As governments and enterprises across the Middle East adopt artificial intelligence (AI) at pace, cloud providers are increasingly being asked to deliver more than infrastructure. Organisations want access to advanced AI capabilities while maintaining control over data, meeting regulatory requirements and ensuring compliance with national sovereignty frameworks.
For Oracle, this shift is shaping its investment strategy across the region. “The Middle East is rapidly advancing its AI ambitions,” says Leopoldo Boado Lama, senior vice-president of applications, CEE, CIS and MEA at Oracle. “Customers don’t have to choose between global-scale AI capabilities and local control. They can achieve both.”
The company has been expanding its sovereign cloud footprint across the Gulf, offering customers a choice between public cloud environments and sovereign cloud deployments designed to meet local data residency and cyber security requirements.
“We are always offering our customers the possibility of having public cloud or sovereign cloud,” says Boado. “There are some regulated industries that need to go into a sovereign cloud. What we offer is more than 200 cloud services while complying with all sovereignty, regulatory and cyber security requirements.”
According to Boado, public sector organisations are currently the biggest adopters of sovereign cloud services, followed by financial institutions, where data governance and compliance remain critical priorities.
The strategy is particularly evident in Saudi Arabia, one of Oracle’s fastest-growing markets in the region. The company already operates cloud regions in Riyadh and Jeddah, and is preparing to open a third cloud region in the Kingdom.
The expansion forms part of a wider regional growth plan that will see Oracle increase its cloud infrastructure footprint across the Middle East and Africa as demand for AI services continues to rise.
We are always offering our customers the possibility of having public cloud or sovereign cloud Leopoldo Boado Lama, Oracle
“Our cloud expansion reflects where customer demand is growing fastest. As AI adoption accelerates, organisations want cloud and AI services closer to where they operate,” he adds.
Embedded AI for practical business outcomes
Beyond infrastructure, Oracle is also positioning itself as an AI partner for enterprises seeking practical business outcomes rather than standalone AI experimentation. Boado argues that one of Oracle’s differentiators is how it embeds AI capabilities directly into applications and business processes.
“Our AI is embedded across the stack; customers can activate AI capabilities directly within their applications, or we can help them build tailored AI use cases using our database and cloud platforms,” he says.
The approach is already gaining traction in Saudi Arabia, where more than 500 Oracle Fusion customers have activated AI functionality.
“About half of those customers are already using AI capabilities. What we are seeing is strong demand from organisations that want to move quickly from experimentation to real business value.”
Photographer: Maximo Garcia de la Paz
“The demand for AI is creating demand for sovereign cloud. Organisations want access to innovation, but they also want control over their data”
Leopoldo Boado Lama, Oracle
Alongside enterprise adoption, telecoms operators are emerging as important partners in Oracle’s sovereign cloud strategy. Across the Gulf, operators such as du, e&, stc and Ooredoo are using Oracle technology to develop sovereign cloud platforms that can support government entities and highly regulated industries.
“In the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and other markets, customers are deploying sovereign cloud services on Oracle technology,” says Boado. “The key point is that every country and every organisation can choose the model that best aligns with its regulatory and operational requirements.”
For Oracle, sovereign cloud is increasingly becoming a foundation for AI adoption rather than simply a compliance requirement. “The demand for AI is creating demand for sovereign cloud. Organisations want access to innovation, but they also want control over their data.”
Developing digital talent
Another key component of Oracle’s regional strategy is talent development. The company has committed to training and certifying 350,000 people across the Middle East in AI and digital technologies through Oracle University, working alongside governments, universities and ecosystem partners.
“We have a huge number of AI projects taking place across the region right now,” he says. “There is enormous demand for AI skills and AI resources. We believe this programme will help customers, partners and the wider ecosystem build the capabilities needed to deliver those projects.”
Oracle is also investing in long-term innovation capabilities through its research and development operations in Morocco, where more than 600 engineers are working on cloud, AI and database technologies.
While the teams support Oracle’s global product development efforts, Boado says they also play an important role in supporting customers across the Middle East and Africa. “They are focused on product development and research, but they also provide important support for the region,” he says.
As AI moves from experimentation to large-scale deployment, Oracle believes the next phase of growth in the Middle East will be defined by organisations’ ability to combine AI innovation with sovereignty, security and local control.
“The opportunity is enormous. What customers need is flexibility – they want AI capabilities, they want cloud innovation, but they want to deploy it in a way that aligns with their business needs and national requirements.”
