Ground has been broken on a new data center for the Saudi Arabian government in Riyadh.

On January 1, the foundation stone of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority's (SDAIA) Hexagon data center was laid in a groundbreaking ceremony.

In a series of LinkedIn posts shared by SDAIA, the authority revealed that the project had commenced for the data center, which will ultimately span 30 million sq ft (2.78m sqm) on a site in Riyadh.

The data center will have a power capacity of 480MW, with its Tier IV design certified by Uptime Institute.

Based on images of the upcoming facility, it is aptly named after its design - two concentric hexagons with a court in the middle of the facility.

The data center will host more than 290 government systems, and has been designed to meet "green building requirements."

SDAIA wrote: "As part of our pride in this national project. We thank the government agencies that supported the Hexagon data center project. The largest government center in the world. With a capacity of 480MW, we can all contribute to achieving #2030."

The Saudi Vision 2030 project, which was announced in 2016, intends to diversify Saudi Arabia's oil-centric framework, with a priority placed on smart infrastructure and digital transformation.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, SDAIA president Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi said: “The Hexagon data center will be followed by the establishment of other centers. This center is a qualitative strategic boost toward making the Kingdom a global center for data, ensuring data sovereignty and security, and enabling innovation and a digital economy."

The SDAIA was established in 2019. It launched with the slogan "data is the oil of the 21st century."

Saudi Arabia is home to several large data center projects. Throughout 2025, the likes of xAI and Humain have agreed to build a 500MW data center in the country, STC is developing 1GW of capacity also with Humain, while Khazna has detailed a 1GW data center growth pipeline, just to name a few.