FILE PHOTO: Attendees walk through an expo hall at AWS re:Invent 2023, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., November 29, 2023. Noah Berger/AWS/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
(Reuters) - Amazon.com's cloud division Amazon Web Services said on Monday it will launch data centers in Saudi Arabia in 2026 and plans to invest more than $5.3 billion in the kingdom.
The cloud region will enable customers to securely store content and run workloads while offering higher speed for its users.
Amazon and its cloud competitors Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft have said they will raise their investments, primarily for data centers, to support the growing adoption of artificial intelligence technologies.
Amazon said customers in the region that use AWS to run workloads include Saudi Telecom Company SJSC, Seera Holding and Mobily, among others.
Apple and Amazon, led by its AWS unit, were in discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported in 2017.
Last month, the head of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) sovereign wealth fund pitched the kingdom as a prospective hub for AI activity outside the United States, citing its energy resources and funding capacity.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
