HUMAIN and DataVolt have begun construction on a 100MW AI data center at Oxagon, NEOM's industrial city on the Red Sea coast. The project, announced at LEAP on August 31, 2026, forms part of the 360MW first phase of DataVolt's planned campus, with the initial capacity expected online in 2028.
The facility will support high-density compute for advanced AI workloads, integrating renewable energy sources, advanced cooling technologies, and high-performance computing clusters. It marks the transition from planning to execution for one of the region's larger AI infrastructure builds.
Partnership structure and scope
HUMAIN, a PIF company delivering full-stack AI capabilities, brings expertise across the AI stack. DataVolt contributes its track record in developing, financing, and operating large-scale digital infrastructure. The 100MW development is the first step in a broader pipeline: DataVolt's wider Oxagon campus is planned for 1.5GW, building on the company's existing projects across Saudi Arabia and Central Asia.
"AI ambition only matters when you can turn it into infrastructure, compute and capacity that customers can use," said Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN. "That is what this partnership with DataVolt is about. Construction is underway, 100MW is moving forward, and we are building with the speed and scale that the next era of AI demands."
Why Oxagon
Oxagon offers pre-zoned industrial land, energy resources at scale, and subsea cable connectivity to Europe and Africa for low-latency compute. These factors matter for AI infrastructure economics, where power access, development speed, and operating efficiency determine project viability.
"AI infrastructure at this scale demands more than capital and capacity, but disciplined execution, from power and engineering through construction and operations," said Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt. "Breaking ground at Oxagon is an important milestone as we move forward with the first 360MW phase and build the infrastructure required to support AI compute at scale."
Eng. Aiman Al-Mudaifer, Managing Director and CEO of NEOM, said the project demonstrates the industrial ecosystem forming at Oxagon and its ability to secure the power, land, and connectivity that AI projects require.
Why this matters for IT and development professionals
This project signals where AI compute capacity is being built and how fast. For teams planning large-scale model training, inference workloads, or cloud architecture decisions, the 2028 availability timeline for 100MW of capacity at Oxagon is a concrete data point for capacity planning. The emphasis on power access and subsea connectivity also reflects the constraints shaping data center site selection globally - factors that will influence latency, cost, and deployment strategy for years to come. Professionals tracking AI for IT & Development or evaluating infrastructure strategy may find the AI Learning Path for CTOs useful for understanding how these infrastructure trends affect architectural decisions.
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