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IBM And AWS Plan Riyadh Hub To Drive Regional Cloud Growth
The partnership will target Middle East digital agendas with AI and advanced hybrid cloud solutions.
IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are deepening their partnership to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation across the Middle East, with plans for a joint Innovation Hub in Riyadh.
The expansion builds on an existing Strategic Collaboration Agreement, combining IBM Consulting’s expertise in AI, hybrid cloud and cybersecurity with AWS’s global infrastructure. The goal is to help regional clients modernize operations, adopt generative AI and meet government transformation targets.
Cloud demand in the Middle East is surging. Sectors such as healthcare and banking are leading adoption, followed by retail and manufacturing. National strategies like Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Digital Economy Strategy are pushing enterprises to invest in AI, IoT and cloud platforms to boost productivity and diversify economies.
The proposed Riyadh hub will give clients access to proofs of concept and hands-on trials of joint solutions, building on similar models in India and Romania. It will showcase offerings such as IBM’s watsonx platform, oil and gas analytics, and AI-powered citizen services.
IBM plans to expand its AWS Practice in the region, certifying local practitioners and training talent in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. AWS will support by localizing offerings — ranging from contact center intelligence to autonomous security compliance — tailored to priorities around diversification and sustainability.
Security is a central focus. IBM and AWS will offer assessments and managed services, including IBM’s Autonomous Security for Cloud. The service uses AI-driven automation to enforce uniform policies under the AWS shared responsibility model. The partners aim to help clients meet standards such as Saudi Arabia’s Essential Cybersecurity Controls and Abu Dhabi’s healthcare security rules.
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The collaboration also emphasizes sustainability, aligning with the Saudi Green Initiative and the UAE’s climate goals. IBM Consulting will bring global tools such as its Sustainability Disclosure Assist to support ESG reporting and net-zero targets.
“This partnership underscores IBM’s commitment to helping organizations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE realize their digital transformation ambitions,” said Lula Mohanty, managing partner for the Middle East and Africa at IBM Consulting.
AWS’s Tanuja Randery added that the tie-up will enable governments and businesses “to adopt breakthrough technologies at scale, while reinventing core processes with AI”.
News
Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict
Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.
Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.
“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.
The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.
Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.
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The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.
So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.
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