LEAP 5 opens with more than $15 billion in tech deals and partnerships

LEAP 2026 opened in Riyadh on Sept. 1 with more than $15 billion in technology investments and strategic commitments, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s push to become a global tech hub. The event featured major announcements in AI, cloud computing and autonomous systems from companies including HUMAIN, AWS, xAI, AMD and Adobe.

Why it matters: - LEAP 5 is showcasing Saudi Arabia’s expanding role in global technology investment, infrastructure and innovation. - The opening-day announcements span AI, cloud, autonomous trucking and data centers, signaling where capital and partnerships are flowing. - Saudi Arabia’s digital economy has grown 69% since LEAP launched in 2022, reaching $199 billion from $118 billion. - Women now make up 36% of the technology workforce in the Kingdom.

What happened: - LEAP opened in Riyadh on Sept. 1, 2026, with more than $15 billion in technology investments and strategic commitments. - H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, opened the event and highlighted the sector’s rapid growth. - HUMAIN unveiled HUMAIN M3, an open-weights Arabic language model trained on more than one trillion Arabic tokens. - HUMAIN also introduced HUMAIN Voice, a conversational AI platform built for multiple Arabic dialects, including Saudi, Maghrebi, Egyptian and Levantine Arabic. - HUMAIN announced a partnership with Applied Intuition to deploy physical AI technologies across Saudi Arabia, starting with autonomous trucking. - The companies aim to build the world’s largest autonomous trucking network, with thousands of autonomous vehicles expected to operate across key Saudi logistics corridors by 2030. - HUMAIN and AWS announced a $5 billion joint investment in the AWS HUMAIN AI Zone. - Adobe said Saudi Arabia’s creative economy has reached $4 billion over the past 12 months through investment in digital creativity and innovation. - xAI announced a Saudi-based data center deployment that starts at 50MW and scales to 500MW. - AMD and HUMAIN confirmed deployment of AMD’s largest inference cluster outside the United States. - LEAP 2026 runs through Sept. 3 and includes programming on artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, investment, entrepreneurship and emerging technologies.

The details: - HUMAIN M3 is positioned as an Arabic language model built on a large training set of Arabic tokens. - HUMAIN Voice is designed to support dialect-specific interaction across major Arabic-speaking regions. - The AWS HUMAIN AI Zone is intended to support advanced AI infrastructure and cloud capabilities in the Kingdom. - xAI’s deployment marks one of its largest international expansions to date. - The AMD-HUMAIN collaboration adds another major compute commitment to Saudi Arabia’s AI buildout. - LEAP 2025 drew more than 200,000 attendees, making it the most attended tech event in the world, according to event organizers. - LEAP is organized by Tahaluf, a Riyadh-based company that runs several major technology and business events. - Tahaluf is a joint venture between Informa PLC, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, and the Events Investment Fund.

Between the lines: - The scale of the announcements suggests Saudi Arabia is using LEAP as a deal-making platform, not just a conference. - The concentration of AI infrastructure, compute and autonomous systems points to a national strategy built around foundational technologies. - The emphasis on Arabic-language AI and local deployment shows a push to build technology that serves regional markets as well as global ones. - The event’s growing attendance and investment totals reinforce its role as a high-profile showcase for the Kingdom’s tech ambitions.

What’s next: - LEAP 2026 continues through Sept. 3, with more announcements and keynote sessions expected. - The autonomous trucking partnership is expected to scale toward a nationwide network by 2030. - The AWS HUMAIN AI Zone, xAI deployment and AMD inference cluster signal further infrastructure buildout in Saudi Arabia. - More information is available on the event website. - The official livestream is available here.

The bottom line: - LEAP 5 opened with one of the largest opening-day technology investment bursts in the event’s history, underscoring Saudi Arabia’s push to anchor itself in the global AI and infrastructure race.