Saudi Telecom, one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, announced on the 22nd that it had established a cloud computing joint venture with Yida capital, Alibaba cloud, Saudi artificial intelligence company and Saudi information technology company in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with a registered capital of 894 million Saudi Riyals (about 238 million US dollars).
According to the announcement released by Saudi Telecom, it holds 55% of the shares in the cloud computing joint venture, 27% of the shares are held by Yida capital, 10% by Alibaba cloud, and 4% by Saudi artificial intelligence company and Saudi information technology company under Saudi public investment fund.
Saudi news agency reported that the establishment of the new company will help develop Saudi Arabia's digital infrastructure, provide enterprises in Saudi Arabia with the latest data storage services and solutions, and ensure their information protection and data security; It will also enhance Saudi Arabia's ability to provide cloud computing services to global enterprises, attract international investment into Saudi Arabia and improve the business environment.
Li Jinji, managing partner of Yida capital, said that Yida capital hopes to better help the development of Chinese companies interested in entering the Middle East in the process of digital transformation in the Middle East in the future.
Alibaba cloud will set up offices and local teams in Riyadh at the end of 2020. In August 2021, Alibaba cloud announced to cooperate with Saudi Arabia tourism administration to help improve the digital experience of tourists through cloud computing technology support such as cloud infrastructure and database.
