and the wider MEA [Middle East and Africa] region,” said Yuanqing Yang, CEO of Lenovo. Lenovo’s plant is planned to be fully operational in 2026, at which point Lenovo will begin producing a direct-to-Saudi-Arabia line of products.
While this promise of expansion into the greater African and Middle Eastern market is highly attractive to vendors like Lenovo, the ODMs who design their add-in boards are less keen. ODMs require existing supply chain and logistics conditions beyond just labor and production facilities to successfully produce innovative designs — and though Saudi Arabia’s goals are high, they do not currently stand out against most ODMs’ current operational partners.
Vietnam and Thailand are the main production hubs for ODMs such as Foxconn outside of China, thanks to tested supply chain connections. Many ODMs also already have production and R&D facilities in Mexico to take advantage of USMCA free-trade agreements and allow them to skirt U.S. tariffs. ODMs already have proven clients in the OEMs, whereas the OEMs are more likely to be concerned with expanding their market reach.
This large-scale courting of the computing industry into Saudi Arabia is part of KSA’s “Vision 2030” economic plan, which is built on a goal of moving Saudi Arabia’s economy beyond fossil fuels and into a more diverse, modern trade giant. Constant tariff flip-flops coming from the U.S. government are certainly helping Saudi Arabia meet this goal, as the world’s supply chains are reeling from the newfound instability coming from the world’s economic center and are looking for new homes to maintain their security.
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