Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city project in talks over cloud computing deal

Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city project in talks over cloud computing deal

DUBAI- Saudi Arabia's 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. struck a similar deal with Alibaba Cloud."From a compute perspective, we're seeing lots of opportunities for partnerships with large, hyper-scale providers," Joseph Bradley, head of technology and digital at NEOM, told Reuters."We're in final stages of negotiations with several."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.NEOM's 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.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 world's