Chinese cloud suppliers are progressively increasing their presence within the Middle East, difficult the dominance of established US tech firms by aligning extra carefully with native authorities priorities and rules.
While Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle have operated regional knowledge centres for a number of years, firms like Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent are gaining traction by focused partnerships and companies tailor-made to regional wants. These Chinese corporations are investing in infrastructure, coaching, and collaboration with regional telecom suppliers to strengthen their foothold.
According to IDC’s Manish Ranjan, Chinese cloud suppliers are making progress by supporting native digital transformation efforts. “Despite the established dominance of AWS [Amazon Web Services], Azure, and Google Cloud in the Middle East, Chinese providers like Huawei and Alibaba are making a significant presence in the region,” Ranjan famous in feedback reported by Rest of World.
US cloud corporations have been early entrants within the area. Amazon Web Services opened its first Middle East knowledge centre in Bahrain in 2019, with a second within the UAE in 2022. Microsoft launched cloud areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the identical 12 months, whereas Google Cloud entered Saudi Arabia’s Dammam area in 2023. Oracle at present operates a number of cloud zones in each the UAE and Saudi Arabia, together with a deliberate growth in Neom.
However, Chinese suppliers have pursued a special technique. Huawei has partnered with telecom firms akin to STC, E& Enterprise, du, Zain, OmanTel, and Ooredoo to help cloud computing, AI, 5G, and sensible infrastructure. At the 2025 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Alan Qi, president of Huawei Cloud Middle East and Central Asia, emphasised the corporate’s position in enabling digital progress in Saudi Arabia. The firm at present operates 4 cloud amenities within the nation, together with a low-latency knowledge centre that reduces processing delays.
In March, Huawei introduced a collaboration with Zain KSA to boost community infrastructure. The firm says it has already onboarded greater than 1,000 shoppers in Saudi Arabia by its Riyadh hub, together with authorities departments and monetary establishments.
Tencent entered the regional cloud market in February, pledging to take a position over $150 million in Saudi Arabia within the coming years.
Alibaba Cloud has adopted an identical path, opening knowledge centres within the UAE in 2022 and in Saudi Arabia final 12 months. It additionally partnered with STC to launch the Saudi Cloud Computing Company, designed to help the dominion’s Vision 2030 technique.
Chinese corporations have constructed partnerships with public-sector organisations and customised their platforms to help knowledge localisation necessities. “They have also formed strategic partnerships with government entities in the region, especially in Saudi Arabia, to ensure compliance with local data laws,” Ranjan stated in remarks reported by Rest of World.
Artificial intelligence has additionally develop into a key focus. Chinese firms suppliers have built-in AI instruments into their companies earlier and extra aggressively than their US rivals. At the Huawei Global AI Summit, the corporate’s CTO, Bruno Zhang, revealed how its Arabic language fashions may save hospital diagnostic instances in Saudi Arabia by as much as 40%—a sensible instance of AI tailor-made to native wants.
These efforts are additional supported by China’s Digital Silk Road initiative, which fosters diplomatic ties and eases market entry for Chinese corporations. While US suppliers face scrutiny over knowledge governance, Chinese firms profit from high-level agreements that streamline operations and scale back regulatory friction.
For CIOs within the Middle East, particularly in sectors like authorities and finance, Chinese cloud companies current a mixture of native compliance, value effectivity, and help. Ranjan identified—in line with Rest of World—that bundled service choices and a transparent deal with complete value of possession have made these platforms particularly engaging.
Kenneth Lindegaard, CIO of UAE-based agency Space42, stated that whereas cloud adoption is rising, some industry-specific workloads nonetheless run higher on conventional infrastructure. “The cloud market is very competitive, and there are many players,” Lindegaard famous in feedback reported by Rest of World. “Regulations like data localisation, etc., are risky because there might not be a business case for all of them to build cloud data centres in all countries.”
The desire for hybrid deployments—combining cloud companies with on-premise knowledge centres—has performed to the strengths of Chinese corporations, which structured their regional technique round this flexibility early on.
Luis Bravo, a senior analyst at Texas-based knowledge centre agency Hawk, noticed that technological functionality alone isn’t sufficient to reach markets just like the Middle East. “Chinese companies are showing that success depends as much on trust and cooperation as it does on computing power,” Bravo stated in remarks reported by Rest of World.
As the cloud panorama within the Middle East evolves, the competitors more and more centres on who can provide tailor-made, domestically compliant options—reasonably than who affords probably the most superior expertise. Chinese suppliers seem to have taken that message to coronary heart.
(Photo by Unsplash)
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