Oman becomes the Gulf’s newest AI compute destination with two data center deals in a week

Oman emerged this week as the Gulf’s newest destination for AI compute, with two major data center projects announced within a few days. UK infrastructure developer Yamna signed a USD 1.3 bn framework with the Transport and Communications Ministry to build an AI data center in Salalah, and a consortium led by Omani conglomerate Mubbadrah Investment unveiled a USD 3 bn, 400 MW AI data center project.

Meet the projects and its builders

Yamna is building on an existing footprint. The Salalah project — Salalah Al Khadra Digital — is pitched as a power-and-compute campus bolted onto Yamna’s existing Salalah Al Khadra Hydrogen development, a green hydrogen and ammonia project awarded through competitive auction in 2024. Yamna is UK-founded and backed by British investment funds.

Mubbadrah is making a more mature pitch, with a possible offtaker and several foreign partners who bring in AI infrastructure experience. UK sustainable-finance boutique Sustopia Capital — which claims a 5 GW data center platform spanning Denmark, the US, and the UK — will provide the financing; US construction specialist Vela Tech will take on the building; and O2 Global Energy will develop 400 MW of co-located solar generation and battery storage to power the project. And US-based, Mubadala-backed AI compute firm Crusoe — the lead developer of OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas — has signalled interest in taking off the Oman capacity, with the consortium expecting a formal offtake agreement in the coming weeks — a close that could mark Crusoe’s first offtake in our region.

This will also be Mubaddrah’s first AI foray: The conglomerate was founded in Muscat in 2005 by Yasser Al Barami and Hilal Al Busaidy and holds investments across energy, mining, real estate, healthcare, and IT in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, and Kuwait.The data center project is the group’s first move that we know of into digital infrastructure.

Why this matters

The projects from Oman come a few days after Saudi announced offtake and expansions on some of its AI projects — a signal that demand on the region’s AI buildout remains robust despite the headwinds from the war. Nasdaq-listed cloud provider Nebius signed a preliminary framework to take up to 50 MW of capacity — half of the 100 MW initial phase — at the Oxagon giga-campus being built by Humain and DataVolt. And Nvidia is nearly doubling its compute supply to Humain to as much as 84 MW of compute — some 27k GPUs, with a 50 MW block reserved for an unnamed US client.

REMEMBER- Humain is trying to reduce its reliance on PIF shareholder funding as it targets 1.7 GW of 2027 capacity and 3 GW by 2030. CEO Tareq Amin’s playbook is to lock in paying tenants first and use the contracted demand to raise outside financing, including a planned domestic data-center fund seeking an initial USD 2.5 bn, subject to regulatory approval. Nebius is the first proof point for that model.

Still, a prolonged state of insecurity in the region may complicate the GCC’s AI ambition down the line, as international developer boards become more cautious and selective about adding more Gulf exposures, industry experts told our AI + Innovation desk last week. But so far, the war didn’t dent progress on current projects, with construction in Saudi and UAE ongoing throughout the year despite supply chain disruptions, the experts added.