Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed at LEAP in Riyadh that its first Cloud Infrastructure Region in Saudi Arabia remains on track to launch in December 2026.

First announced in March 2024, the Region represents an investment of more than US$5.3 billion and will expand AWS’s global infrastructure to 40 Regions worldwide, according to Amazon’s own newsroom.

AWS also expanded its partnership with HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund-owned company, committing up to 50 megawatts of capacity in Saudi Arabia’s first AI Zone by 2028.

The AI Zone will run on AWS’s Trainium chips alongside NVIDIA infrastructure for AI training and inference workloads.

HUMAIN’s ALLAM Arabic language model will soon become available through Amazon Bedrock, and HUMAIN Fabric, its AI-native data platform, will be listed on AWS Marketplace.

AWS said all its Regions are “sovereign-by-design,” letting developers, startups and enterprises run applications and serve users from local data centers while meeting data residency requirements.

“The launch of our new Region and our partnership with HUMAIN will deliver the full-stack cloud and AI infrastructure to help power new industries, create jobs, and accelerate the goals of Vision 2030,” said Matt Garman, CEO of AWS.

Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said the expanded partnership would strengthen the Kingdom’s position as a global computing hub.

AWS cited an IDC report it commissioned, estimating AI could contribute US$130 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030.

Saudi organisations already running AI workloads on AWS include Abdul Latif Jameel, Almosafer and stc Group.

Beyond infrastructure, AWS is investing in Saudi Arabia’s workforce.

Amazon Academy, launched with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, aims to train more than 100,000 Saudi citizens for digital careers, including 10,000 women through a dedicated skills initiative.

Across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, AWS has trained more than 680,000 people to date, aiming to reach two million by 2030.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News UAE based on an image by AWS via its Press Release.