FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announces a zero-carbon city called \"The Line\" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. Bandar Algaloud\/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court\/Handout via REUTERS<\/p>\n
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabias futuristic city project NEOM is in talks with companies to pick a lead partner for its first cloud computing deal that will lay the foundation for hi-tech services in its flagship $500 billion business zone, a senior executive said.<\/p>\n
The talks with local and international tech firms come after a subsidiary of oil giant Saudi Aramco recently partnered with Google to bring its cloud services to the kingdom, and Saudi Telecom Co. struck a similar deal with Alibaba Cloud.<\/p>\n
From a compute perspective, were seeing lots of opportunities for partnerships with large, hyper-scale providers, Joseph Bradley, head of technology and digital at NEOM, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Were in final stages of negotiations with several.<\/p>\n
Last year NEOM, which is backed by the $400 billion Saudi sovereign fund PIF, announced a deal with Saudi firm stc group to establish a 5G network for its planned cognitive cities.<\/p>\n
NEOMs flagship project is a carbon-free zone called The Line. Its construction will begin this year and the first phase will be completed by 2025, Bradley, a former CISCO Systems executive, said.<\/p>\n
The plan, unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Jan. 10, is the first major construction project aimed at diversifying the economy of the worlds largest oil exporter.<\/p>\n
NEOM also plans to build a city-wide operating system based on artificial intelligence in the business zone to better utilise data for its inhabitants.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Saeed Azhar. Editing by Mark Potter<\/p>\n
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Saudi Arabia's futuristic city project in talks over cloud computing deal - Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FILE PHOTO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announces a zero-carbon city called \"The Line\" to be built at NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia, January 10, 2021. Bandar Algaloud\/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court\/Handout via REUTERS DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabias futuristic city project NEOM is in talks with companies to pick a lead partner for its first cloud computing deal that will lay the foundation for hi-tech services in its flagship $500 billion business zone, a senior executive said. The talks with local and international tech firms come after a subsidiary of oil giant Saudi Aramco recently partnered with Google to bring its cloud services to the kingdom, and Saudi Telecom Co. Continue reading