The Royal Commission for Riyadh City has launched a "Digital District" initiative aimed at turning the Saudi capital into a global hub for technology talent and digital innovation, the commission said on August 27.

The initiative, one of the commission's strategic projects, seeks to attract international tech firms and specialists and build a knowledge economy based on digital leadership, part of a broader Saudi drive to position Riyadh as a business and technology centre that competes with Dubai and other established regional hubs under the Vision 2030 diversification agenda.

It focuses on drawing companies and talent across six core fields: artificial intelligence and big data, cybersecurity, cloud computing and services, the internet of things, blockchain, and robotics and drones.

Those six areas account for the largest share of global investment in tech-innovation companies, the commission said, underlining their role in driving future growth.

The Digital District is conceived as an integrated digital business environment within Riyadh to host tech companies, talent and investment and support the growth of the capital's digital economy.

Ibrahim Al-Sultan, minister of state, cabinet member and chief executive of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, said the initiative aimed to make Riyadh a global destination for tech talent, companies and digital entrepreneurship, and to place the city among the world's top 10 technology hubs.

He said the step served Vision 2030 targets of building a diversified economy based on digital leadership and technical innovation, and reinforced the kingdom's role in digital transformation.

The launch comes as Gulf states pour hundreds of billions of dollars into digital infrastructure, with Saudi Arabia's sovereign AI company Humain pursuing a $77bn strategy targeting 1.9 gigawatts of data-centre capacity by 2030, and the region's data-centre capacity set to triple to 3.3 GW over the same period.