Riyadh – Asdaf News:
Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced the availability of Databricks on Google Cloud for customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This local presence enables organizations throughout the Kingdom to build and scale high-quality AI apps and agents on their enterprise data with speed, security and governance.
This launch deepens Databricks’ commitment to the Kingdom following the opening of its Riyadh office in December 2024 and a $300 million investment to help local customers accelerate data and AI transformation.
Empowering enterprises across KSA with data intelligence and agentic AI
Many enterprises in KSA face fragmented data systems, siloed analytics and growing pressure to deliver measurable AI-driven business impact while complying with local regulations. These challenges slow innovation and increase complexity. To compete, businesses need a governed platform that can accelerate AI adoption, handle massive data volumes, and integrate seamlessly across clouds.
Databricks addresses these concerns by providing a multi-cloud data and AI platform that helps customers drive innovation, increase revenue, lower costs and reduce risk. In the coming months, customers in KSA will be able to leverage Databricks’ flagship AI product, Agent Bricks, and natively access the latest frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google’s Gemini family of models and Meta Llama. With Unity Catalog as the centralized governance layer, customers can securely discover, manage, and share all of their data and AI assets at scale.
Key benefits of customers running on Databricks on Google Cloud in KSA include:
- Unified, Governed AI Infrastructure: Deploy Databricks on Google Cloud to provide secure, AI-optimized infrastructure to build trusted data and AI applications.
- Dynamic Scalability and Performance: Scale workloads seamlessly across open standards while minimizing vendor lock-in and optimizing performance.
- Robust Security and Compliance: Databricks leverages Google Cloud’s integrated Identity and Access Management ( IAM), Cloud Data Loss Prevention (Cloud DLP) and encryption capabilities to help ensure strong security and compliance while integrating with Google Cloud’s analytics, AI and business intelligence (BI) capabilities.
- Cost Efficiency and Value: Combining Google Cloud’s flexible pay-as-you-go pricing with Databricks’ seamless integration helps customers lower total cost of ownership, simplify operations, and speed innovation to market.
- Open, Flexible and Interoperable: Databricks is built on open formats, open standards and an open data catalog with zero lock-in and zero-copy data sharing and is available across all major clouds.
“Enterprises across the Kingdom are looking for ways to deploy high-quality AI agents while maintaining data governance and security,” said Rory Patterson, Chief of Staff to the CEO and VP of Corporate Operations at Databricks. “This launch reinforces our commitment to Saudi Arabia and our mission to help customers unlock trusted AI on their enterprise data, driving new levels of growth and innovation.”
“Partnering with Google Cloud helps us bring the power of the Data Intelligence Platform to our local customers, “ said Yannis Daubin, VP, SEMEA, Databricks. “We look forward to accelerating our multi-cloud strategy in the Kingdom in the months ahead, providing customers with zero lock-in, flexibility and choice for scaling their AI strategies.”
“Our partnership with Databricks will bring advanced data and AI capabilities to businesses in KSA,” said Bader Almadi, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Country Manager for Google Cloud. “With Databricks now available on Google Cloud infrastructure, customers can securely build and scale data and AI workloads with enterprise-grade scale, security, and performance.”
Customer momentum and local partnerships
Enterprises such as Najm and Beyond ONE are already accelerating their AI initiatives with Databricks.
“With Databricks on Google Cloud and in partnership with Baseerah, Najm is laying the groundwork for a smarter, data‑driven and decision-making future along with advanced technologies and analytics. Our new Lakehouse platform will scale AI agents and drive faster innovation across our ecosystem, improve the customer experience, and support our partners”, said Abdullah Alkhalaf, Acting CEO at Najm.
“Beyond ONE continues to push the boundaries of data and AI innovation, empowering our teams to transform telco-scale data into governed, real-time intelligence that redefines how we create hyper-personalized experiences for Beyond One KSA customers. The availability of Databricks on Google Cloud in the Kingdom marks an important step in this journey, enhancing our ability to accelerate insights, optimize operations, and responsibly scale production-grade AI in alignment with the Kingdom’s data residency and security aspirations,” said Naorus Abdulghani, Group CTO, Beyond ONE.
CNTXT, a Middle East cloud and digital transformation company, will help enterprises in KSA adopt the full capabilities of Databricks on Google Cloud.
“Saudi Arabia is home to some of the most vibrant and fast-growing enterprises that want to leverage Gen AI quickly and safely. By combining Databricks’ innovation with the scalability and security of Google Cloud, we’re empowering local enterprises to accelerate their data and AI strategies in line with Vision 2030” said Giedre Malinauskaite, Chief Strategy Officer,
