Saudi Arabia’s data centre operator DataVolt is targeting financial close within the next three months for its US$500 million Riyadh East data centre project, after securing an unnamed AI provider as anchor customer, according to EnterpriseAM.

The customer has committed to more than 80% of the facility’s capacity, DataVolt CEO Rajit Nanda told the publication.

The Riyadh East site is planned with 44MW of capacity, of which 36MW has been taken by the AI customer. The commitment is expected to support the project’s financing, with banks set to cover around 75% of the development cost.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to come online by the end of 2026, with the remaining phases expected by mid-2027.

Nanda told EnterpriseAM that DataVolt has seen strong interest from both international and Saudi banks, and is now running a competitive financing process.

DataVolt is also in advanced talks with major Western data centre operators to anchor the first phase of its planned 1.5GW AI campus at Oxagon, Neom’s industrial city, according to EnterpriseAM. Construction could begin within two to three months of signing an anchor customer.

The Oxagon campus is being developed as an AI compute export hub for customers in Europe and North America. Its first 240MW phase is expected online next year, representing about US$2.5 billion of DataVolt’s investment. The total value could reach around US$10 billion once customer-owned compute infrastructure is included, according to the CEO.

Outside Saudi Arabia, DataVolt expects its 60MW under development to be operational by mid-2027. This includes a US$250 million, 12MW data centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which will serve Central Asia.

Nanda also said that DataVolt reached financial close on the Uzbekistan project last week and plans to replicate the project-finance model in Saudi Arabia.

Founded in 2023 by Saudi infrastructure investor Vision Invest, DataVolt is chaired by former ACWA Power CEO Paddy Padmanathan. The company is applying project-finance structures used in power and water infrastructure to AI data centre development.