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Phoenix Group & Green Data City Plan Crypto Farm In Oman
The $300 million facility is expected to be fully operational by Q2 2024.
Muscat-based Green Data City has teamed up with Abu Dhabi’s Phoenix Group to build a $300 million crypto farm facility in the Gulf state of Oman.
The 150-megawatt data farm will be one of the largest crypto-mining centers in the region and is expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2024.
Crypto-mining farms are large facilities filled with racks of PCs sporting high-end GPUs. They are designed to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum using a complex network of software and computers. The process involves solving intricate mathematical calculations to produce new digital currencies — something that requires massive computer resources and lots of electrical power.
Green Data City and the Phoenix Group chose Oman for their mining farm due to the long-term security of the license terms and the comparatively cooler weather in the country’s Dhofar region, which should help to reduce energy consumption.
The first development phase will output 200MW of mining power, while the second phase will reach 400MW, creating a hyperscale data center with downstream activities that will include renewable energy and hydrogen production, desalination, food production, and cosmetics.
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The developers will build the new facility in modular sections to reduce environmental impact and intend to install solar shades and employ specialized local technicians.
Oman’s economy is now on a solid footing as the Gulf country forges ahead with its economic diversification initiatives, backed by favorable oil prices and successful fiscal reforms during a time of stable inflation.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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