Comprehensive coverage and updates on MCIT across the MENA tech ecosystem.
Eleven universities, 10,000 women, two innovation centres and an Amazon Academy target above 100,000 people. The megawatts get the headline; the cohorts determine how fast the region fills.
The communications ministry itemised its own day-two tally. Of roughly $2.5bn, about $2.08bn was floor space and megawatts — and none of it was applications software.
Saudi Arabia's passports directorate, working with the communications ministry, is stamping arriving travellers' passports with a commemorative LEAP 2026 mark at the Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam international airports for the duration of the event.
More than $15bn announced at the fifth edition, against $44.2bn across the previous four. The headline figure is large; the fact that it is now published daily and itemised is the more durable development.
Saudi Arabia's Human Resources Ministry, MCIT, Microsoft and Gulf Intelligence launched the AI Arabia Center of Excellence at LEAP 2026, aimed at building AI skills among people already in the labour market.
Saudi Arabia's communications ministry and Savvy Games Group signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of LEAP 2026 to route gaming and esports training through Tuwaiq Academy and the Saudi Digital Academy.
Saudi Arabia's communications ministry and HUMAIN signed a partnership agreement at LEAP 2026 to coordinate AI infrastructure development, attract investment and build national AI capability.
Saudi Arabia's communications minister opened LEAP 2026 by setting a target of more than 20 subsea cables landing in the kingdom by 2030, promising sub-30-millisecond connections to over three billion people.
Saudi communications minister Abdullah Alswaha told a Riyadh press conference ahead of LEAP 2026 that the Kingdom values its partnership with China and expects to work with more Chinese technology companies, in answer to a question from Xinhua.
Saudi communications minister Abdullah Alswaha told the LEAP 2026 opening that employment across the kingdom's technology ecosystem has risen from 150,000 to 410,000, and that Saudi Arabia has exported more than 3,000 locally manufactured servers.