The US-based DigitalBridge Group, a global asset manager investing in the next generation of mobile and internet connectivity, said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has joined as an investor in its new venture aimed at developing data centres in the Kingdom and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The partnership will initially focus investments in the data centre sector and is expected to explore other future digital infrastructure segments, including macro towers, fibre, small cell, and edge infrastructure, the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm said in a statement.

The investment aims to localise cutting-edge technologies and support knowledge transfer to develop and operate hyperscale data centres and database servers in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region.

PIF is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Since 2017, it has established 72 companies and created, directly and indirectly, more than 500,000 jobs as of the end of 2021. On the other hand, the DigitalBridge team manages a $69 billion portfolio of digital infrastructure assets.

(Writing by D Madhura; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)