Saudi Aramco signs MoU with Samsung to localise 5G tech

Saudi Energy company Aramco signed on Tuesday an agreement with Korean tech giant Samsung to localise 5G technology in the Kingdom, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) published on Thursday.

The collaboration aims to contribute to the digital transformation of various industrial sectors in the Kingdom, such as energy, petrochemical, and manufacturing, by leveraging advanced 4G and 5G technologies capable of providing secure, fast and reliable communication, to satisfy critical business requirements of industries.

The agreement came after the launch of Aramco Digital Company during the seventh edition of the In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Forum and Exhibition in January.

The entity has already signed agreements with companies like Zoom, Taulia Inc., Accenture, DHL, and more to increase the digital transformation in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.

Saudi Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Abdullah Alswaha, said in February that the Kingdom attracted more than $9 billion of investments in future technologies.

These include U.S. giants Microsoft and Oracle Corp, which are currently building cloud regions in Saudi Arabia.

Oracle is set to invest $1.5 billion to build a new cloud region in Riyadh, while Microsoft should invest $2.1 billion in a global super-scale cloud.

A subsidiary of the $500 billion signature NEOM project with the name Tonomus said it invested $1 billion in 2022 in AI and a metaverse platform.

These developments in the technology field serve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 which includes vision to upgrade and develop digital infrastructure to improve the quality of life and to attract more investments.