Status: Ongoing Development and Accelerated Expansion | Location: Across Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam/Al-Khobar, Madinah, etc.)
The center3 1 Gigawatt Expansion Plan represents one of the most aggressive and strategically important data center initiatives in the Middle East, directly supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 agenda to diversify the economy and become a leading global digital hub. center3, a specialised subsidiary of the stc Group, is the vehicle for this transformation, focusing on carrier-neutral data centers and international connectivity.
The scale of the commitment is immense: center3 has invested US$3 billion to date and is committing to an additional US$10 billion investment by 2030, targeting a total IT load capacity of 1,000 MW (1.0 GW). This makes the project central to the Kingdom’s goal of dramatically expanding its total national IT load to over 1 GW by 2030.
The expansion involves building new, high-density, hyperscale-ready data centers across key cities like Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, establishing a critical backbone for cloud services and next-generation workloads. A key technological focus is high availability, with the majority of new capacity designed to meet demanding Uptime Institute Tier IV standards—the highest level of redundancy and fault tolerance—to assure 99.995% uptime for government, banking, and hyperscale operations.
This colossal digital infrastructure drive is crucial for attracting the global hyperscalers (like AWS and Microsoft, who have their own committed investments) and for supporting domestic initiatives, particularly the massive AI programs backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). Furthermore, center3 leverages its control over the Saudi Vision Cable and an expanding network of international submarine cables, physically connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. This connectivity, combined with the massive computing power, solidifies Saudi Arabia’s role as the digital intersection of the three continents. The first major phase is set to deliver 300 MW of installed capacity by 2027, signalling the immediate impact of this multi-billion-dollar strategic effort.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Project Name | stc center3 1 Gigawatt Expansion Project |
| Location | Across Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam/Al-Khobar, Madinah, etc.) |
| Status | Ongoing Development and Accelerated Expansion |
| Project Type | Hyperscale, Carrier-Neutral, International Connectivity Hub |
| Commissioning | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Total IT Load | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Total Capacity | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Tier Level | 🔒 Subscriber Intelligence |
| Header | Details |
|---|---|
| City Name | Riyadh |
| Population | 7 to over 9 million |
| Urban Agglomeration | 7.9 to 9 million |
| Economic Profile | 🔒 Detailed city intelligence available to subscribers |
Developer, operator, infrastructure partners, contractors and engineering.
Power capacity, redundancy, cooling, connectivity, PUE and energy mix.
Announcement, construction start, go-live and full buildout.
Total project investment and funding intelligence.
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