DataVolt nears USD 500 mn Riyadh financing

Data center developer DataVolt expects to reach financial close within three months on its USD 500 mn Riyadh East data center, after securing a leading AI provider as the anchor customer for more than 80% of the facility’s capacity, CEO Rajit Nanda tells EnterpriseAM. Banks are expected to finance around 75% of the project’s cost, Nanda says.

The details:  A leading AI provider committed to 36 MW of the site’s planned 44 MW capacity. The anchor commitment is expected to underpin financing for the project, whose first operational phase is scheduled to enter service by the end of 2026, with the remaining phases due by mid-2027.

Heading to Neom

Beyond Riyadh, DataVolt is in “advanced talks” with major Western data center companies to anchor the first phase of its 1.5 GW AI campus at Neom’s industrial city Oxagon, with construction expected to begin within two to three months of signing with a customer, Nanda says.

REMEMBER- The facility is being developed as an AI compute export hub serving customers in Europe and North America. The first 240 MW is expected to come online next year and represents about USD 2.5 bn of DataVolt’s investment, with the total value rising to about USD 10 bn once customer-owned computing infrastructure is included.

Besides Neom, DataVolt expects all 60 MW currently under development to be operational by mid-2027, including a USD 250 mn, 12 MW facility in the Uzbek capital Tashkent that will serve Central Asia.

Nanda says DataVolt reached financial close on the Uzbekistan project last week, and intends to replicate that project-finance model in Saudi Arabia. “It is a small project, but it establishes and gives confidence now to the entire Global South in terms of a business model that can be banked,” he says.

About DataVolt: Founded in 2023 by Saudi infrastructure investor Vision Invest, DataVolt is chaired by former Acwa Power CEO Paddy Padmanathan, and is applying project-finance structures traditionally used in power and water projects to fund AI infrastructure.

What’s next? DataVolt expects 2026 to be its first profitable year. Nanda says there are no current plans for acquisitions, bond issuance, or public listing, although an IPO will continue to be evaluated as the business grows.