Dhahran

Dhahran is the Eastern Province's research and energy-technology centre: Aramco's headquarters, KFUPM, Dhahran Techno Valley next to both, and the AI research centre SDAIA and KFUPM established there in 2022.

Last updated: Sep 10, 2026

Aramco's headquarters, and SPARK

Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran and describes the location, in its own words, as “between the two cities Dammam and Al-Khobar”. For technology hiring the three cities behave as one labour market, so it is worth reading their listings together.

King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), an Aramco-operated industrial city of roughly 50 km², sits near Buqayq.

KFUPM and the joint AI research centre

KFUPM is in Dhahran. It hosts the SDAIA–KFUPM Joint Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (JRC-AI), established in January 2022, and offers a Master of Artificial Intelligence. SDAIA and the university announced an “AI Pioneers Initiative” together in August 2024.

Dhahran Techno Valley

Dhahran Techno Valley is operated by a KFUPM subsidiary and sits adjacent to both the university and Aramco. It 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.

No research-output figure here

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