HUMAIN and DataVolt are moving a major piece of Saudi Arabia’s AI infrastructure strategy from announcement to construction, with a 100MW development at Oxagon, NEOM’s industrial city on the Red Sea coast. The companies announced an expanded partnership at LEAP to jointly develop 100MW within the 360MW first phase of DataVolt’s planned AI data center campus. Construction is already underway, giving the project a more consequential status than another capacity target sitting on an infrastructure roadmap. The first 100MW is expected to become available in 2028.

100MW Becomes the First Delivery Test

The development will sit inside DataVolt’s 360MW first phase, which itself forms part of a much larger 1.5GW Oxagon campus. That hierarchy matters because the immediate 100MW build provides a tangible delivery milestone while the broader campus remains a longer-term expansion opportunity. DataVolt expects the first phase to support large-scale AI workloads from domestic and international customers, rather than positioning the facility solely as a conventional cloud data center. The project therefore places physical compute capacity at the center of HUMAIN’s broader ambition to build an AI stack in Saudi Arabia.

The facility is being designed around the unusually demanding power and thermal characteristics of accelerated computing. Renewable energy sources, innovative cooling technologies and high-performance computing clusters are expected to work together to support AI and cloud workloads at scale. HUMAIN brings capabilities across the AI stack, while DataVolt contributes experience spanning development, financing, delivery and operations of large digital infrastructure projects. That combination makes the partnership less about simply securing data center space and more about connecting AI platforms and workloads with infrastructure capable of running them. 

HUMAIN Links AI Ambition to Physical Compute

Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN, framed the project around execution rather than another high-level AI commitment. “AI ambition only matters when you can turn it into infrastructure, compute and capacity that customers can use. That is what this partnership with DataVolt is about. Construction is underway, 100MW is moving forward, and we are building with the speed and scale that the next era of AI demands.”

For DataVolt, the groundbreaking also establishes the construction start of the wider 360MW first phase within its planned 1.5GW campus. The company is building on an infrastructure pipeline spanning Saudi Arabia and Central Asia, alongside experience structuring capital-intensive digital infrastructure projects. Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt, emphasized execution across the entire infrastructure chain, from power and engineering through construction and operations. His statement also underscores the distinction between announcing AI capacity and actually delivering the infrastructure required to operate it.

“AI infrastructure at this scale demands more than capital and capacity, but disciplined execution, from power and engineering through construction and operations. Our partnership with HUMAIN brings together our complementary capabilities with a clear focus on delivery and bringing world class digital infrastructure capacity to the Kingdom. Breaking ground at Oxagon is an important milestone as we move forward with the first 360MW phase and build the infrastructure required to support AI compute at scale.”

Oxagon’s Infrastructure Shapes the Economics

The site offers several characteristics that directly address the constraints increasingly shaping AI infrastructure projects. Oxagon provides pre-zoned industrial land, access to energy resources at scale and subsea cable connectivity toward Europe and Africa, giving the campus a potential advantage in development speed and network reach. Those inputs matter because AI infrastructure economics increasingly depend on securing power, land, connectivity and operating efficiency alongside compute hardware. Meanwhile, the location gives the project a route into international digital infrastructure markets while supporting Saudi Arabia’s domestic AI ambitions.

Eng. Aiman Al-Mudaifer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Office of NEOM, described the development as evidence of the industrial ecosystem forming around Oxagon. “Breaking ground on the HUMAIN and DataVolt project is an important demonstration of the industrial ecosystem taking shape at Oxagon. The ability to secure the power, land and connectivity needed to grow is becoming critical to the economics of AI. As progress on the first phase of DataVolt’s AI campus accelerates, Oxagon is bringing these advantages together to create a strong proposition for companies building the infrastructure required for the next generation of AI.”

The Bigger Bet Is 1.5GW

The 100MW project ultimately serves as the first meaningful execution point within DataVolt’s much larger 1.5GW Oxagon vision. The first phase is planned at 360MW, with the initial 100MW expected to be ready in 2028 and designed for high-density AI and cloud workloads. The scale reflects how rapidly infrastructure requirements are changing as AI systems demand increasingly powerful computing, greater power density and more sophisticated cooling. The project also gives Saudi Arabia a physical platform from which AI compute can move from strategic ambition toward deployable capacity.