Apple to open stores in Saudi Arabia, including 'iconic' outlet in Diriyah

Tech company to begin with launch of Apple Store online in summer 2025

Salwa Palace in the At Turaif district of Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Apple plans to open a store in the city. Bloomberg

Apple has revealed plans to expand in Saudi Arabia with several stores, including an "iconic" outlet in the historic city of Diriyah, as it increases its regional presence.

The company is to begin with the launch of the Apple Store online in the summer 2025, which will offer direct service and support in Arabic for the first time, Apple said on Monday.

“We’re excited to be expanding here in Saudi Arabia with the launch of the Apple Store online next year, and the first of several flagship Apple Store locations starting in 2026, including an iconic store at the stunning site of Diriyah coming later,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive.

Apple’s retail expansion builds on its investments and activities in the country. Over the past five years, Apple has spent more than 10 billion Saudi riyals ($2.66 billion) with companies across the country, it said.

It also opened the Apple Developer Academy in Riyadh in 2021 in partnership with the Saudi government, Tuwaiq Academy and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The all-women academy offers training for coders, designers and entrepreneurs, and nearly 2,000 students have completed programming courses there.

Apple’s physical presence remains central to its overall retail strategy, despite the popularity of online shopping channels. From its first outlets that opened in the US states of Virginia and California in 2001, Apple has a network of more than 530 outlets across 26 countries and territories.

Last week, the company also revealed plans to open its fifth store in the UAE next year. The store in Al Ain, the third in Abu Dhabi, will be the latest in Apple's investment in the UAE, totalling Dh6 billion ($1.6 billion) in the past five years.

Turkey, with three stores, is the only other country in the Middle East and North Africa to have Apple Stores.

Meanwhile, Apple said on Monday that it will also boost its academy programmes and partnerships in Saudi Arabia. This summer, the company held the country’s first coed Apple Foundation Programme to teach students the fundamentals of coding and app development, with a focus on gaming.

Apple plans to further expand the coed foundation offerings, with the next cohort planned for spring 2025, it said.

Technology investments are crucial to Saudi Arabia's economic diversification plans and are one of the main pillars of Riyadh's Vision 2030 agenda. The government also has a programme for expanding the country's information and communications technology sector by 50 per cent.

The ICT Strategy aims to establish an advanced infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation of the Arab world's largest economy to create an “innovative future” for the kingdom, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

In October, Google's cloud unit and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund also teamed up to build an artificial intelligence centre in the kingdom focused on developing Arabic language models and Saudi-specific applications to boost the country's technological capabilities.

The Google Cloud facility will be built in the Eastern Province's capital, Dammam, and is designed to improve the skills of “millions” of students and professionals, the companies said at the time. The new AI hub could contribute about $71 billion to the Saudi economy over the next eight years, according to a study Google conducted with London-based advisory firm Access Partnership.