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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Oracle announced a planned US$1.5 billion investment in Saudi Arabia on February 6, 2023. The plan covered expanding its existing Jeddah cloud region, opening a public cloud region in Riyadh, and developing a Saudi-aligned operating model for another potential region. Riyadh opened on August 6, 2024, with center3 as host partner. The US$1.5 billion was an announced plan, not a verified total of money already spent.
What Oracle’s US$1.5 billion plan included
Oracle senior vice president Nick Redshaw told Arab News on February 6, 2023, that Oracle would invest US$1.5 billion to meet rising demand for cloud computing in the Kingdom. The announcement covered three related elements:
- More capacity in Jeddah: Oracle said it would expand its existing Saudi public cloud region.
- A new Riyadh public cloud region: This was the most visible part of the plan and was later opened in August 2024.
- Planning for another region: Oracle said it would work with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Communications and Information Technology Commission on a commercial and operating model aligned with government requirements and local data-residency rules. The 2023 interview described NEOM as a planned region, not an operating one.
Because Oracle described the figure as an investment it would make, readers should not treat US$1.5 billion as a confirmed tally of completed construction, equipment purchases, or spending.
Timeline of Oracle’s Saudi cloud expansion
| Date | Announcement | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| February 6, 2023 | Oracle announces a planned US$1.5 billion Saudi investment. | Expansion of Jeddah, a Riyadh region, and work on a model for another potential region. |
| August 9, 2023 | center3 announces a hosting and data-services collaboration with Oracle. | center3 would host the planned Riyadh region and support Jeddah expansion; Riyadh was described as part of the US$1.5 billion plan. |
| August 6, 2024 | Oracle announces that its Riyadh public cloud region is open. | Riyadh became Oracle’s second public cloud region in Saudi Arabia, alongside Jeddah, with center3 identified as host partner. |
| May 13, 2025 | Oracle says it will invest US$14 billion over 10 years in Saudi Arabia. | A later, much larger commitment whose relationship to the 2023 US$1.5 billion figure is not explained in the cited release. |
What opened in Riyadh
Oracle announced the Riyadh region’s opening on August 6, 2024. Oracle described it as the company’s second public cloud region in Saudi Arabia, following the Jeddah region launched in 2020. Oracle named center3, a stc Group company, as the Riyadh region’s host partner.
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Oracle’s current Riyadh description, accessed September 30, 2026, lists support for local data-residency needs, more than 100 cloud services, private connectivity, and disaster-recovery capabilities. These are Oracle-stated capabilities and benefits; they are not an independent performance or availability assessment.
How the 2025 US$14 billion statement fits
On May 13, 2025, Oracle said it would invest US$14 billion over the next 10 years in the Kingdom. The cited announcement does not say whether that amount:
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- includes the 2023 US$1.5 billion plan,
- replaces the earlier plan, or
- is additional to it.
Accordingly, the two figures should be reported separately by date. Adding them together would imply a total that Oracle has not publicly reconciled in the cited material.
Why the regions matter to Saudi organizations
Local data residency
A Saudi region can help organizations that need workloads and data hosted inside the Kingdom meet local-policy or contractual requirements. Oracle presented this as a benefit; the specific compliance obligation still depends on the customer’s sector, data type, contract, and Saudi regulations.
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Latency and connectivity
Keeping workloads closer to Saudi users can reduce network distance compared with deploying exclusively in another country. Actual results depend on the application, internet or private connection, traffic patterns, and the user’s location. Oracle also lists private connectivity as a Riyadh capability.
Availability and disaster recovery
Businesses can use separate cloud regions or other deployment patterns to design for outages and disaster recovery. A Riyadh region does not automatically provide resilience: customers must configure backups, replication, failover, identity, networking, and recovery procedures, and assess whether Jeddah or another location is suitable for their recovery design.
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Deployment choices
The announcement concerns Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s public-cloud capacity. A Saudi customer may still choose public, dedicated, or hybrid deployment depending on regulatory controls, workload sensitivity, connectivity, and operating costs. Oracle’s materials do not constitute a neutral comparison with AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
What the announcement does—and does not—prove
- Established: Oracle announced the US$1.5 billion plan in February 2023.
- Established: The plan included Jeddah expansion and a Riyadh region; Riyadh opened in August 2024.
- Established: center3 was identified as Riyadh’s host partner.
- Not established: how much of the US$1.5 billion has been spent.
- Not established: whether NEOM has become an operating Oracle region.
- Not established: whether the 2025 US$14 billion commitment includes, replaces, or adds to the 2023 plan.
- Not independently established: Oracle’s claims about performance, availability, costs, or disaster-recovery outcomes.
What companies should verify before choosing the Riyadh region
- Identify the Saudi data-residency, sector, and contractual rules that apply to each workload.
- Confirm which Oracle services and availability domains are offered in Riyadh for the required architecture.
- Model connectivity, latency, egress charges, and private-network requirements from each user location.
- Design and test backups, replication, recovery-point objectives, and recovery-time objectives rather than assuming regional presence guarantees continuity.
- Obtain current service-level, support, security, and pricing terms directly from Oracle or an authorized provider.
The Bottom Line
Oracle’s February 2023 US$1.5 billion Saudi commitment was a multi-part cloud expansion: more Jeddah capacity, a Riyadh public cloud region that opened in August 2024, and planning for another Saudi-aligned region. Oracle’s separate May 2025 statement of US$14 billion over 10 years should not be combined with the earlier figure until the company explains the relationship.
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