Oracle's cloud region in Saudi Arabia's futuristic megacity NEOM will go live "soon", the chief information officer of the US technology major has said. The infrastructure is expected to further boost the status of the Middle East as a technology hub and support its economic growth.

The NEOM cloud region, originally announced in October 2021, is part of the Texas-based company's intensified push into the region which emphasises the role of the cloud in spurring economic growth in the era of digitalisation, Jae Evans told The National in an interview.

Ms Evans described Oracle's aggressive cloud expansion in the Middle East as the "fastest" by any major provider, but declined to specify the amount of investment earmarked for the region. She spoke about the recent $1.5 billion commitment Oracle made to the kingdom during the Leap technology conference in Riyadh in February.

Cloud technology is also a key driver of Oracle's business: in its fiscal third quarter ended February, overall cloud revenue grew 45 per cent annually to $4.1 billion, with its infrastructure-as-a-service segment alone surging 55 per cent to $1.2 billion, the company reported last month.

Read the full story at The National News