HUMAIN and DataVolt have expanded their partnership to develop 100MW of AI-ready data centre capacity at Oxagon in NEOM, marking the first major delivery phase within DataVolt’s planned 360MW initial campus on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The companies announced the expanded partnership at LEAP, confirming that construction is now under way and that the first 100MW of capacity is expected to become available in 2028.
The development is designed to support high-density artificial intelligence and cloud workloads through a combination of advanced computing infrastructure, cooling systems and energy resources.
First 100MW forms part of 360MW initial phase
The HUMAIN-DataVolt project will sit within the first 360MW phase of DataVolt’s wider Oxagon campus.
For DataVolt, the current construction milestone represents the start of work on that first phase of a broader planned 1.5GW development.
The 100MW segment being developed with HUMAIN is intended to provide the infrastructure needed to deploy large-scale AI compute, including high-performance computing clusters and facilities designed for next-generation accelerated workloads.
The first 100MW is anticipated to be operational in 2028.
Facility designed for high-density AI workloads
The project is expected to integrate renewable energy sources, advanced cooling technologies and high-performance computing infrastructure.
These elements are becoming increasingly important as AI systems require greater power density and more sophisticated thermal management than conventional enterprise computing environments.
The facility is being positioned to support both large-scale AI workloads and cloud infrastructure.
HUMAIN will contribute capabilities across the AI stack, while DataVolt will bring expertise in financing, developing, delivering and operating large-scale digital infrastructure.
Oxagon infrastructure underpins site selection
The companies highlighted Oxagon’s industrial infrastructure as a key advantage for the project.
The site is expected to provide access to pre-zoned industrial land, large-scale energy resources and subsea cable connectivity linking the region with Europe and Africa.
Those characteristics are particularly relevant for AI data centres, where access to power, low-latency connectivity, land availability and construction speed can materially affect project economics.
NEOM also framed the development as evidence of the industrial ecosystem taking shape at Oxagon.
DataVolt scales wider 1.5GW campus vision
The 100MW HUMAIN development is only one component of DataVolt’s broader plan for Oxagon.
The company is targeting a 360MW first phase, within a wider 1.5GW campus vision.
That scale would place the development among the more significant AI-focused digital infrastructure projects planned in the region.
The project also builds on DataVolt’s wider infrastructure pipeline across Saudi Arabia and Central Asia.
HUMAIN links AI ambition to physical compute capacity
For HUMAIN, the project provides a direct infrastructure layer for its broader full-stack AI strategy.
Rather than focusing only on software, models or platforms, the partnership gives the company access to dedicated physical compute capacity designed for large-scale AI deployment.
HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin said the partnership is intended to translate AI ambition into infrastructure and usable compute capacity.
DataVolt CEO Rajit Nanda said the project would require disciplined execution across power, engineering, construction and operations.
Why this matters
The project represents a shift from AI strategy announcements towards physical infrastructure delivery.
Saudi Arabia has made sovereign and large-scale AI development a central technology priority, but those ambitions depend on access to power, data centres, cooling, connectivity and accelerated computing capacity.
The 100MW development therefore matters because it creates a tangible infrastructure foundation for AI deployment rather than simply adding another partnership framework.
It also reinforces the growing importance of NEOM and Oxagon within Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure strategy, particularly for projects where energy availability, connectivity and land scale are critical.
Editor’s note
The most important number here is not 1.5GW, but the first 100MW now moving into construction.
Large AI infrastructure announcements increasingly stretch into the hundreds of megawatts or even gigawatts, but the real test is how quickly planned capacity becomes operational and commercially usable.
If HUMAIN and DataVolt deliver the first 100MW by 2028, the project will provide a clearer measure of Saudi Arabia’s ability to convert AI ambition into deployable compute infrastructure. The next milestones to watch will be power delivery, tenant or workload commitments, hardware deployment and the pace at which the remaining 360MW first phase moves forward.
