AirTrunk to invest in Saudi Arabia with local partner
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The news: Hyperscale data centre provider AirTrunk will touch down in Saudi Arabia after inking a partnership with the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund-controlled AI solutions provider.
The numbers: Public Investment Fund PIF-owned HUMAIN and AirTrunk flagged a first AI-enabled USD 3 billion ($4.58 billion) data centre in a yet-to-be disclosed location, helping the investors and the Kingdom realise their ambition as digital ecosystem hub for the Middle East region.
The context: Alternative asset manager Blackstone and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) own AirTrunk, which they acquired in 2024 from Macquarie Asset Management, alongside the company's founder Robin Khuda who retains a minority shareholding.
AirTrunk views itself as Asia-Pacific's leading data centre provider, with a lower build and operating cost than competitors, a full suite of AI, hyperscale and cloud offerings and prioritises sustainability through renewable energy, water efficiency and liquid cooling which conserves electricity.
Founded in 2015, AirTrunk opened Sydney West data centre in 2017 and has since expanded to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
HUMAIN has a similar capability in the region, and has proprietary Arabic-language large language models.
An AirTrunk spokesperson said that the deal marks the first time the company has entered a market through a strategic partnership.
Finer details of the JV were not disclosed, including the total planned investment, whether AirTrunk and HUMAIN had set up a special purpose company, and which company had majority control.
What they said: The AI revolution continues to be one of Blackstone’s highest conviction themes, and we bring scale and expertise across the ecosystem as the largest provider of data centers globally and a significant investor in related services and infrastructure, said Blackstone chair, CEO and co-founder Stephen A Schwarzman.
“Our strategic partnership with HUMAIN, a key player in the region, will support Saudi Arabia to realize its vision of being a data- and AI-driven economy. We’re bringing together the whole digital ecosystem, combining HUMAIN’s end-to-end AI capabilities, from infrastructure to models, with AirTrunk’s leading hyperscale data center capabilities," said AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda.
“Together with AirTrunk and Blackstone, HUMAINis strengthening the technological infrastructure that underpins the Kingdom’s digital economy. This partnership marks a pivotal moment in creating scalable, secure, and sustainable data center capacity to support the rapid growth of AI and cloud computing," HUMAIN CEO Tareq Amin said.
The source: AirTrunk statement
