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Saudi Arabia awarded five major projects in January with a combined value of around 11.2 billion Saudi riyals ($3 billion) covering construction and hydrocarbons.
The Gulf Kingdom is also expected to award 11 new projects this month owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Sabic and other public establishments, the Saudi Contractors’ Authority (SCA) said in its latest monthly bulletin.
The largest project awarded in January was the SAR9.9 billion ($2.7 billion) Hexagon Data Centre in the capital Riyadh, the report said.
The Hexagon facility, owned by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), is designed to support the rapid expansion of digital services across the public sector and accelerate Saudi Arabia’s shift towards a data‑driven economy.
The project is part of Riyadh’s commitment to securing technical sovereignty over its national data while boosting economic diversification beyond oil, SDAIA said.
Spanning 30 million square feet and with a capacity of 480 megawatts (MW), Hexagon is expected to establish Saudi Arabia as a global hub for cutting‑edge digital infrastructure.
Other key contracts awarded last month included a SAR1.1 billion project involving the construction of water injection pipelines for state-controlled Saudi Aramco and another one by the national housing company for the construction of houses at a cost of SAR281 million, the report said.
More than 50 percent of the value of the projects to be awarded this month cover the construction and hydrocarbon sectors, it said, adding that they are concentrated in Riyadh, the Western Makkah city and the Eastern region.
In 2024, the value of the 314 projects awarded by the Gulf Kingdom was the highest since the 2020 Covid pandemic, peaking at SAR268 billion, SCA said last year.
(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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