Quick Summary: Datavolts $5 Billion AI Campus Set to Transform Neoms Oxagon
- DataVolt plans a 5 GW AI campus at Oxagon, with an initial 300-MW phase and a $5 billion investment, marking a major regional AI-data-center ambition.
- CEO Rajit Nanda, leading since 2023, is publicly championing the vision of Saudi Arabia as a ‘compute exporter.’.
- The company announced a $20 billion partnership with Supermicro, turning the compute-export vision into a tangible infrastructure initiative.
- Nanda expects the Oxagon campus to break ground within two to three months, moving from strategic concepts to operational reality.
- DataVolt is focusing on developing a supporting ecosystem, including a data science and AI diploma, to address talent gaps.
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DataVolt’s ambitious plan to transform Saudi Arabia into one of the largest exporters of computing power is no longer just a futuristic vision. With a 5-gigawatt AI campus planned at NEOM’s Oxagon and a $20 billion partnership with Supermicro, the company is laying the groundwork for a significant shift in global AI infrastructure.
Under the leadership of CEO Rajit Nanda, DataVolt is moving beyond mere rhetoric. Nanda’s strategy hinges on leveraging Saudi Arabia’s abundant clean energy to offer the lowest cost of compute, a claim that is beginning to take shape with the imminent groundbreaking of the Oxagon campus.
Despite the bold vision, challenges remain. The execution of such a large-scale project requires careful planning and resource management. Skeptics point to the need for assured power supply, customer commitments, and specialized labor, elements that are critical for success but difficult to secure.
DataVolt’s efforts to build an ecosystem, including educational initiatives and additional operational sites, suggest a comprehensive approach to overcoming these hurdles. The next few months will be crucial as the company aims to convert talks with potential customers into concrete commitments, marking a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia’s journey to becoming a global compute powerhouse.
5 GW at Oxagon, with an initial 300-MW phase tied to a $5 billion investment, making it one of the largest AI-data-center ambitions in the region. Rajit Nanda, who has led DataVolt since 2023 after senior roles at ACWA Power and Engie, is the executive putting the “compute exporter” thesis in public.
In the past two weeks, the company highlighted a Saudi industry-integrated data science and AI diploma and separately pointed to its Riyadh East facility as one of its first operational Saudi sites, targeted for the end of 2026 and designed with liquid cooling for high-density AI workloads. 0 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, up 47 percent, while expanding capacity toward as many as 6,000 racks per month by FY26, including 3,000 direct-liquid-cooling-optimized racks.
The key milestone to watch over the next 60 to 90 days is whether DataVolt actually breaks ground at Oxagon by roughly October or November 2026, consistent with last week’s reporting. 5-gigawatt AI campus at NEOM’s Oxagon is nearing groundbreaking within “two to three months,” while a separate $20 billion partnership with Supermicro has turned the Saudi compute-export story into a concrete infrastructure and supply-chain bet.
Reporting published last week said Nanda expects Oxagon to break ground within “two to three months,” which is materially more advanced than the broad strategic language that dominated earlier announcements. He also said the development has reached “the last mile for the first phase” and that DataVolt is in “the last stages of discussions with multiple customers,” a notable signal that the debate has moved from concept and policy into actual offtake and tenant negotiations.
Skeptics, including sector analysts tracking large campuses, focus on execution risk: gigawatt-scale campuses need huge power certainty, customer precommitments, grid and water planning, logistics, and specialized labor at a speed very few jurisdictions have demonstrated. Even supportive reporting notes that Oxagon’s scale creates construction and workforce complexity relative to more established data-center markets, which is why the promised groundbreaking window and customer talks are so closely watched.
0 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, up 47 percent, while expanding capacity toward as many as 6,000 racks per month by FY26, including 3,000 direct-liquid-cooling-optimized racks. 5-gigawatt AI campus at NEOM’s Oxagon is nearing groundbreaking within “two to three months,” while a separate $20 billion partnership with Supermicro has turned the Saudi compute-export story into a concrete infrastructure and supply-chain bet.
DataVolt is focusing on developing a supporting ecosystem, including a data science and AI diploma, to address talent gaps. Under the leadership of CEO Rajit Nanda, DataVolt is moving beyond mere rhetoric.
The scale and speed of this development has caught many observers off guard. Each new update adds another dimension to a story that is still unfolding, and the full picture will only become clear as more verified details emerge from the people and institutions directly involved.
Analysts who have tracked this issue closely say the current moment represents a genuine turning point. The decisions made in the coming weeks are expected to set the direction for months ahead, with ripple effects likely to extend well beyond the immediate actors in the story.
For those directly affected, the practical impact is already visible. People navigating this fast-changing situation are dealing with real consequences while new information continues to reshape what is known and what remains open to interpretation.
Historical parallels offer some context, though experts caution against drawing too close a comparison. Similar situations have played out before, but the specific combination of pressures, personalities, and timing here makes this moment distinct in ways that matter for how it ultimately resolves.
The political and economic dimensions of this story are deeply intertwined. What appears as a single event on the surface is in practice the convergence of multiple pressures that have been building quietly over a longer period than most public reporting has captured.