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Egyptian construction tycoon Hassan Allam's company has won a contract worth about 750 million riyals ($200 million) to build the first phase of an artificial intelligence data centre in Riyadh, giving the family-owned group a role in Saudi Arabia's push to become a regional hub for AI computing.
Hassan Allam Construction will carry out the work in partnership with India's Sterling & Wilson. The facility is being developed by Humain, the AI company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Center3, the digital infrastructure unit of telecom operator STC Group.
The contractors will handle civil, architectural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work and site infrastructure. The first phase is due to take 16 months and will deliver 16.2 megawatts of IT load. A second phase will take the facility to 50 megawatts, spread across one standard-density hall of 5 megawatts and four high-density halls of 11.2 megawatts each, built for the heavy power and cooling needs of AI chips.
Humain and Center3 agreed in December 2025 to build AI data centres with combined capacity of up to 1 gigawatt.
A bigger tender
Humain is now seeking bids for a much larger project. In September it invited contractors to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction of a 100-megawatt AI data centre on a 350,200-square-metre plot in Riyadh's Al-Saad district, a contract estimated at about $1 billion. Bids are due on Nov. 8.
That project will be built in two 50-megawatt phases across two single-storey buildings, with an option to double capacity to 200 megawatts. Work is set to start in January 2027, with the first phase ready by October 2028 and the second by January 2029. The racks are designed to draw 240 to 250 kilowatts each, cooled by liquid pumped directly to the chips.
A family builder in the Gulf
Hassan Allam Holding was founded in Egypt in 1936 and is still owned and run by the Allam family. Hassan Allam and Amr Allam serve as co-chief executives. The group employs more than 50,000 people in 10 countries, generated revenue of $2.1 billion in 2025 and ended the year with a backlog of more than $7.2 billion.
Saudi Arabia has become its most important market outside Egypt. The group moved a regional headquarters to Riyadh in 2024 and has worked on projects at NEOM and on the monorail at the King Abdullah Financial District. In April, its Saudi construction arm and local partner AlBawani won a $490 million contract to build the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art. The same month it bought MetiPro, the engineering and construction arm of water company Metito.
Beyond construction, the group invests in utilities, renewable energy and water infrastructure through Hassan Allam Utilities, and has projects in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Morocco.
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