Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Microsoft, the global technology conglomerate, announced the completion of three availability zones in its Azure data center region in Saudi Arabia, a milestone that strengthens the Kingdom’s position as a regional hub for artificial intelligence (AI).

Providing sovereign cloud capabilities, this infrastructure enables government and private sector entities to adopt generative AI technologies locally while complying with national regulations, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

As part of its efforts to develop national capability, Microsoft’s joint training programs have benefited more than one million beneficiaries over the past two years. This included training over two-thirds of a million participants in the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority's (SDAIA) SAMAI initiative, empowering over 5,000 women through specialized programs, and training thousands of students and over 100,000 teachers.

These figures underscore Microsoft’s pivotal role as a technology partner to Saudi Arabia, supporting the Kingdom’s giga projects, such as NEOM, Qiddiya, and the Red Sea, and driving digital transformation in key sectors, notably energy, finance, and logistics.

It is worth mentioning that Microsoft’s latest report, titled ‘AI Diffusion 2025 Report: Where AI is most used, developed, and Built,’ ranked Saudi Arabia among the top three in the MENA region, with an AI diffusion rate of 23.7%.