Humain Issues Tender for $1 Billion 100MW Data Center

Humain, backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, has issued a request for proposals for the engineering, procurement, and construction work of a 100MW AI data center in the Al-Saad district of Riyadh, according to MEED.

Bids are due on November 8, with an option to expand the site to 200MW, while MEED estimated the contract value at approximately $1 billion.

The project aims to operationalize the first phase with a capacity of 50MW in October 2028, according to the source.

The project is part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to build local computing capabilities supporting artificial intelligence applications through Humain, which operates with support from the Public Investment Fund.

What do these terms mean?

Request for Proposals: A formal invitation issued by a company to contractors and suppliers to submit price quotes and execution plans for a specific project.

Engineering, Procurement, and Construction: A contracting model in which the contractor takes charge of the project's design, equipment procurement, construction, and commissioning.

Megawatt: A unit measuring electrical power, equal to one million watts, used to measure the capacity of data centers and power stations.

Data Center: A facility housing servers, computing equipment, and cooling networks that hosts digital services as well as trains and operates artificial intelligence models.