Funding
CAPACITY TEST:

PIF And I Squared Set $1 Billion Saudi Digital Infrastructure Plan

Newsroom brief

Data Center Dynamics reported that I Squared Capital signed a non-binding MoU with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund covering up to $2 billion in PIF-owned real estate and infrastructure assets, with half of the planned deployment earmarked for digital infrastructure. The MoU does not name the first assets, sites, financing timetable or data-centre capacity tied to the $1 billion allocation.

Verified against source materialEdited by SendTech Times Cloud & Infrastructure Desk
PIF And I Squared Set $1 Billion Saudi Digital Infrastructure Plan
Image source: Data Center Dynamics

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has a new non-binding infrastructure agreement that sets aside up to $1 billion for digital infrastructure assets.

Data Center Dynamics reported that I Squared Capital signed an MoU with PIF covering up to $2 billion in PIF-owned real estate and infrastructure assets.

Half of the planned deployment is earmarked for digital infrastructure projects, while the other 50 percent is assigned to district cooling.

The report said both categories were described as critical enablers for the real-estate sector.

$2 Billion MoU Splits Digital Infrastructure And District Cooling

The DCD account quoted PIF’s Saad Alkroud as describing the fund’s real-estate and infrastructure pipeline as a draw for investors.

I Squared chairman and managing partner Sadek Wahba said the MoU moved the relationship from partnership to action.

The agreement is still an MoU, not a named project financing close.

The MoU did not identify the first PIF assets covered by the digital infrastructure allocation, the equity structure, the project sites or the timetable for deployment.

PIF Data Centre Context Includes Humain, AWS And xAI

The DCD account cited PIF’s recent data-centre activity through Humain, the AI data-centre company the fund established in May 2025.

It said Humain aims to deliver 6.6GW of data-centre capacity over the next decade.

The same account said PIF agreed to buy 18,000 Nvidia GB300 chips, with Humain saying several hundred thousand more were on the way.

It also cited a partnership with AWS for a $5 billion AI Zone and the deployment of Groq chips for inference.

PIF also set up a joint venture with AMD and Cisco in November 2025 to deploy 1GW of data-centre capacity.

The source said the fund announced a 500MW Saudi data-centre project with Elon Musk’s xAI.

I Squared Portfolio Includes Data Centres, Fibre And Towers

The DCD account said I Squared Capital was founded in 2012 and has $60bn in assets under management.

Its digital-infrastructure holdings include European data-centre firm nLighten, APAC data-centre operator BDx, fibre firms Exa and Lightstorm, and thousands of cell tower sites.

Data Center Dynamics said the investor’s data-centre record also includes the 2021 acquisition of Mexican operator Kio, the purchase of Brazilian operator Elea earlier this year and the May purchase of 10 US data centres from Cogent.

The MoU does not name the first Saudi digital-infrastructure assets, disclose the financing timetable, identify project sites, or state how much data-centre capacity would be attached to the $1 billion allocation.

Share this article
inXf

Related articles

More
Anthropic Signs $19 Billion TeraWulf Lease Without Naming Hawesville Chips
Cloud & Data Centers

Anthropic Signs $19 Billion TeraWulf Lease Without Naming Hawesville Chips

Anthropic agreed to a $19 billion, 20-year TeraWulf data-centre lease for a 401MW Kentucky campus. TeraWulf disclosed the site, cooling design and investment range, while chip selection and the first capacity tranche remain outside the public record.

Digital Realty Adds Kansas Power And Private Capital Deals
Cloud & Data Centers

Digital Realty Adds Kansas Power And Private Capital Deals

Digital Realty is combining a powered Kansas City hyperscale site with larger Teraco ownership and a Columbia Capital acquisition, tying data center growth to land, power and private capital.

Oracle AI Buildout Raises Debt Test After 19% Stock Drop
Cloud & Data Centers

Oracle AI Buildout Raises Debt Test After 19% Stock Drop

Oracle shares fell 19% in a week as investors weighed about $130 billion in debt, nearly $56 billion in fiscal 2026 capital spending and a financing plan tied to AI data-center expansion.

Z Squared Buys Arkansas Site For 150MW AI Data Centre Plan
Cloud & Data Centers

Z Squared Buys Arkansas Site For 150MW AI Data Centre Plan

Data Center Dynamics reported that Z Squared acquired a 51 percent stake in Paradox Data and its Union County Campus, giving the former Dogecoin miner an Arkansas site with 8MW available now and a 150MW behind-the-meter target still to prove.

PLDT Puts Philippine Data Centers Into A REIT IPO Pipeline
Cloud & Data Centers

PLDT Puts Philippine Data Centers Into A REIT IPO Pipeline

PLDT’s Vitro unit has filed a REIT plan for eight Philippine data centers totaling 24MW, with the proposed IPO targeting ₱24.2 billion.

EdgeConneX Plans 500MW+ Malaysia AI Data Centre Capacity
Cloud & Data Centers

EdgeConneX Plans 500MW+ Malaysia AI Data Centre Capacity

Tech Wire Asia published sponsored material saying EdgeConneX is building more than 500MW of AI-ready capacity across Cyberjaya and Johor, with rack designs from 20kW to 600kW+ and closed-loop cooling. Signed tenants, contracted capacity and customer deployment dates remain outside the sponsored account.

Keep Reading

More Stories

Latest
Neko Health Raises $700 Million For US AI Body-Scan ClinicsAIJul 16, 2026Neko Health Raises $700 Million For US AI Body-Scan ClinicsAI News reported that Neko Health raised $700 million to expand AI body-scan clinics in the United States, starting with New York. The source cited FDA 510(k) clearances for two Neko devices; U.S. pricing, additional clinic locations, false-positive rates and completed peer-reviewed validation for the full screening service remain outside the public record.TSMC Raises Arizona Plan To $265 Billion After Profit JumpChips & SemiconductorsJul 16, 2026TSMC Raises Arizona Plan To $265 Billion After Profit JumpCNBC reported that TSMC posted a 77.4% second-quarter profit jump and said its Arizona investment will rise to $265 billion after an additional $100 billion commitment. The report did not name the U.S. customers, fab opening dates, order volumes or pricing terms attached to the expanded plan.Creatio Adds AI Agent Governance To 10x CRM PlatformAIJul 16, 2026Creatio Adds AI Agent Governance To 10x CRM PlatformNo Jitter reported that Creatio 10x adds AI Studio, AI Twin and prebuilt CRM agents while keeping agent access under enterprise permissions and consumption guardrails. The report did not name customers, measured cost savings, consumption thresholds or independent security-audit results.Nvidia AI Push Names Banks, Carmakers And RIKENChips & SemiconductorsJul 16, 2026Nvidia AI Push Names Banks, Carmakers And RIKENTech Wire Asia reported that Nvidia used a country visit by Jensen Huang to connect Nemotron open models, DGX B200 systems and Blackwell supercomputers with local banks, carmakers, hospitals and research groups. The report said pilot-to-production conversion, audited benchmark results and chip-order volumes remain outside the public record.IBM Adds Power AI Operations Agent And S1112 Server For Enterprise WorkloadsAIJul 16, 2026IBM Adds Power AI Operations Agent And S1112 Server For Enterprise WorkloadsIBM announced Power Autonomous Operations, IBM Bob Premium Package for i and the Power S1112 server for enterprise Power workloads. IBM said the S1112 is expected on July 24, 2026, and Power Autonomous Operations on September 23, 2026, while pricing, order volumes and independent benchmark results remain undisclosed.Sheetz Moves 11,000 VMs Off VMware After Broadcom Licensing ShiftCloud & Data CentersJul 16, 2026Sheetz Moves 11,000 VMs Off VMware After Broadcom Licensing ShiftArs Technica reported that Sheetz is moving around 11,000 VMs across 838 locations from VMware vSphere to StorMagic SvHCI. The convenience-store chain has migrated more than 600 stores, while contract values, software licensing costs and final support terms remain outside the report.Revolut Adds VARA Crypto Approval To UAE Payments LicencesFintech & Digital PaymentsJul 16, 2026Revolut Adds VARA Crypto Approval To UAE Payments LicencesPYMNTS reported that Revolut received in-principle VARA approval for a UAE VASP licence, weeks after Central Bank of the UAE payment licences. PYMNTS said final approval is still required, with the UAE launch date, crypto pricing and first customer numbers outside the public record.US Export-Control Shift Opens UAE AI Chip Access, DCD ReportsChips & SemiconductorsJul 16, 2026US Export-Control Shift Opens UAE AI Chip Access, DCD ReportsData Center Dynamics reported that the US government has moved the UAE into a lower-restriction export-control category, giving UAE companies broader access to advanced AI chips from Nvidia and AMD. The account names G42 and hyperscaler data-centre projects, but it does not list chip volumes, approved licences or specific UAE projects.Cadence Adds AuraStack AI Agent For PCB And Advanced Packaging DesignChips & SemiconductorsJul 16, 2026Cadence Adds AuraStack AI Agent For PCB And Advanced Packaging DesignThe Register reported that Cadence Design Systems introduced AuraStack, an agentic AI system for PCB and advanced packaging workflows. Cadence cited a 15x productivity claim and named Nvidia among customers, but The Register did not include pricing, availability dates, full customer names or independent benchmark results.OpenAI Backs State AI Safety Baseline As Federal Cyber Tests NearCapital & PolicyJul 16, 2026OpenAI Backs State AI Safety Baseline As Federal Cyber Tests NearOpenAI said California, New York and Illinois have advanced frontier AI safety legislation with shared disclosure, incident-reporting and audit elements, while a federal cyber-testing framework is still targeted for early August.Intel Ships Panther Lake Chips Built With ASML High NA EUVChips & SemiconductorsJul 16, 2026Intel Ships Panther Lake Chips Built With ASML High NA EUVIntel has shipped selected Panther Lake processors made on Intel 18A with ASML High NA EUV lithography, Interesting Engineering reported, giving Intel production data while customer names, shipment volumes and wider node timing remain undisclosed.Thinking Machines Releases Inkling Open-Weights Model With 975 Billion ParametersAIJul 16, 2026Thinking Machines Releases Inkling Open-Weights Model With 975 Billion ParametersSiliconANGLE reported that Thinking Machines Lab has released Inkling, its first foundation model, with full open weights and fine-tuning through Tinker. The account cited 975 billion total parameters, about 41 billion active parameters per average prompt and training on about 45 trillion tokens, while leaving customer deployments and independent benchmark validation undisclosed.