Google's parent company Alphabet is exploring a relationship with Saudi Arabia's oil giant to build a 'tech hub' in the Middle East (GOOG)

pulse

February 1, 2018 3:59 PM

The deal could help Alphabet do more business with oil companies in the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco about building a "tech hub" in the Middle East.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Alphabet would build data centers in the region.
Aramco, potentially the world's most valuable company, is planning a late 2018 IPO that could valua the oil giant at $2 trillion.

Google's parent company Alphabet is exploring a deal with Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco to build data centers in the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The report says Alphabet wants to help Aramco build a "tech hub" in the region as competition from other companies like Amazon heats up. The tech hub could reportedly include data centers built as a part of the partnership, though the specifics of which company would construct and operate the cloud servers isn't clear.

Alphabet CEO Larry Page has reportedly been involved in talks between the two companies for months.

Aramco, a privately held company that could be the most valuable company in the world, has been planning an IPO set for late 2018 that could value the oil giant at $2 trillion. It will likely be the world's biggest IPO.

While a joint venture with Alphabet isn't directly tied to Aramco's plans to go public, The Journal notes that the oil company could use the partnership to entice investors.

The deal is not finalized, and a partnership may never materialize, the report says.

Read The WSJ piece for more details.

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