Saudi Arabia’s Hexagon Complex Puts Data Sovereignty on a 480 MW Footing
Listen to this article
Read by Anchor
On January 1, 2026, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, known as SDAIA, laid the foundation stone for the Hexagon complex in Riyadh. At 480 megawatts of electrical capacity, it will be the world’s largest government data centre, covering 30 million square feet and holding Tier IV certification, the Uptime Institute’s highest classification. The project complements the Shaheen III supercomputer at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, known as KAUST. Together, they form the two main pillars of Saudi Arabia’s national computing infrastructure.
The lens: Digital sovereignty and economic transformation
At this scale, Saudi Arabia is moving beyond hosting AI applications to owning the infrastructure that governs them. This gives it full control over storing and protecting data locally instead of relying on foreign providers. SDAIA President Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi said: “The Hexagon complex will be followed by the establishment of other centres. This centre represents a qualitative strategic push towards making the Kingdom a global data hub, ensuring data sovereignty and security, and enabling innovation and the digital economy.” For business leaders in the region, this means the argument that a lack of local infrastructure justifies delaying cloud AI projects no longer carries the same weight.