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PIF And I Squared Set $1 Billion Saudi Digital Infrastructure Plan

Newsroom brief

Data Center Dynamics reported that I Squared Capital signed a non-binding MoU with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund covering up to $2 billion in PIF-owned real estate and infrastructure assets, with half of the planned deployment earmarked for digital infrastructure. The MoU does not name the first assets, sites, financing timetable or data-centre capacity tied to the $1 billion allocation.

Verified against source materialEdited by SendTech Times Cloud & Infrastructure DeskSource: Data Center Dynamics
PIF And I Squared Set $1 Billion Saudi Digital Infrastructure Plan
Image source: Data Center Dynamics

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has a new non-binding infrastructure agreement that sets aside up to $1 billion for digital infrastructure assets.

Data Center Dynamics described I Squared Capital as having signed an MoU with PIF covering up to $2 billion in PIF-owned real estate and infrastructure assets.

Half of the planned deployment is earmarked for digital infrastructure projects, while the other 50 percent is assigned to district cooling.

Both categories were characterized as critical enablers for the real-estate sector in the DCD account.

$2 Billion MoU Splits Digital Infrastructure And District Cooling

Data Center Dynamics quoted PIF’s Saad Alkroud describing the fund’s real-estate and infrastructure pipeline as a draw for investors.

I Squared chairman and managing partner Sadek Wahba called the MoU a move in the relationship from partnership to action.

The agreement remains an MoU rather than a named project financing close.

It does not identify the first PIF assets covered by the digital infrastructure allocation, the equity structure, the project sites or the timetable for deployment.

PIF Data Centre Context Includes Humain, AWS And xAI

Data Center Dynamics also pointed to PIF’s recent data-centre activity through Humain, the AI data-centre company the fund established in May 2025.

The account described Humain as aiming to deliver 6.6GW of data-centre capacity over the next decade.

That same coverage noted that PIF agreed to buy 18,000 Nvidia GB300 chips, while Humain indicated that several hundred thousand more were on the way.

It also referenced a partnership with AWS for a $5 billion AI Zone and the deployment of Groq chips for inference.

The report said PIF set up a joint venture with AMD and Cisco in November 2025 to deploy 1GW of data-centre capacity.

The source added that the fund announced a 500MW Saudi data-centre project with Elon Musk’s xAI.

I Squared Portfolio Includes Data Centres, Fibre And Towers

Data Center Dynamics outlined I Squared Capital as having been founded in 2012 and as having $60bn in assets under management.

Its digital-infrastructure holdings include European data-centre firm nLighten, APAC data-centre operator BDx, fibre firms Exa and Lightstorm, and thousands of cell tower sites.

The investor’s data-centre record also includes the 2021 acquisition of Mexican operator Kio, the purchase of Brazilian operator Elea earlier this year and the May purchase of 10 US data centres from Cogent, records from Data Center Dynamics show.

The MoU does not identify the first Saudi digital-infrastructure assets or project sites.

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