Aramco, Alphabet Discuss Joint Tech Hub

Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Saudi Aramco and Google’s parent company Alphabet have entered into talks about potentially building a big technology hub in Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the discussions. Alphabet and Aramco are discussing a joint venture under which the Silicon Valley giant will help the Saudi oil group to build data centers in Saudi Arabia, but it was not immediately clear whose data the centers would host or who would control them, Oil Price reported. Senior managers at Alphabet and Aramco have been discussing the creation of a potential joint venture for months, and those talks have included Alphabet’s CEO Larry Page, some sources said. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the official supervising the plans for the initial public offering of Aramco, set for the second half of this year and expected to be the world’s largest IPO in history.