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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Al Rajhi tops SR13.7bn
H1 bank profits: Al Rajhi SR13.76bn (+14.15%, highest of any lender), SNB SR13.02bn, Riyad SR5.26bn, Alinma SR3.27bn; total credit a record SR3.2tn, +16.2% YoY
The takeaway: Al Rajhi out-earned every bank and grew fastest; scale and speed together are rare, worth studying.
Twenty-four thousand AI registrations
Saudi Arabia's commercial registrations in artificial intelligence reached 24,552 records, up 31% since 2025 and the fastest growth among Vision 2030 sectors, according to Ministry of Commerce data. Cybersecurity registrations reached 11,275, up 22%, virtual and augmented reality 13,853, up 21%, and e-commerce 52,241, up 9%, with the Kingdom having designated 2026 its Year of Artificial Intelligence.
A registration serves as a licence rather than a business. The fact that 24,552 registrations are increasing at a rate of 31% indicates that intent is developing much more rapidly than actual capability.
SR 3.6bn, 2,505 apartments, one fund
Alramz Real Estate established a Shariah-compliant fund of more than SR3.6bn, managed by SNB Capital, with Alramz holding 100% of the units. The vehicle covers a 90,000+ sqm site in Al Raed district, Riyadh. 2,505 residential apartments plus commercial space, on a development contract worth roughly SR1.2bn, with 10% development fees and 2.5% marketing fees over an approximately five-year term.
2,505 units delivered into a market where new residential mortgage lending has roughly halved year on year. The build is a five-year bet that the financing side normalises well before handover, and that is the assumption to interrogate, not the design.
