LEAP 2026 Riyadh: The Nearly $15 Billion in Tech Deals Explained

What LEAP Is and Who Runs It

LEAP is a four-day technology conference and exhibition held in Riyadh. It is organised by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and Tahaluf, with the Events Investment Fund also named among the organisers of the 2026 edition. Tahaluf itself is a joint venture of SAFCSP, the events group Informa and the Events Investment Fund, and it also runs DeepFest, LEAP's dedicated AI event.

The format is deliberately broad. A typical LEAP covers artificial intelligence, cloud, cybersecurity, smart cities, fintech, healthcare, space, gaming and mobility, with a large startup programme and an investor track running alongside the main stages. That breadth is the point: LEAP is where government, global technology vendors, Saudi enterprises, investors and founders are in the same building for four days.

For the government, LEAP has become the main annual moment to announce digital-economy commitments. For global vendors, it is where cloud regions, data-centre partnerships and local manufacturing plans are made public. For Saudi companies, it is the clearest single view of where national technology spending is heading in the year ahead.

From 2022 to 2026: How LEAP Grew

The first LEAP was held in Riyadh in February 2022. On its opening day, the organisers announced more than $6.4 billion in investments in future technologies and entrepreneurship, and KACST used the event to launch The Garage, a platform for startups. It was an unusually large debut for a new technology event.

Growth since then has been steady. LEAP 2024 drew more than 215,000 visitors and, according to Arab News, recorded $13.4 billion in investments and project commitments. LEAP 2025 attracted over 200,000 visitors and more than $14.9 billion in commitments, including a $1.5 billion partnership between Groq and Aramco Digital and a $2 billion investment involving Alat and Lenovo. Across its first four editions, LEAP accumulated more than $42 billion in announced technology investment.

The 2026 edition took a different path. It was originally planned for April, but in March 2026 the organisers moved it to 31 August to 3 September. Arab News reported that the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel had disrupted travel, logistics and large gatherings across the region, and the organisers said the new timing followed consultation with partners and stakeholders to keep international participation strong. Despite the delay, the fifth edition finished close to the previous year's record.

LEAP 2026 by the Numbers

Tahaluf's closing release put the fifth edition at 1,323 speakers and more than 1,500 exhibitors, over 750 of them global companies, from 72 countries. A total of 1,294 companies took part across the exhibition and startup programme. On the investor side, 1,397 investors from 1,027 firms attended, together representing $18.3 trillion in assets under management, up from 1,289 investors confirmed on the opening day.

On the money, two figures circulated. On day one, the minister of communications and information technology, Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, opened the event and more than $15 billion in launches, investments and partnerships was reported. The ministry's own closing statement then described the total as nearly $15 billion in announcements, investments and agreements. We use the ministry's closing figure throughout this article because it is the official final summary.

One number that was widely quoted before the event, a visitor count above 200,000, refers to LEAP 2025. At the time of writing we had not found an official final visitor figure for LEAP 2026, so we do not quote one. That distinction matters if you are using these numbers in a board paper or a sales deck.

AI Compute and Data Centres: Where Most of the Weight Sits

The largest share of LEAP 2026's announcements concerned the physical layer of AI: chips, networking, power and buildings. HUMAIN, the PIF-owned AI company, was at the centre of many of them. AMD, Cisco and HUMAIN said infrastructure built on AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and Cisco networking is already running production workloads in the Kingdom, which AMD's CEO described as the company's largest inference cluster outside the United States. The partners plan a further phase of up to 250 megawatts on AMD's MI400 series starting in 2027, and their joint venture remains on track for up to one gigawatt of AI infrastructure by 2030.

HUMAIN also switched on an NVIDIA-powered AI cloud with 1.1 megawatts of operational capacity, more than 90% utilised, and a target of 35.1 megawatts by 2027. With Together AI, a San Francisco-based AI cloud platform, it announced a new 250-megawatt data centre in the Kingdom aimed at inference and training workloads. DataVolt began construction at Oxagon in NEOM on 100 megawatts of a 360-megawatt AI data-centre project, with first capacity expected in 2028.

Saudi companies made their own capacity moves. According to MCIT, Al Moammar Information Systems announced $1.2 billion to expand its data centres to 192 megawatts, and NHC Innovation announced $800 million to develop Khuzam Digital Valley, expandable to 65 megawatts by 2033. stc agreed to host HUMAIN-owned data centres in a framework starting at 250 megawatts with a path towards one gigawatt.

Megawatts are the useful unit here. A data-centre announcement with a capacity figure and a date tells you when local compute will actually be available to rent. For Saudi organisations that must keep sensitive data in the Kingdom, more domestic capacity means more choice of where to run AI workloads, and eventually more competitive pricing.

Cloud Regions, Arabic Models and Software

The single largest commitment came from Amazon Web Services. MCIT said AWS plans to invest more than $5.3 billion, with its first cloud infrastructure region in the Kingdom launching in December 2026. AWS also expanded its partnership with HUMAIN to provide up to 50 megawatts within the Kingdom's first AI zone by 2028, and said it will make the ALLaM Arabic-language model available through Amazon Bedrock and offer HUMAIN Fabric through AWS Marketplace.

Microsoft confirmed that its Azure cloud region in Saudi Arabia will become available in November 2026. Alongside it, Microsoft and HUMAIN bundled HUMAIN's ONE assistant with Microsoft 365 Copilot and launched a Windows-based HUMAIN AI PC. Qualcomm and HUMAIN unveiled the Horizon Ultra AI PC on the Snapdragon X2 Elite platform.

Adobe announced a commitment of more than $4 billion through an expanded partnership with MCIT and HUMAIN. By the end of 2026, more than 27 million eligible citizens and residents aged 13 or older are to receive Adobe Firefly Standard and Adobe Express Premium free for 12 months, and the partners will develop a first image-generation model, built with Adobe Firefly Foundry, designed with HUMAIN to reflect Saudi culture and accept Arabic prompts.

Taken together, this is the year the Kingdom's cloud map fills in. Two of the largest hyperscalers are opening local regions within weeks of each other, and an Arabic foundation model is being offered through a mainstream global cloud marketplace. For software teams, that shortens the distance between a Saudi data-residency requirement and a modern cloud architecture.

Telecom, Devices and Local Manufacturing

Telecom operators used LEAP to show how networks can grow without growing their energy bill at the same rate. stc unveiled a zero-carbon 5G-Advanced site that it has tested in the Kingdom, combining tri-band remote radio units, active antenna units and dual-band radios in a more compact setup. stc says the design increases capacity while lowering energy use per unit of data, and estimates the carbon reduction at the equivalent of planting more than 34,000 trees over the coming years. Its next step is a tri-band active antenna unit covering its three core 5G bands, n40, n77 and n78.

Manufacturing was the other quieter thread. MCIT listed technology manufacturing among the categories in the nearly $15 billion total, and Lenovo unveiled its first locally manufactured laptop from a new Riyadh production line built with ALAT, the PIF-owned manufacturing company, with mass production planned for late 2026. Locally made devices matter for supply-chain resilience and for the kind of industrial jobs Vision 2030 aims to create.

Neither of these items carries the headline value of a cloud region. But they show that LEAP is no longer only about software and data centres. Energy-efficient networks and domestic hardware production are the parts of the stack that determine how cheaply and reliably everything above them can run.

DeepFest: The AI Stage Inside LEAP

DeepFest is LEAP's co-located AI event, also organised by Tahaluf, and it ran on the same dates in the same venue. The 2026 edition was framed around Saudi Arabia's designation of 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence, with a programme covering AI governance, sovereign infrastructure, autonomous systems, and applications in healthcare, supply chains, media and the creator economy.

The pre-event programme listed live demonstrations of real-time deepfake detection and AI-generated music performances, and named HUMAIN as DeepFest's Global AI Partner. New exhibitors and sponsors announced for the edition included Google Cloud, AMD, Salesforce, EY, Cerebras and Supermicro.

For technical teams, DeepFest is often the more useful half of the week. The main LEAP stages carry the investment announcements; DeepFest is where governance frameworks, model evaluation, deployment patterns and real case studies are discussed in more depth. If your organisation is moving from AI pilots to production, this is where the practical conversations happen.

What It Means for Startups and SMEs

Startups had their own stage at LEAP 2026. The Rocket Fuel competition selected 100 semi-finalists from more than 25 countries, sent 10 finalists to pitch live on the main stage, and distributed a $1 million prize pool across seven awards, with the $250,000 LEAP Award going to Waspito. Tahaluf also reported 653 applications already received for the 2027 startup programme.

The bigger effect on smaller companies is indirect. Billions in data centres and cloud regions do not hand an SME a contract, but they change the environment it sells into. Local AI compute and two new hyperscale regions make it easier to offer AI products that keep data in the Kingdom. An Arabic model on a mainstream cloud lowers the cost of building Arabic-first features. And when large buyers see these announcements, they start expecting their suppliers to use them.

That creates real openings for Saudi software firms: integrating AI into existing workflows, building Arabic interfaces on top of new models, migrating systems to local cloud regions, and handling the compliance work that comes with personal data. The firms that benefit most will be the ones that turn infrastructure headlines into working applications for specific sectors.

How to Get Value from LEAP 2027

MCIT has confirmed that the sixth edition of LEAP will be held from 12 to 15 April 2027, so the event returns to its spring slot only about seven months after the 2026 edition. That short gap means preparation should start now rather than in March.

Start with objectives, not tickets. Decide whether you are going to sell, to buy, to raise money or to hire, and set two or three measurable targets. Then use the announcement record from LEAP 2026 as a map: the companies that committed capacity or opened regions in the Kingdom are the ones likely to be looking for local integrators, resellers and application partners in 2027.

Book meetings before you arrive. With more than 1,500 exhibitors and nearly 1,400 investors on site in 2026, walk-up conversations are short. Prepare a bilingual one-page summary, a short live demo that works offline, and specific questions about each partner's Saudi roadmap. If you are a startup, track the 2027 startup programme application window early, as applications were already arriving during the 2026 edition.

Finally, plan the follow-up as carefully as the visit. Most value from LEAP arrives in the six weeks after it ends, in pilots, proposals and introductions. Assign owners for each lead before you leave the venue, and measure the result against the targets you set at the start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

LEAP 2026 overcame a delay of more than four months and still closed with nearly $15 billion in announcements, close to the previous year's record. More important than the total is its composition: new data-centre capacity measured in megawatts, two hyperscale cloud regions due within weeks of each other, an Arabic model on a global cloud marketplace, energy-efficient 5G and locally made hardware.

For Saudi businesses, the message is that the infrastructure for AI built and hosted in the Kingdom is arriving on a published timeline. The next step belongs to the companies that build useful applications on it. With LEAP 2027 confirmed for April, there is a short window to turn this year's announcements into projects worth showing next spring.