Chinese language cloud suppliers are progressively increasing their presence within the Center East, difficult the dominance of established US tech corporations by aligning extra intently with native authorities priorities and rules.
Whereas Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle have operated regional information centres for a number of years, corporations like Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent are gaining traction by means of focused partnerships and providers tailor-made to regional wants. These Chinese language companies are investing in infrastructure, coaching, and collaboration with regional telecom suppliers to strengthen their foothold.
Based on IDC’s Manish Ranjan, Chinese language cloud suppliers are making progress by supporting native digital transformation efforts. “Regardless of the established dominance of AWS [Amazon Web Services], Azure, and Google Cloud within the Center East, Chinese language suppliers like Huawei and Alibaba are making a major presence within the area,” Ranjan famous in feedback reported by Remainder of World.
US cloud companies have been early entrants within the area. Amazon Internet Providers opened its first Center East information centre in Bahrain in 2019, with a second within the UAE in 2022. Microsoft launched cloud areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the identical 12 months, whereas Google Cloud entered Saudi Arabia’s Dammam area in 2023. Oracle at the moment operates a number of cloud zones in each the UAE and Saudi Arabia, together with a deliberate enlargement in Neom.
Nevertheless, Chinese language suppliers have pursued a unique technique. Huawei has partnered with telecom corporations resembling STC, E& Enterprise, du, Zain, OmanTel, and Ooredoo to help cloud computing, AI, 5G, and good infrastructure. On the 2025 Cellular World Congress in Barcelona, Alan Qi, president of Huawei Cloud Center East and Central Asia, emphasised the corporate’s function in enabling digital progress in Saudi Arabia. The corporate at the moment operates 4 cloud services within the nation, together with a low-latency information centre that reduces processing delays.
In March, Huawei introduced a collaboration with Zain KSA to boost community infrastructure. The corporate says it has already onboarded greater than 1,000 purchasers in Saudi Arabia by means of its Riyadh hub, together with authorities departments and monetary establishments.
Tencent entered the regional cloud market in February, pledging to speculate over $150 million in Saudi Arabia within the coming years.
Alibaba Cloud has adopted an identical path, opening information centres within the UAE in 2022 and in Saudi Arabia final 12 months. It additionally partnered with STC to launch the Saudi Cloud Computing Firm, designed to help the dominion’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 technique.
Chinese language companies have constructed partnerships with public-sector organisations and customised their platforms to help information localisation necessities. “They’ve additionally fashioned strategic partnerships with authorities entities within the area, particularly in Saudi Arabia, to make sure compliance with native information legal guidelines,” Ranjan mentioned in remarks reported by Remainder of World.
Synthetic intelligence has additionally change into a key focus. Chinese language corporations suppliers have built-in AI instruments into their providers earlier and extra aggressively than their US rivals. On the Huawei International AI Summit, the corporate’s CTO, Bruno Zhang, revealed how its Arabic language fashions may save hospital diagnostic occasions in Saudi Arabia by as much as 40%—a sensible instance of AI tailor-made to native wants.
These efforts are additional supported by China’s Digital Silk Street initiative, which fosters diplomatic ties and eases market entry for Chinese language companies. Whereas US suppliers face scrutiny over information governance, Chinese language corporations profit from high-level agreements that streamline operations and cut back regulatory friction.
For CIOs within the Center East, particularly in sectors like authorities and finance, Chinese language cloud providers current a mixture of native compliance, value effectivity, and help. Ranjan identified—in accordance with Remainder of World—that bundled service choices and a transparent deal with whole value of possession have made these platforms particularly enticing.
Kenneth Lindegaard, CIO of UAE-based agency Space42, mentioned that whereas cloud adoption is rising, some industry-specific workloads nonetheless run higher on conventional infrastructure. “The cloud market may be very aggressive, and there are various gamers,” Lindegaard famous in feedback reported by Remainder of World. “Laws like information localisation, and so forth., are dangerous as a result of there won’t be a enterprise case for all of them to construct cloud information centres in all international locations.”
The desire for hybrid deployments—combining cloud providers with on-premise information centres—has performed to the strengths of Chinese language companies, which structured their regional technique round this flexibility early on.
Luis Bravo, a senior analyst at Texas-based information centre agency Hawk, noticed that technological functionality alone isn’t sufficient to achieve markets just like the Center East. “Chinese language corporations are exhibiting that success relies upon as a lot on belief and cooperation because it does on computing energy,” Bravo mentioned in remarks reported by Remainder of World.
Because the cloud panorama within the Center East evolves, the competitors more and more centres on who can supply tailor-made, domestically compliant options—fairly than who affords essentially the most superior know-how. Chinese language suppliers seem to have taken that message to coronary heart.
(Photograph by Unsplash)
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