DataVolt expects to close financing on its Saudi AI data centre pipeline — $5 billion total — within six months, with a 1.5GW facility at Neom whose first phase is due operational in 2028. Its Uzbekistan site TAS-1 is raising up to $150 million against a $250 million project cost, including $78 million from the EBRD on a 12-year non-recourse term; the first 6MW phase has under 10% of capacity left. Parent Vision Invest manages more than $95 billion of infrastructure assets.
The Uzbekistan deal is the tell. A 12-year non-recourse structure with a development bank anchoring it is the template they'll try to replicate at Neom and 1.5GW is roughly twenty times the scale, which is where the template gets tested.
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Two thousand now, thirty thousand later
Expo Riyadh 2030 has nearly 2,000 people on site, expected to rise to between 20,000 and 30,000 by the end of next year. The 6 million square metre site across 5 districts is expected to host 197 nations and 29 organisations and draw more than 42 million visits, opening on 1 October 2030 and running through March 2031. Organisers said they see no anticipated issues over the next 6 to 8 months as the war tests supply lines.
Labour and local sourcing are the main challenges, not capital. If you work with the construction sector, focus on building your domestic supply credentials before the workforce grows to 20,000 or 30,000 people.
Foreign direct investment tops SR1.1 trillion
Saudi Arabia's foreign direct investment stock reached SR1,122.8 billion at the end of Q1 2026, up 12% year on year and representing about 32% of total foreign investment in the Kingdom, against total foreign investment of SR3,530.8 billion, up 18% year on year.
FDI growing 12% while total foreign investment grew 18% means portfolio and other investment are growing faster than direct investment, hot money is currently outpacing the patient kind.
Ten percent of the country
Aramco and Maaden are forming a joint venture, Maaden at 51%, Aramco at 49%, to explore Zone-4 of the Arabian Platform, about 182,000 square kilometres, close to 10% of The kingdom's land area, targeting copper and other energy-transition minerals along a 100-km-wide corridor. Saudi mineral wealth is valued at over SR9.3 trillion ($2.5 trillion), against a Vision 2030 target of lifting mining's contribution to GDP to SR240 billion.
Aramco’s 49% stake, rather than a controlling interest, positions this as a capability contribution. Aramco provides subsurface data, while Maaden will operate the business.
