Damac Data Centres, a Digital infrastructure provider owned by the Damac Group, will open facilities in Riyadh and Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), before the end of 2023. Damac is expanding the data centres from 20 MW to 55 MW. Damac announced the addition of 35 megawatts of IT capacity at LEAP 2023, bringing the total IT capacity under construction to 55 megawatts, with the initial 20 megawatts already underway.
Part of the USD 1 billion Data Center development strategy
Damac group is to invest USD 600 million in expanding its data centres in Riyadh and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The company, formerly known as Edgnex, stated that this expansion is part of a USD 1 billion data center development strategy across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Initially, each facility will launch with 5 megawatts of IT capacity in the last quarter of 2023. Then, another 5 megawatts will be added in Q1 2024. By 2025, both facilities will deliver a total of 55 megawatts of IT capacity.
Hussain Sajwani, chairman of the group, said, "Saudi Arabia's borders touch more countries than almost any other, and it is an ideal jumping-off point for connecting across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries."
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Riyadh data center
The company has announced the 20 MW data center in Riyadh in 2022. The business then announced that the unit would go operational in the third quarter of this year. Now, the company says that the expansion will start its operation in 2023. Dammam is on Saudi Arabia's east coast, close to Bahrain, and Riyadh is inland.
Bassam Al-Bassam, Saudi Arabia's deputy minister for telecom and infrastructure, and Aqil Jaffer Ali, Damac group's senior VP for special projects, announced the deal. DAMAC's facilities align with Saudi Vision 2030 and its strategy for accelerating development and growth locally.
"Our facilities in Dammam and Riyadh offer local diversity as well as rapid access to subsea cable systems that serve regional and global needs," said Sajwani.
Strategic Locations
Sajwani said, "We are selecting locations for data center facilities based on local demographics, the state of digital adoption, and opportunities to support long-term economic growth. Every site location we choose must meet strict criteria based on future demand rather than who needs rack space today."
"Our Dammam and Riyadh sites more than meet these criteria and these will be two of several facilities that we are planning in Saudi Arabia. We're excited to ramp up our builds and deliver data centre facilities that serve local market needs."
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DAMAC has expedited its deployment of data centres in response to high demand from both local and international customers. Agreements for utilizing all available capacity in these facilities are being finalized, with some expected to close by the end of 2023. The data centres in Dammam and Riyadh are certified by the Uptime Institute as Tier 3, offering highly connected hubs in a rapidly growing digital economy region.
