Gulf powers race to build AI data highways bypassing Red Sea

As geopolitical tensions make the Red Sea increasingly hostile to infrastructure development, Qatar's Ooredoo Group is spearheading a shift in how the Gulf approaches data connectivity. On 18 May, Ooredoo announced a partnership with du to land its Fibre in the Gulf (FIG) system in the UAE and advanced construction of landing infrastructure and cable landing stations in both Qatar and Iraq. FIG itself is a landmark project: spanning almost 2,000 kilometres with planned capacity of up to 720 terabits per second, it will be the largest subsea cable ever built in the GCC. Scheduled for completion in late 2027, it represents an investment of over $500 million and offers a radically different routing from traditional Europe–Asia paths. "FIG will be the first cable connecting Asia to Europe, but completely circumventing both the Suez Canal and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and running from Oman through Iraq and Turkey into Europe," Ooredoo CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo told Fortune.

The urgency of this shift became apparent when Houthi attacks effectively halted subsea cable construction in the Red Sea since 2024, affecting even tech giants like Google and Meta. The vulnerability of the traditional route is stark: research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that over 90% of Europe–Asia data and telecommunications traffic flows through Egypt and the subsea cable corridors converging at the Red Sea and Suez Canal region. Fakhroo emphasized the problem: "There hasn't been any new capacity built in the last five to seven years due to a number of reasons, including geopolitical events. And yet, every year, these data flows increase by about 30%." This mismatch between growing demand and stalled infrastructure underpins the region's push for alternatives.

Ooredoo is pursuing a vertically integrated strategy, moving beyond cable ownership to control the entire data pathway. Alongside FIG, Ooredoo is partnering with Saudi Telecom Company (STC) on the Saudi Oman Network Infrastructure Corridor (Sonic), a terrestrial fiber-optic network spanning 1,931 kilometres announced in February last year and scheduled for completion within 24 months. Sonic runs from cable landing stations in Jeddah through primary data center clusters in Riyadh and Muscat, extending toward the southeastern border with Oman, effectively creating a "Digital Bridge" across the Arabian Peninsula. In February this year, Ooredoo formalized this strategic focus by establishing Ooredoo Fibre Networks (OFN) as a dedicated entity to scale subsea cables and fiber infrastructure.

The broader Gulf strategy extends beyond Ooredoo. STC, majority-owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, is investing $800 million in SilkLink, a project announced in February this year that will span 4,500 kilometres of fiber optic cable across Syria to a submarine cable landing station at Tartus on the Mediterranean, with connections to Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The first phase is expected to start within 18 to 24 months. One week after SilkLink's announcement, an Iraqi-UAE private consortium revealed plans for WorldLink, a $700 million hybrid subsea and terrestrial network running from the UAE to Iraq's Al-Faw Peninsula and overland through Iraq and Kurdistan to Turkey. Due to be rolled out in phases over the next five years, WorldLink explicitly targets hyperscalers, international carriers, and AI applications, aiming to ease congestion and reduce transit times compared to traditional Suez Canal routes.

The geopolitical environment, however, remains volatile. Fakhroo acknowledged that the U.S.–Iran war has complicated FIG's rollout, particularly given its planned route through the Strait of Hormuz. "Certain markets, such as Iraq, have been somewhat put on hold or delayed, but these markets are not the main drivers of our growth strategy over the next two to three years." Ooredoo is adapting by accelerating land-based infrastructure and accelerating cable purchases while ground seabed surveys continue in accessible areas. Despite security incidents, including recent attacks on data centers in the UAE and Bahrain, regional appetite for AI and cloud infrastructure remains robust. In July, Qatari data center developer Meeza completed a 4 MW expansion for an unnamed "leading global hyperscaler" nine months ahead of schedule. Ooredoo's data center subsidiary, Syntys, is targeting 120 MW of installed capacity by 2030—well ahead of targets set in 2024.

The scale of regional AI ambitions underscores why these data highways are critical. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are collectively targeting 8–10 GW of AI compute capacity across announced projects and national ambitions. This includes the UAE's planned 5-GW campus and Saudi Arabia's HUMAIN project, which is targeting 1.9 GW of compute capacity by 2030 with further expansion planned. Fakhroo summed up the strategic rationale: "As economies across the region become increasingly digital, there's a growing focus on sovereignty—sovereign cloud, sovereign AI, and sovereign data residency. And such solutions require a presence in the country where they're being sold, because the data they host cannot leave that country's borders."