Mobily Commits $905M to Saudi Cloud and Subsea Fiber Infrastructure
Mobily is investing USD 905 million to expand data centers and subsea cables, positioning Saudi Arabia as a regional hub for AI and cloud services.
Key points
- Mobily has committed USD 905 million to expand data centers and fiber infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
- The network includes four coastal landing points and a new cable linking Duba to Egypt with 140 Tbps capacity.
- A partnership with BytePlus will establish the first public cloud region for the Middle East and Africa in Riyadh.
Mobily has committed USD 905 million to a combined network of data centers, subsea cables, and terrestrial fiber in Saudi Arabia. The investment aims to transform the country’s geographic position into a digital hub that supports cloud and artificial intelligence workloads, as reported by Telecom Review Asia.
The strategy addresses a shift in market demand where customers no longer ask only how traffic enters a country, but where services can be hosted. By integrating international connectivity with local compute, the company seeks to localize traffic and attract inward investment under Saudi Vision 2030.
Expanding coastal landing points
The infrastructure footprint includes four key landing points on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts: Jeddah, Al Khobar, Yanbu, and Duba. These sites connect to major international systems like AAE-1, TGN, and SEA-ME-WE 6. A new addition, the Africa-1 cable, landed at Mobily’s Duba station in 2025, enhancing the network's reach into Africa.
The planned Mobily Red Sea Cable will link Duba to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, adding 140 terabits per second of capacity. This new route provides an alternative path for hyperscalers and operators, reducing reliance on existing lines and improving network continuity for regional traffic exchange.
Shifting from transport to compute
The investment moves beyond simple connectivity to include local compute capabilities. Mobily is partnering with BytePlus to launch the first public cloud region for the Middle East and Africa in Riyadh. This facility will focus on media, AI, and gaming, leveraging the company’s data center network to host workloads closer to end users.
This approach requires coordinating power, storage, and skilled personnel alongside fiber optics. By offering neutral interconnection and transparent technical choices, the provider aims to serve as a comprehensive digital gateway rather than just a transport layer, aligning with national digital ambitions.
Balancing capacity with execution
The success of this initiative depends on reliable terrestrial pathways and backhaul systems that match the capacity of the subsea cables. Customers require diverse routes to design resilient networks, and the provider must deliver on both the physical infrastructure and the commercial transparency that builds wholesale trust.
