Chaired by Sam Evans, senior managing director at Teneo, the discussion explored why the Middle East is emerging as a global connectivity hub, how AI is reshaping investment priorities, and what challenges must be overcome to sustain long-term growth.

The panel’s starting point was geography. Nabil Baccouche, group chief carrier & wholesale officer at e& described the Middle East as “the crossroads”, linking Asia, Europe and Africa. This position, he argued, is reinforced by access to capital and, crucially, cost-effective power. He highlighted energy costs of around five to six cents per kilowatt hour, describing this as highly competitive by global standards.

Sohail Qadir, CEO of ZOI, agreed that geography remains fundamental, but added that capability is now just as important. Over the past decade, he said, the Middle East has attracted significant technical and commercial talent, creating a mature ecosystem spanning AI, connectivity, partnerships and innovation. Combined with power prices that can fall to three cents per kilowatt hour in some markets, this mix is drawing global players to the region at pace.

A transit corridor?

A recurring theme was whether the Middle East is still primarily a transit corridor, or whether it is becoming a true digital destination. Another panellist argued strongly for the latter.

Hyperscalers and AI players increasingly view the region as a place to locate infrastructure, driven not only by connectivity and power, but by the strategic commitment of governments. Across the Gulf, national visions position AI as a transformative force for finance, healthcare, defence and industry, creating a long-term customer base that justifies investment at scale.

Mohamad Naji, acting head of international wholesale at du, echoed this point, highlighting leadership as the defining differentiator. With political backing in place, he said, the wholesale community has a clear role to play in scaling connectivity to match ambition.

While AI dominated much of the discussion, panellists were keen to stress that today’s momentum is built on longer-term fundamentals.

Arab of Salam noted that shifts in wholesale traffic pre-date the current AI wave, with hyperscalers playing an increasingly dominant role in demand. Announcements around multi-gigawatt AI compute capacity, and ambitions to generate and export vast volumes of AI output, are therefore an acceleration of existing trends rather than a speculative bubble.

“It’s becoming a reality,” Baccouche added, pointing to hundreds of megawatts of data centre capacity already under construction and plans to move into the gigawatt range within three to five years.

That growth places connectivity firmly at the centre of the equation. Another panellist likened data centres to the heart of the digital ecosystem, with fibre and subsea networks forming the veins and arteries. Beyond sheer capacity, resilience and diversity are now paramount. To succeed as a global AI hub, the region must be able to export traffic at scale, reaching billions of users within milliseconds, a task for which its geography is well suited, provided networks are engineered accordingly.

The risks

However, the panel was candid about the risks. Large-scale infrastructure requires long lead times, heavy upfront capital and complex supply chains. Qadir highlighted the challenge starkly: new subsea systems can take five years from contract to readiness for service, while returns only materialise much later. At the same time, data centre and AI architectures continue to evolve rapidly, raising questions about overbuild and stranded assets.

Supply chain constraints were another major concern. Baccouche and Qadir both pointed to the limited number of global subsea cable manufacturers and installation vessels, warning that demand is outstripping capacity. With hyperscalers launching their own large systems, telcos face longer waits and higher competition for resources. The solution, panellists suggested, lies in closer industry collaboration, not only on new builds, but also on maintenance, route diversity and even shared investment in assets such as cable ships.

Collaboration emerged as the panel’s most repeated refrain. Wholesale, the speakers argued, is not a back-office function but an enabler of entire industries, from energy and manufacturing to healthcare and education.

Arab of Salam stressed that future wholesale models must go beyond “being a good network”, combining connectivity with intelligence, automation, security and strong service-level agreements. This, in turn, requires partnership between operators, with hyperscalers, and with governments and regulators.

On the investment side, another panellist observed that institutional capital is becoming more discerning. Data centres may still attract attention, but investors are now asking harder questions about execution capability, offtake agreements, access to power and supply chain resilience. Connectivity, while sometimes understated, is increasingly recognised as critical to unlocking value from these assets.

Looking ahead, the panel agreed that the strategic debate is largely settled. The opportunity is clear, the ingredients are in place, and ambition is high.

The challenge now is execution. That means accelerating build-out while managing risk, reforming processes to match the pace of change, and ensuring the region has the talent to operate infrastructure at unprecedented scale.

As Evans concluded, the Middle East has moved beyond vision-setting. For its digital ambitions to be realised, the next phase must be defined by delivery.

RELATED STORIES

Iraq’s digital backbone: From transit corridor to data centre destination

Capacity Middle East 2026: Your complete event guide