Google Starts Selling Cloud-Computing Services in Saudi Arabia via Aramco

Google will start selling its cloud-computing services in Saudi Arabia through a deal with oil producer Aramco, a controversial move by the internet giant.

The partnership gives Alphabet Inc.’s Google regulatory clearance to set up what it calls a “cloud region” in the kingdom, the companies said last week. Employees at Google have called on the company to abstain from work in the oil and gas industry, citing environmental concerns, and work with authoritarian regimes.

Still, Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of Google’s cloud unit, has pushed to service the energy industry. It’s one of a handful of fields where Google is trying to chase Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. in the cloud-computing market.

“With this agreement, Google Cloud’s innovative technology and solutions will be available to global customers and enterprises in Saudi Arabia to enable them to better serve end consumers,” Kurian said in a statement. Aramco described the market for cloud services in the country as reaching $30 billion by 2030.

About Aramco:

Saudi Aramco is the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a fully integrated, global petroleum and chemicals enterprise. Over the past 80 years we have become a world leader in hydrocarbons exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing.

Saudi Aramco���s oil and gas production infrastructure leads the industry in scale of production, operational reliability, and technical advances. Our plants and the people who run them make us the world’s largest crude oil exporter, producing roughly one in every eight barrels of the world’s oil supply.