Data center rules in Qatar

The Cabinet approved Qatar's Cloud Policy Framework on 1 June 2022. The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) published it to set trusted access principles and attract data centre and cloud investment.

The CRA issued a regulation on cloud data interoperability and data portability on 25 November 2024. Cloud service providers in Qatar must build data portability into their services and give government customers application programming interfaces (APIs) so their systems can work together.

Qatar is in US export control Country Group D:4. Since an October 2023 rule, exports of advanced AI chips to Country Groups D:1, D:4 and D:5 need a US licence.

Gulf Times reported that Kahramaa's revised electricity tariff from September 2015 rose from QR0.08 to QR0.10 per kWh across three usage tiers. The report said the tiers applied to all establishments, including commercial and industrial users. We could not confirm the current rate on Kahramaa's own website.

Kahramaa told the Shura Council in June 2026 that it plans to raise the share of renewables in the energy mix by 2030. Solar photovoltaic power is the focus of this plan.

Qatar Free Zones offers a 20 year corporate tax exemption and zero customs duties on imports. It also allows 100% foreign ownership and full repatriation of capital.

Article 15 of Law No. 13 of 2016 bars controllers from limiting cross border data flows. The exception is where the processing breaches the law or may seriously harm the data or the individual's privacy.

Breaches of certain articles of the 2016 personal data law carry fines of up to QR5 million. These include the rules on sensitive personal data, such as health, religion and ethnic origin.

The national Cloud Security Policy says government agencies shall not use a cloud provider outside Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) unless the service meets Qatari privacy law and data classification rules.

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) issued cloud computing regulations for financial institutions and fintech firms in April 2024. They cover cloud governance, the cloud lifecycle and operational security controls.

In May 2026 the NCSA set out the stages of its Data Classification Policy. Organisations must keep a data inventory, label data by value and apply technical and administrative safeguards such as encryption.

Gulf Times reported that Kahramaa's water tariff from September 2015 rose from QR4.40 to QR7.40 per cubic metre across usage tiers. We could not confirm whether these rates still apply.

Qai, an AI company owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, formed a US$20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture with Brookfield in December 2025. It will build in Qatar and selected overseas markets.

Ooredoo's data centre arm Syntys bought Q Data QFZ from the Qatar Free Zones venture arm in January 2026. The deal took Syntys to 26MW of live IT capacity in Qatar.

The Minister of Communications and Information Technology said in May 2024 that Qatar aims to triple its data centre capacity in five to six years. He also wants more hyperscalers, the largest cloud providers, to set up in Qatar.

Shura Council members raised concerns about electricity and water tariffs for commercial users during a June 2026 review of Kahramaa. No tariff change was announced.