Dammam

Dammam is the capital of the Eastern Province and the northern point of the Dammam–Khobar–Dhahran cluster, where technology work is anchored in energy and heavy industry rather than in consumer software.

Last updated: Sep 10, 2026

One metropolitan area, three cities

Dammam, Al-Khobar and Dhahran adjoin one another and work in practice as a single labour market for technology roles. Aramco describes its own headquarters, in Dhahran, as being “between the two cities Dammam and Al-Khobar” — the clearest statement of how tightly the three are linked.

It is worth reading the listings for all three cities together rather than filtering to one.

The energy-technology institutions next door

Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, as is KFUPM. Dhahran Techno Valley, operated by a KFUPM subsidiary and adjacent to both the university and Aramco, reports more than 1,750 professionals and over 30 global organisations on site, among them SLB, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Sinopec, Sipchem, Saudi Electricity and Yokogawa.

The SDAIA–KFUPM Joint Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (JRC-AI) was established at KFUPM in January 2022. King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), an Aramco-operated industrial city of roughly 50 km², sits near Buqayq.

No research-output figure for Dhahran Techno Valley

Published patent and publication counts for the valley conflict between sources, so this page states none.