NAVER and MOMRAH Sign Framework Agreement on Cloud-Based Digital Twin Project, Expected to Transform Saudi Arabia’s “Future City”
NAVER and MOMRAH Sign Framework Agreement on Cloud-Based Digital Twin Project, Expected to Transform Saudi Arabia’s “Future City”
On October 24th, NAVER signed a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MOMRAH) on creating digital twin platforms of five cities. With this agreement, NAVER will launch a large-scale project to build cloud-based digital twin platforms for five cities in Saudi Arabia: the capital Riyadh, Medina, Jeddah, Dammam, and Mecca. The platform will be utilized for the digital transformation of Saudi Arabian cities, including urban planning, monitoring, and flood prediction, and more.
The significance of this agreement is that it signaled to the world NAVER’s technological capacity to build the digital infrastructure of future cities. NAVER's digital twin technology can precisely replicate entire cities based on aerial photographs and AI. Notably, all components have been developed in-house, from the key technology, to mapping robots, and even data processing infrastructure. Scalability is another key point to consider, as our technological capabilities also cover the mapping of large indoor spaces. Based on this portfolio, we have been adding intelligence to large-scale spaces, including NAVER’s second office building, “1784,” and the hyperscale data center, “GAK Sejong,” utilizing original technologies, such as robots, digital twins, AI, and autonomous driving. Beyond smart buildings and smart campuses, we are now looking to expand the scope of the platform to entire cities.
Equally worth noting is that the digital twin platform serves as infrastructure that leads to diverse new services—smart cities, urban water management, service robots, autonomous mobility, realistic real estate, lane-level traffic information, and more. LX and K-water are already engaged in collaborations, with many more companies and organizations being able to join.
There is an Arabic proverb that translates to, "You must know one another to become friends.” Since 2022, NAVER LABS has been meeting with major Saudi Arabian institutions and companies, thoroughly discussing the future and technology in length. Through such exchanges, we have been able to build an understanding of the future Saudi Arabia envisions, as well as establish a strong confidence in our technologies. Now, we will begin the export of our tech platform that builds large-scale cities of digital data in the cloud. Together, we will create an unprecedented city of the future.
