The new Neom city in Saudi Arabia has announced a floating industrial district that will house a hyperscale data center.

Neom is a project aiming to construct a huge new smart city on the Red Sea coast in the northwestern Saudi province of Tabuk.

Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Neom Company Board of Directors this week announced Oxagon, a new floating hexagonal industrial district to be located in Neom.

To be located in the southwest of the new city, Oxagon will host an integrated port and logistics hub located on the Red Sea close to the Suez Canal.

As well as a hydrogen project and modular building construction factory, the district will house the previously-announced data center developed in partnership with Fas Energy that will host Oracle cloud infrastructure.

"Oxagon will be the catalyst for economic growth and diversity in Neom and the Kingdom, further meeting our ambitions under Vision 2030,” said Prince Salman. “It will contribute to Saudi Arabia's regional trade and commerce, and support creating a new focal point for global trade flows. I am pleased to see that business and development have started on the ground and we look forward to the city's rapid expansion."

Development of Oxagon is reportedly already underway and designs are in progress for the large manufacturing facilities and will open to its manufacturing tenants at the beginning of 2022. Oracle said it hopes to open a number cloud regions – including the second Saudi region in Neom – by the end of 2022.

Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of Neom, said: "Through Oxagon, there will be a fundamental shift in how the world views manufacturing centers. What encourages us is to see the enthusiasm of a number of our partners who have shown eagerness to start their projects in Oxagon. These pioneers of change will establish factories, developed with the latest technologies in artificial intelligence, to achieve a significant leap for this era into the Fourth Industrial Revolution."