RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council region will soon emerge as a data center development hub, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund investing in a new partnership with global asset manager DigitalBridge. According to a company press release, the partnership will prioritize investments in the data center sector and other segments of digital infrastructure in line with PIF’s strategy. The note added that the fund’s strategy aims to enable sectors and increase local content by establishing partnerships with the private sector. The fund will leverage DigitalBridge’s expertise in investing, building and operating digital infrastructure to support the continued advancement of the Kingdom’s digital economy. “We see significant opportunity for continued growth in the sectors in which we specialize and look forward to leveraging our capabilities and expertise to capitalize on the long-term opportunities across this important region,” said Marc Ganzi, CEO at DigitalBridge, in a press statement. The investment will aim to localize technologies and support knowledge transfer to develop and operate hyper-scale data centers and database servers in the Kingdom and GCC region. “As a global leader in digital infrastructure, we are pleased to partner with PIF to further enable the digital infrastructure buildout in Saudi Arabia and across the GCC countries,” Ganzi added. Earlier this year, PIF subsidiary Saudi Downtown Co. joined hands with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to develop digitalization projects. Saudi Downtown Co. aims to build and develop digital infrastructure and communication technologies in 12 cities in the Kingdom. These initiatives are part of the fund’s five-year strategy launched in 2021 to inject $40 billion worth of investment into the domestic economy. DigitalBridge is a US-based digital infrastructure firm specializing in investing and operating cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells and edge infrastructure.