Saudi Aramco Development Company (SADCO), a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company Aramco, has come together with the American tech giant Google and Norwegian firm Cognite in an aim to establish two new technology businesses in the country.
The new agreement comes in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as part of which the country has been encouraging foreign investment, especially in the technology sector.
According to the joint venture deal signed with the American tech giant, Google Cloud will establish a new cloud region in the kingdom and a new company will be formed after required regulatory clearances to deliver cloud solutions and services to customers.
Aramco said in its statement that the Kingdom is being added to the global network of Google Cloud Platform regions, following a strategic alliance deal signed between the company and Google Cloud this month.
Ahmad Al Sa’adi Senior Vice President Technical Services Aramco
“Bringing Google Cloud to Saudi Arabia will deliver significant benefits, both now and in the future, and we are grateful to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for supporting this initiative. The future of Saudi Arabia’s business transformation and growth depends on its ability to successfully leverage cloud services.”
Google Cloud brings to its customers a varied range of services like artificial intelligence, smart analytics and data management and the company assures that 100 percent of the energy used to run its operations is balanced with renewable energy purchases.
“With this agreement, Google Cloud’s innovative technology and solutions will be available to global customers and enterprises in Saudi Arabia to enable them to better serve end consumers,” Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud’s chief executive, said.
Under the agreement between SADCO and Cognite, the Norwegian firm will set up a new company to accelerate the digitalization of industries in Saudi Arabia and the broader of Middle East and North Africa region, Aramco said.
The new company will develop, distribute and deploy end-to-end digital solutions to ease operations across sectors like oil and gas, power and utilities, manufacturing and shipping.
“The JV with Cognite aims to create advanced end-to-end digital software solutions in Saudi Arabia, which will maximize local content, contribute to GDP growth, create new jobs, accelerate digital talent development and sustain Aramco’s resilience,” Mr. Sa’adi added.
“We believe Aramco’s deep operational expertise, combined with Cognite’s track record of developing and deploying industrial software for digital frontrunners, will be a powerful catalyst for the advancement of digital transformation across heavy-asset industries,” Oyvind Eriksen, chairman of Cognite’s board of directors, said.
Cognite
The Norway based technology firm, Cognite was formed in 2016 to meet the demand for industrial digitalization. The company aims for a full-scale digital transformation of heavy-asset industries with a focus on areas like oil and gas, shipping, manufacturing and power and contextualizing the data.
SADCO
The Saudi Aramco Development Company (SADCO), a subsidiary of the region’s oil giant Aramco was founded in 1977. The company plays a key role in the modernization and development of the national industrial sectors in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, utilities and manufacturing.
