Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms, plans to invest more than SAR 19.8 billion in Saudi Arabia as part of its long-term commitment, the company announced during LEAP 2024.

AWS also announced launching an AWS infrastructure Region in the Kingdom by 2026.

The new AWS Region will enable developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as healthcare, education, gaming, and nonprofit organizations to run their applications and serve end users from data centers located in the Kingdom.

Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS, stated that the new region will empower organizations to unlock the full potential of the cloud and build with AWS technologies like computing, storage, databases, analytics, and artificial intelligence.

“Today’s announcement supports the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation with the highest levels of security and resilience available on AWS cloud infrastructure, helping serve fast-growing demand for cloud services across the Middle East,” Kalyanaraman added.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, said that the partnership with AWS “ignites a new era of technological excellence and innovation for the Kingdom.”

“This cloud Region demonstrates a firm commitment to research, innovation, and empowering entrepreneurs to achieve prosperity for our region and the world,” Alswaha elaborated.

Moreover, the new AWS Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch, adding to the existing 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally.

Running until 7 March, LEAP 2024 gathers the global technology ecosystem and showcases government artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives and the latest innovations.