Google is set for a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Saudi Aramco to open a “cloud region” , CNBC reports. The collaboration taps into the rapidly expanding cloud services forecasted to reach a market opportunity of up to $10 billion by 2030.
- Aramco said the agreement with Google would deliver “high performance, low-latency cloud services to enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia.”
- Google’s investment in Saudi Arabia will allow businesses to grow and scale their offerings in the kingdom.
- Google started negotiations with Saudi Arabia on the cloud project in 2018, but talks stalled following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by state agents.
- Google competes with Microsoft and Amazon in the growing cloud-computing market globally
- Currently, Google operates 24 regions and 73 availability zones, less than its primary competitors Microsoft Azure and market leader Amazon Web Services.
- Saudi Arabia has been actively courting Silicon Valley as it seeks to bolster its ambitious Vision 2040 reform plans and diversify the oil-dependent economy.
- Google has also announced plans to launch a computing center in Qatar, which has been repeatedly blocked by Saudia Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt since 2017.
Google stock is currently declining. GOOGL: NASDAQ is down 0.18%
