{"id":3179,"date":"2025-01-30T03:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T00:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/?p=3179"},"modified":"2025-01-29T11:31:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T08:31:51","slug":"weekly-news-blast-30th-january-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/weekly-news-blast-30th-january-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly News Blast – 30th January 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to imogen@gulfdca.com<\/a> with NEWS<\/strong> in the subject line.<\/div>\n
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Industry News<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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UAE<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Oracle to increase Abu Dhabi investment five-fold<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Oracle has announced plans to significantly increase its investment in Abu Dhabi to expand its cloud and AI offerings in the Emirates, responding to growing demand. The company currently operates two cloud regions in the UAE\u2014one in Dubai and another in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, Oracle plans to partner with Beyon Solutions, part of the Bahraini technology company Beyon Group, to launch a sovereign cloud region in Bahrain\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"Saudi Arabia<\/b><\/h2>\n

AWS launches CloudFront Edge region in Jeddah<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Amazon Web Services has launched a CloudFront Edge location in Jeddah. This new Edge location is part of AWS\u2019 distributed content delivery network, which includes over 700 CloudFront POPs and 13 Regional Edge caches globally. The cloud giant is also developing a full cloud region in the Kingdom, aiming for a 2026 launch and pledged investment of over $5.3bn in the longer term. This follows Microsoft, Google, and Oracle\u2019s expansion of their cloud presence in Saudi Arabia, with Microsoft completing its data centre construction late last year\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

STC to build $9bn telecom network<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has won an $8.7bn contract to develop new telecom infrastructure in the Kingdom. The contract includes building, operating, and providing telecommunications infrastructure services, to be completed in 18 months, followed by 15 years of project operations. With the development of smart cities such as Neom and Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia is experiencing a major push for substantial investments in telecom infrastructure\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Interesting News<\/b><\/h1>\n

DeepSeek: the AI app that has the world talking<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Out of nowhere, DeepSeek, a Chinese-developed AI platform, has burst onto the global stage, challenging the US\u2019s status as the AI superpower and sending shockwaves through financial markets. Why? It was built at a fraction of the cost of industry-leading models like OpenAI, using fewer advanced chips. Its sudden debut has had a huge impact, wiping $1tn off the value of US tech stocks and causing chipmaker Nvidia to lose almost $600bn in market value on Monday\u2014the biggest one-day loss in US history. Now, the US is panicking; China has developed an AI system that rivals US platforms for just $6 million, prompting questions about why the US has invested billions in AI firms, data centres, and energy hubs over the past few years. The panic is further fuelled by the geopolitical issue of the US restricting Chinese access to advanced Nvidia chips to maintain AI dominance. However, China\u2019s ability to create efficient AI with cheaper, less powerful chips suggests it may not need those high-end components after all. In the GCC, DeepSeek\u2019s arrival may prompt policymakers overseeing Sovereign Wealth Fund investment strategies to reconsider their US-oriented ambitions\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to imogen@gulfdca.com with NEWS in the subject line. Industry News UAE Oracle to increase Abu Dhabi investment five-fold Oracle has announced plans to significantly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-news-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3181,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions\/3181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}