{"id":4026,"date":"2026-02-05T11:30:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/?p=4026"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T10:43:41","slug":"weekly-news-blast-5th-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/weekly-news-blast-5th-february-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly News Blast – 5th February 2026"},"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<\/div>\n

Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Neom may pivot toward data centres<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Reports suggest NEOM may be scaled back for its original ambition \u2013 including a 170km linear city The Line \u2013 amid cost overruns, construction delays, and weaker oil prices, and could instead be repositioned as a larger, water-cooled data centre hub on Saudi Arabia\u2019s northeastern coast. Unamed officials to told Financial Times the project would become a \u2018\u2019far smaller\u2019\u2019 industrial-focused development, and NEOM has separately signalled a stronger push to attract data centre and AI investors, pointing to advantages such as land, renewables, and existing digital infrastructure, The shift would sit alongside earlier plans at Oxagon, including a February 2025 deal with DataVolt and later involvement from Humain, and it adds to a fast-growing pipeline of Saudi data centre projects under Vision 2030 (with analysts citing rapid load growth through 2030). At the same time, observers are questioning long-term viability, noting that extreme heat across many planned sites may increase cooling complexity and reinforce the need for advanced water-based or dry-cooling approaches\u2026Read more<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

UAE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

New MoU positions Sharjah as an emerging UAE data centre hotspot<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Sharjah is accelerating its push to attract data centre investment, after the Sharjah Communications Technology Authority signed a tripartite MoU with DataCanvas International and AI Caravan to explore the development and operation of data centres and wider digital infrastructure projects in the Emirate. While no specific site, capacity or timeline has been disclosed, officials framed the partnership around building long-term capability \u2013 supporting a knowledge-based economy, attracting AI investment, and developing local talent. The announcement lands as Sharjah\u2019s data centre ecosystem visibly builds momentum, including XDS Data Centre\u2019s recently launched 1MW immersion-cooled facility and ongoing development with Khazna Data Centres and BEEAH Group\u2026Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

GCC<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

BlackRock: AI build-out may add near-term inflation pressure<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

BlackRock\u2019s investment research team is warning that AI could add to inflationary pressure in the near term, a governments and companies pour unprecedented capital into technologies and the \u2018\u2019finite resources\u2019\u2019 that enable them \u2013 advanced semiconductors, electricity, and grid equipment. In the Gulf, that dynamic is colliding with a broader diversification drive, with multi-trillion-dollar capex expected across data centres, energy systems, and transport over the next decade, much of it being pulled forward by AI\u2019s heavy-up front requirements for compute, power generation, and cooling. The region\u2019s ambition is visible in giga-scale plans \u2013 from Saudi\u2019s Humain targeting multi-GW capacity and major partnerships, to the UAE positioning itself as a global infrastructure hub \u2013 yet reports note a key mismatch: spend lands now, while revenues and productivity benefits arrive later. The Gulf does have structural advantages, including the ability to deploy power and grid capacity at scale and some of the world\u2019s lowest-cost solar, but softer oil prices could be a headwind even as they increase urgency to diversify beyond hydrocarbons\u2026Read more<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Saudi Arabia Neom may pivot toward data centres Reports suggest NEOM may be scaled<\/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-4026","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\/4026","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=4026"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4082,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4026\/revisions\/4082"}],"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=4026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}