Google is partnering with oil giant Aramco to access Saudi Arabia’s $10 billion cloud market

Google is partnering with oil giant Aramco to access Saudi Arabia’s $10 billion cloud market

The Kingdom Tower, operated by Kingdom Holding, left, stands alongside the King Fahd highway, illuminated by the light trails of passing traffic, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016.  Waseem Obaidi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesGoogle will open a "cloud region" where it can provide its cloud services in Saudi Arabia via a joint venture with state-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco, as Covid-19 prompts a landmark acceleration in digital adoption across the Gulf."The collaboration taps into rapidly expanding cloud services demand in Saudi Arabia, which is forecast to reach a market opportunity up to $10 billion by 2030," Aramco said in a statement on Monday.Aramco said the agreement with Google will deliver "high performance, low-latency cloud services to enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia" as warming relations in the region open the political space for U.S. technology companies to expand into the kingdom. Google began negotiations with Saudi Arabia on the project in 2018, but talks reportedly stalled following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by state agents in the same year. Google Cloud is now moving ahead with plans to establish and operate a new cloud region in the kingdom. No financial terms were disclosed.The technology agreement also shows Silicon