AXS and BIM Capital Launch $180M Fund for AI-Ready Data Centres in Saudi Arabia

AXS and BIM Capital are moving to set up a private investment fund worth SAR675 million, or about $180 million, to back data centre infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, in a step that says quite a lot about where the kingdom’s digital economy is heading.

The agreement was signed during the fifth edition of LEAP in Riyadh, with the plan centred on developing two data centres built to handle artificial intelligence workloads in the central and western regions of the country. For readers at Arageek, this is the sort of deal that may sound niche at first glance, but it sits right in the middle of a much bigger shift: AI is hungry for computing power, and someone has to build the rooms, racks and resilience to support it.

If established, the fund will be a closed-ended private investment fund compliant with Sharia principles, with BIM Capital set to manage it. The vehicle is expected to invest in the development, ownership and operation of two Tier III data centres. In simple words, Tier III usually means a facility with a strong level of redundancy and uptime, which matters when customers are governments, large companies or cloud providers that really cannot afford downtime. No one wants a system wobble at the wrong moment, well… I mean, especially not when AI loads are involved.

Each site is planned to launch with an initial operating capacity of 10 megawatts, giving the project 20 megawatts in total at the start. The modular design would also allow capacity to be doubled to 20 megawatts per site, taking the total potential size to 40 megawatts once expansion phases are complete. That flexibility is spot on for this market, I reckon, because demand can ramp fast and fixed designs can become a bit of a faff when growth comes quicker than expected.

Under the arrangement, AXS will join the fund as a strategic partner and investor through a cash subscription. It is also expected to receive units in exchange for part of the fees and dues linked to design and construction work, subject to the fund terms and final agreements. On the delivery side, AXS will act as the project’s main contractor, taking on the design and build of both centres, then managing and operating the facilities after development is complete, while also supporting the marketing and leasing of available capacity.

BIM Capital, for its part, will handle the structuring, establishment and management of the fund. That includes preparing the terms and conditions and legal documents, completing the requirements linked to the Capital Market Authority, and privately offering the fund units to qualified investors. And believe it or not, that behind-the-scenes structuring work is often where these projects are won or lost; shiny infrastructure announcements are one thing, getting the investment architecture right is another.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Osaili, chief executive of AXS, said the agreement builds on the company’s more than 10 years of experience in developing digital infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. He added that the project marks a shift in AXS’s business model, from offering technology solutions to taking part as an investor, developer and operator of strategic digital assets.

The partnership brings together AXS’s engineering and operating experience in data centres with BIM Capital’s capabilities in institutional investment structuring and fund management. The aim is to expand local capacity ready for AI workloads and serve the needs of government entities, major corporates and cloud service providers, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

That wider backdrop matters. Demand for data centres in Saudi Arabia has been rising as AI applications and cloud computing spread, while requirements to host data locally are also getting stronger. I’ve seen over the years, covering startups across MENA, how founders can talk for hours about apps and platforms but often forget the heavy lifting happens in infrastructure. It is not the flashiest part of tech, not by a long shot, yet it is often where the real long-term value sits.

According to market estimates cited in the agreement statement, Saudi Arabia’s operational data centre capacity reached around 467 megawatts in the first quarter of 2026. The country is targeting an increase to 1.5 gigawatts by 2030. The same statement pointed to announced investment commitments worth more than $35 billion from major cloud computing companies, underlining the scale of expected growth in the kingdom’s digital infrastructure.

AXS, founded in 2015 and headquartered in Riyadh, works across data centres, digital infrastructure, cloud solutions, cyber security and managed services. The company is listed on Nomu under ticker 9637, and says it has delivered more than 750 projects for over 300 clients with a team of more than 180 specialists. BIM Capital is a closed Saudi joint-stock company licensed by the Capital Market Authority under licence number 32-25303, and operates in investment management, fund operation and financial advisory services.

The two companies are targeting the fund’s first close in the fourth quarter of 2026. After that, the development and construction phase for the two data centres is expected to take six quarters from the date of the first close until commercial operations begin. On the flip side, the whole plan still depends on receiving approval and/or non-objection from the Capital Market Authority and completing the related regulatory requirements, so it is not a done deal just yet. Still, in a market racing to build digital capacity, this one looks like a serious play rather than just another headline-grabing MoU.

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