XDS and ICS Arabia Secure Agreement for Building 10MW Data Centers in Riyadh and Jeddah
In a significant move, UK & Dubai-based data center company XDS DATACENTRES has signed an agreement with ICS Arabia to deliver an initial 10-megawatt immersion cooled data centre in Riyadh and Jeddah. This strategic collaboration is set to bolster Saudi Arabia's digital transformation efforts, offering advanced computing capacity, sustainability, and economic growth.
The partnership involves developing state-of-the-art facilities that will provide enhanced digital capabilities, crucial for enhancing the digital landscape of Saudi Arabia. These facilities will support businesses, facilitate innovation in sectors like AI, finance, and healthcare, and contribute to the Kingdom's digital transformation goals.
Sustainability is at the heart of this collaboration. By adopting sustainable practices, the data centers aim to reduce their environmental impact, aligning with Saudi Arabia's broader efforts to diversify its economy and incorporate green technologies. This is a critical step towards the Kingdom's ambition to become a leader in the digital sector in the Middle East.
Economic growth is another key benefit. By investing in digital infrastructure, Saudi Arabia can attract more foreign investment and stimulate economic growth beyond its traditional oil-based economy. This diversification is part of Vision 2030, a strategic plan to transform Saudi Arabia into a major player in the global digital economy.
The facilities will offer customer rack migration and engineering support, GPU as a Service, Private Cloud, and Server conversion services. They will also support national cloud initiatives, artificial intelligence growth, and enterprise workloads that require scalable, low-latency compute infrastructure.
XDS is pioneering the switch from air cooled to liquid immersion digital infrastructure. The Riyadh and Jeddah facilities will feature immersion cooling with rack densities up to 368 kilowatts, ideal for AI, GPU-as-a-Service, cloud-native compute, and hyperscale edge deployments. The facility will utilize Desert Dragon's Tier III certified infrastructure and immersion cooling technology to support high-density workloads such as AI, machine learning, blockchain, and other GPU-intensive applications.
Ghufran Hamid, CEO of XDS, expressed his delight at the partnership, stating, "We are pleased to partner with ICS Arabia on this landmark deployment." Abdullah Ayed Al Mazny, General Manager of Desert Dragon (ICS Arabia), echoed this sentiment, stating that the partnership reflects their shared vision to deliver cutting-edge data center capabilities in the Kingdom.
The project represents a significant milestone for both XDS and ICS Arabia as they contribute to building the Kingdom's digital infrastructure and sovereign data capabilities. With the design of the facilities including redundant N+N power and cooling systems, Tier III certification (TCCF and TCDD), high-capacity network interconnectivity, and enterprise-grade service with SLAs, clients of XDS in Saudi Arabia can expect 99.982 percent uptime guarantees, fully managed colocation services, smart hands, flexible power allocations, and infrastructure and software as a service support.
This expansion of XDS into the Kingdom further positions the company as a leading operator deploying immersion cooling at scale for high density compute across the GCC. By partnering with ICS Arabia within the Desert Dragon technology ecosystem, XDS aims to contribute to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 by supplying sustainable infrastructure meeting global ESG standards. This partnership is a key step in Saudi Arabia's efforts to become a digitally advanced nation, supporting both economic diversification and technological innovation.
[1] Neom: https://www.neom.com/en/about [5] Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030: https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/about-us
- The immersion-cooled data centers, powered by XDS's cutting-edge technology, aim to provide software services that will support national cloud initiatives, artificial intelligence growth, and enterprise workloads requiring scalable, low-latency infrastructure.
- With a strategic collaboration that seeks sustainability, XDS's data centers will leverage Desert Dragon's immersion cooling technology, aligning with Saudi Arabia's ambition to become a leader in digital sector while reducing environmental impact.
- Understanding the importance of data-and-cloud-computing in fostering economic growth, XDS's facilities will offer a variety of services from customer rack migration to GPU as a Service, contributing to the Kingdom's efforts to attract foreign investment and diversify its economy beyond traditional oil-based sectors.
