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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Now the burger chain discloses
The 2027 electricity tariff disclosures have reached consumer-facing companies. Burgerizzr expects about a 1% rise in annual cost of revenue. National Gypsum expects annual production costs to rise about 1%. Watani Steel expects total cost of sales to rise 1.12%. National Building & Marketing expects its subsidiary Ajeej Steel's energy costs to rise about SAR 3.5 million from 2027.
When a restaurant chain reports the same 1% as a gypsum plant, it shows that the tariff change is affecting every part of the economy that uses power, not just heavy industry.
Households borrow a record
Loans to individuals hit a record SAR 1.472 trillion at the end of August, per SAMA data. That is up SAR 38.01 billion (2.65%) since end-2025 and 3.85% year on year, and the 14th straight monthly rise. Individuals now account for 42.49% of total bank credit of SAR 3.464 trillion.
For fourteen months in a row, households have kept borrowing even as the economy slows down, and banks continue to approve their loans.
Cash falls, cards rise
Saudi consumer spending reached SAR 144.95 billion in July 2026, up 8% from SAR 134.51 billion in July 2025. Point-of-sale spending was SAR 62.85 billion, up 7%, across 1.096 billion transactions on 2.5 million terminals. E-commerce through Mada cards rose 26% to SAR 37.63 billion across 197.6 million transactions, while cash withdrawals from 14,400 ATMs fell 3% to SAR 44.47 billion. There are 70.12 million issued bank cards.
The change involves switching from one channel to another, which means that if you are running a business aimed at consumers you should shift your investments from cash handling to digital acceptance rather than considering both as part of growth.
