Aramco signs strategic partnership with Zoom, allocates additional funds to Wa’ed Ventures

Amin H. Nasser, Aramco President & CEO

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) announced today, Feb. 6, a strategic partnership with Zoom and an increase in funding for Wa’ed Ventures.

The announcements were made at the second edition of LEAP, a major international technology conference held annually in Saudi Arabia.

In an emailed statement to Argaam, the oil giant said the strategic partnership with Aramco aims to build Zoom’s first global data center in the Kingdom, to support the digital transformation ecosystem. The data center is expected to connect to the Zoom global data center network and contribute to the digital transformation of various market sectors, such as energy, industry, education and healthcare.

Aramco also announced additional funds had been allocated by the company to Wa’ed Ventures, increasing the size of its Kingdom-focused venture capital arm from SAR 750 million ($200 million) to SAR 1.87 billion ($500 million).

The increase aims to enable the company to deliver an accelerated investment performance regionally and globally. Wa’ed Ventures aims to localize global frontier technologies to advance the Kingdom’s innovation ecosystem; expand investments in mid and growth-stage startups; and fund underserved domains such as environmental, social and governance, the metaverse and quantum computing.