Oracle Corporation invests 1.5 billion dollars in Saudi Arabia

Oracle Corporation official said that the company wants to increase its presence in cloud computing and is opening its third sector in Riyadh.

Technology companies set up data centers to transfer data quickly. This is because there is an increased demand for cloud computing.

Saudi officials put pressure on international companies. They want companies to invest and move their regional headquarters to Riyadh to benefit from government contracts.

Nick Redshaw, senior vice president of Oracle, said they are finalizing plans to open the sector in Riyadh. We are still working with our suppliers before announcing the exact date.

Redshaw said the investment would be completed over several years and did not provide details. Also, he added that Oracle would expand the capacity of its cloud sector to Jeddah, which the company first opened in 2020.

Although Oracle Corporation is lagging behind its rivals in the race to capture the cloud computing market, it was among the first major technology companies to open a data center in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is leading an economic transformation called Vision 2030. The country has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in the project.

NEOM is part of the national development plan

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs help attracting foreign direct investment. Foreign investments will be one of the main pillars for the realization of the Vision 2030 project. The project aims to diversify the economy away from oil.

Foreign investments reached just under 4.1B dollars in the first half of 2022. That represents just a fraction of the ambitious $100B goal set for the end of this decade.

Saudi Arabia is encouraging foreign firms to set up in the country. If they want to, they can avoid losing contracts with the government and have until the end of 2023 to agree to that decision.

Redshaw said they are working closely with the Saudi government to finalize plans on the terms of the regional headquarters. They will announce when they finalize the agreement with them.