Salam and Dell Drive Saudi AI Ambitions with New Cloud Partnership

Abdelrahman Amr

Last updated 14-09-2026

4 min

Salam and Dell signed an MoU at LEAP 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

The deal adds Dell’s cloud and edge AI to Salam’s services.

They aim to help firms and government modernise, strengthen security and integrate systems.

Dell says it will cut ‘operational complexity’ and speed innovation under Vision 2030.

The real test is rollout speed, affordability and whether customers see measurable gains.

Salam and Dell Technologies are widening their partnership in Saudi Arabia, with both companies signing a memorandum of understanding during LEAP 2026 to push further into cloud infrastructure and edge AI solutions for enterprise customers across the Kingdom.

The agreement was signed by Eng. Ahmed Al-Anqari, chief executive of Salam, and Mohamed Talaat, vice president for Saudi, Egypt, North Africa and the Levant at Dell Technologies. In simple terms, the plan is to bring Dell’s cloud and edge AI technology into Salam’s broader services line-up, giving customers more flexibility, steadier cost models and quicker access to newer digital tools. For fast-growing businesses, that can be a game changer; anyone building in the region knows that upgrading core systems can be a bit of a faff when it drags on too long.

Salam said the collaboration is meant to help enterprise and government users modernise operations more smoothly, while also improving security and integration. Ahmed Al-Anqari said the company’s focus is on providing next-generation technology that helps Saudi businesses become smarter, more connected and more secure. He added that expanding work with Dell Technologies should allow Salam to offer world-class cloud infrastructure and edge solutions on a flexible consumption basis, helping clients modernise and support sustainable growth.

Dell Technologies is framing the move around scale and speed. Mohamed Talaat said Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation needs flexible, high-performing infrastructure that can grow with business ambitions. He said the MoU with Salam creates a route to bring Dell’s edge AI solutions closer to end users across the Kingdom, while helping enterprise customers cut operational complexity, speed up time-to-value and innovate in line with Vision 2030.

That said, the bigger picture matters here. Saudi Arabia has been putting serious weight behind digital infrastructure, and this tie-up fits neatly into that direction by targeting both public and private sector organisations with tools designed to streamline work, strengthen security and unlock real-time insights at the edge. Edge AI, for readers who don’t live and breathe the jargon, means artificial intelligence tools running closer to where data is created rather than only in distant cloud systems. That can make responses faster and, in some cases, more practical for industries that need instant decisions.

I reckon this kind of partnership is becoming almost unavoidable in the Gulf: telecom operators already have the customer reach and infrastructure footprint, while global tech firms bring the platform muscle. Put them together and, if execution is spot on, the result can move beyond headlines into actual deployment. On the flip side, MoUs are still early-stage documents, so the real test will be how quickly services roll out and whether customers see measurable gains.

For readers at Arageek who follow the startup and digital economy scene, there is also a familiar lesson in all this. I’ve seen founders across MENA get chuffed to bits by bold infrastructure announcements, only to ask later whether they can actually access these services in a practical, affordable way. Well... I mean, that question is still the right one. But Salam comes into this with a long standing role in the Saudi market, having operated since 2005 and built one of the region’s more established telecom networks.

The company provides ICT and digitalisation services to businesses, government bodies and carriers, as well as fixed and mobile telecom services for individuals. Its portfolio also includes cloud computing, cybersecuirty services, data centres and digital infrastructure, while subsidiaries such as Salam Mobile Telecom Company and Technical Links Services support delivery across the Kingdom. Believe it or not, that underlying reach may end up being just as important as the AI label attached to the deal.

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