will stay dedicated to continuously providing ubiquitous connectivity, green energy, pervasive cloud computing, and AI capabilities for Saudi Arabia to unlock unlimited opportunities of the new digital era.”
Huawei Saudi supported the rollout of 5G in the kingdom and helped connect 3.5 million people in rural areas, created 20,000 local jobs, and trained around 10,000 people in information and communications technology.
Huawei ranked fifth in the global cloud services market in Q1, 2023, with a market share of 2.4%, according to research consultancy Canalys.
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