Saudi Cyber Market Hits $4.35bn as Digital Push Grows

Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity market grew 10.7 percent last year to SR16.3 billion, or $4.35 billion, as businesses and government bodies poured more money into digital defenses. The figures come from the National Cybersecurity Authority's Key Economic Indicators in the Cybersecurity Sector 2026 report. They point to a threat environment that's no longer theoretical for the Kingdom. Companies are spending because they have to.

Private-sector spending accounted for 69 percent of the market, or SR11.2 billion. Government entities spent about SR5.1 billion, the remaining 31 percent. That split matters. Protecting the systems that run power, finance, logistics and services isn't a task the state can carry alone, and the report's numbers suggest businesses have absorbed much of that burden.

The Security Picture

The expansion is tied directly to how quickly the Kingdom is moving its public services online. Saudi Arabia's Digital Government Strategy for 2025–2030 aims to contribute an estimated cumulative SR11.4 billion to gross domestic product and create more than 26,000 jobs by 2030. Every new digital service is also a new point of exposure, and the strategy's stated goal of integrated services means more government data flowing through more connected systems. Public-sector systems and data now need protecting at a scale they didn't face a few years ago.

The National Cybersecurity Authority launched its CyberIC program in 2022 to build national capability, localize technologies and training content, and stimulate domestic industry. Its initiatives encourage locally produced cybersecurity products, services and solutions. Building that domestic base is a deliberate choice. A country that depends entirely on foreign security vendors for its critical systems carries a strategic vulnerability of its own.

Economic Weight and Workforce

The NCA said the cybersecurity sector contributed approximately SR20 billion to the Kingdom's GDP at current prices in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.2 percent between 2023 and 2025. Providers contributed SR9.7 billion directly, while indirect contributions came to SR10.3 billion. Those contributions represented 0.42 percent of total GDP and 0.71 percent of the GDP of non-oil activities. The non-oil figure is the one to watch, since it measures how far the economy is diversifying beyond hydrocarbons.

The workforce is growing too. Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity workforce exceeded 22,000 professionals in 2025, expanding at a compound annual rate of roughly 5.9 percent between 2023 and 2025. Women made up 33 percent of that workforce, above a global average the report puts at around 22 percent. Products accounted for SR8.3 billion, or 51 percent of the market, while services represented SR7.9 billion, or 49 percent.

Regional Standing

Saudi Arabia has ranked first in the cybersecurity index of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook for the past three years. That's a claim the Kingdom can point to when it argues it's competing with established technology hubs rather than trailing them. Economist Ahmad Chreim said global security spending was projected to reach between $240 billion and $308 billion in 2026, as artificial intelligence raised cyber risks while also strengthening defenses. He identified AI-driven threat detection, cloud security, and identity and access management as the main growth areas. "Emerging markets, including the Middle East, are seeing some of the fastest growth rates globally as they build security-first infrastructure from the ground up rather than retrofitting legacy systems, a genuine opportunity for the region to leapfrog rather than play catch-up," Chreim said.

Mohamad Hashem, general manager for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain at Kaspersky, told Arab News that increasingly sophisticated attacks were making cybersecurity a strategic business priority. "This is driving greater investment in security solutions that can help businesses identify threats earlier, respond faster and maintain operational continuity," Hashem said. He stressed that protecting operational technology was essential to keeping operations and supply chains running.

Why This Matters:

The numbers describe a country that has decided digital defense is a national priority rather than an IT line item. That's the right instinct. A government pushing services online while its cyber capacity lags is inviting disruption, and disruption to power, finance or logistics has consequences far beyond a single ministry. The report's emphasis on localization is a deliberate bet that Saudi Arabia shouldn't outsource its own protection indefinitely. Whether that bet pays off will depend on whether domestic firms can match the capability of established global vendors while the workforce keeps growing. The 22,000-strong workforce is a start, but a sector that contributes SR20 billion to the economy will need far more trained hands as AI-driven threats grow more capable. For the Kingdom, cyber resilience is no longer separable from economic security or from the credibility of its digital reform agenda.