Qiddiya’s water tenders, CNTXT joins Humain, Al Othaim turns developer

Humain brings CNTXT into the fold

Humain has absorbed CNTXT, a Saudi cloud, data, and cybersecurity services company, adding the implementation layer between its infrastructure and the organizations that have to put the technology to work. Launched in 2022 as an Aramco-Cognite joint venture and, since 2023, Google Cloud’s exclusive reseller in the Kingdom, CNTXT brings cloud transformation, analytics, cybersecurity and integration work, its own software, and a public- and private-sector customer book. No terms were disclosed; the release says only that CNTXT has “joined.”

It’s Humain’s second consolidation move this week, after Aramco took a 49% stake, and routes an Aramco-linked asset into the national AI champion.

Qiddiya is lining up contractors for its water plants

Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) has issued an expression of interest for two wastewater treatment packages at Qiddiya City, the 360-sqkm entertainment city southwest of Riyadh, Meed reports. The first package covers a wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 60k cbm / d, while the second includes a 9k cbm / d plant and a large reverse osmosis desalination facility. Interested firms have until Sunday, 8 November to register.

QIC is tendering Qiddiya’s utilities package-by-package under an engineering, procurement, and construction model, having dropped the public-private partnership route that peers like the Red Sea project and Amaala used for their multi-utility contracts. For contractors, that means more, but smaller, bites at the giga-project utilities pipeline.

REMEMBER- Qiddiya has already awarded major infrastructure work: QIC signed SAR 2.29 bn in contracts with a joint venture between Binyah and InfraRoad to develop the Resort Core in 2023, and the National Water Company launched two desalinated water projects worth SAR 400 mn in 2025 — one serving the Qiddiya area — with a combined 100k cu m / d capacity.

Al Othaim moves into development

Abdullah Al Othaim Investment Company, the supermarket-and-mall group, is trying its hand at property development. Its new arm, Al Othaim Developments, is promising 10 projects, 8k units, and more than SAR 16 bn in investments across the Kingdom inside two years — a steep ramp for a first-time developer wading into a field already crowded with PIF giga-projects and established builders chasing Vision 2030’s homeownership targets, its Vice Chairman and CEO Abdulmalik Abdullah Al Othaim told the Saudi Gazette. Its claimed edge is the consumer and footfall data from decades of running malls and supermarkets.

The concrete marker so far is the debut. The O Residence in Dammam — 980 units with a mall, hotel, and offices — is about 80% built as it goes on sale, with finished mock-ups available for viewing.

The next stop is Riyadh, with the specific projects to be announced. The company is also factoring into its planning Saudi Arabia’s new property ownership regulations for non-Saudis.