Saudi Telecom Company, the largest telecom company in the Middle East, has allocated 1.5 billion riyals ($400 million) to complete the largest cloud data center in the region, as the oil-rich kingdom seeks to become a hub for digitization, according to a company spokesman.

The Saudi Telecom Company, known as stc, is implementing the third phase of the data center program on an area of ​​more than 180,000 square meters, according to a statement from the company.

The Riyadh-based telecom operator completed the first phase of the project in 2019, and the second phase has already reached its final operational stage. The statement said that STC’s data center program consists of 16 data centers in six cities.

Haitham Al-Faraj, chief technology officer of the Saudi company, said: “We have plans for data centers that will implement the infrastructure in the region, and stc seeks to be the leading data platform in order to support the demand for international communication, and we aim to expand and equip our current centers to meet the growing demands of our customers in the future. “.

He continued, “One of the solutions we offer is the central solution by replicating a standardized design for data centers, and it can double the current digital power capacity to more than 300 megawatts by responding quickly to demand in the local market.”