Saudi cybersecurity market reaches $4.35bn as government spending tops $1.36bn

Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity sector was valued at SAR16.3 billion ($4.35 billion) in 2025, after growing at a compound annual rate of 10.7 percent from 2023. The National Cybersecurity Authority published the figures in its latest report on the sector.

Government entities spent about SAR5.1 billion ($1.36 billion) on cybersecurity products and services, equal to 31 percent of the market. Private-sector buyers supplied the larger share at SAR11.2 billion, or 69 percent.

Spending divided almost evenly between products and services. Products drew SAR8.3 billion, or 51 percent of the total, while services took SAR7.9 billion, 49 percent. Demand clustered around endpoint security and management, network security, cybersecurity operations solutions, system integration and data security.

At current prices, cybersecurity contributed about SAR20 billion to GDP in 2025. That equals 0.42 percent of total GDP and 0.71 percent of non-oil GDP. The contribution itself expanded at a 13.2 percent compound annual rate from 2023 to 2025, outpacing growth in sector revenue. Providers of products and services accounted for SAR9.7 billion of the total directly, with SAR10.3 billion arriving through indirect channels.

A workforce growing at half the pace of spending

More than 22,000 people worked in cybersecurity in 2025, up at a compound annual rate of roughly 5.9 percent since 2023. Women held 33 percent of those roles, against a global average of about 22 percent.

The gap between workforce growth and market growth is the number worth watching. Spending is expanding at close to twice the rate at which headcount is being added, which means the sector's output per employee is rising and that the shortfall in local talent has to be covered either by productivity gains or by hiring from outside the kingdom. The female share, nine percentage points above the international benchmark, suggests part of the answer is being found in a segment of the labour market that other countries have been slower to draw on.

Growth in the market was attributed to initiatives aimed at improving competitiveness, attracting investment and encouraging innovation, alongside coordination between public and private sectors.

The authority assembled the report from inputs supplied by public and private stakeholders, academic institutions and cybersecurity professionals. Its classification framework uses three levels to sort five main categories and 25 activities, spanning more than 100 products and services, and follows methodologies used internationally.

Measured against the size of the economy, cybersecurity remains a small line: less than half a percentage point of total output. It is a line that is widening faster than the sector's own sales, at 13.2 percent a year against 10.7 percent.