The Saudi Times is proud to announce its role as an Official Media Partner for LEAP 2026, the world’s largest technology gathering, which opens on 31 August in Riyadh and runs through 3 September at the Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham.
This marks the fifth edition of LEAP, an event that has grown from a regional initiative into a global fixture on the technology calendar. This year’s conference brings an estimated 200,000 visitors, alongside more than 1,800 tech brands, a thousand speakers, and nearly 600 startups competing for visibility and funding. Nearly 2,000 investors are expected to attend, making the gathering as much a deal-making forum as an ideas exchange.
Global voices taking the stage at LEAP 2026
LEAP 2026 will bring together leading figures from Saudi Arabia and around the world across government, technology, artificial intelligence, innovation and digital transformation.
From senior Saudi decision-makers and executives shaping the Kingdom’s technology ambitions to global CEOs, AI pioneers and influential thinkers, the speaker lineup reflects the scale and international reach of this year’s gathering.
H.E. Abdullah Alswaha
Minister of Communication & Information Technology
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dr. Lisa Su
Chair & CEO
AMD
Chuck Robbins
Chair & CEO
Cisco
Tareq Amin
CEO
HUMAIN
Michio Kaku
Professor of Theoretical Physics, City College of New York
Global science icon
Akash Palkhiwala
EVP, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
Qualcomm
Qasar Younis
Co-Founder & CEO
Applied Intuition
JF Gauthier
CEO
Startup Genome
Dave McQuarrie
Chief Commercial Officer
HP Inc.
H.E. Abdulsalam Haykal
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
Government of Syria
Sriram Krishnan
Former AI Advisor to the White House
Former White House
Abir El Saghir
Joy Award Winner & Global Culinary Content Creator
Justin Hotard
President and CEO
Nokia
Mohit Joshi
CEO and Managing Director
Tech Mahindra
HRH Princess Lamia bint Majid Al Saud
Secretary General
Alwaleed Philanthropies
Jennifer Li
CFO & Head of International Operations
WeRide
H.E. Savannah Maziya
Minister of Information, Communications & Technology
Kingdom of Eswatini
H.E. Shaza Fatima
Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunications
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Ahmad Al Khowaiter
EVP Technology & Innovation
Aramco
Sol Campbell
Former England Footballer. Investor and Sports Technology Entrepreneur
The Saudi Times will follow the conversations surrounding these leaders throughout LEAP 2026, focusing not only on what is announced on stage, but also on what those announcements could mean for Saudi Arabia’s technology ecosystem, investment landscape and long-term ambitions.
Coverage that follows the money and the founders
As Official Media Partner, The Saudi Times will have boots on the ground throughout the event. The coverage will blend dispatch journalism and daily reporting from the show floor with deeper dives into the announcements, partnerships and sessions that shape what emerges from LEAP.
The editorial team will be led by Managing Editor Abeer Abdalla, who will oversee reporting that connects LEAP’s global conversations back to what they mean for Saudi capability, investment and opportunity in line with Vision 2030.
A centerpiece of the coverage is LEAP’s own flagship competition, Rocket Fuel. A hundred startups have been selected to pitch to a panel of judges, with the competing teams pursuing a share of a million dollars in equity-free awards.
The final pitches take place on 3 September, and The Saudi Times will follow one founder with a Saudi operating or market angle from the competition’s beginning through the Grand Finale, capturing both the preparation and the outcome.
That granular approach — following a single founder’s story across the event rather than just covering the competition results — is where the real journalism lives. Every pitch is someone’s business, their team, their capital calls and their future. The coverage will trace that journey and what LEAP makes possible for it.
LEAP as platform and mirror
The event runs under the theme “Into New Worlds,” though the worlds in question are technology categories that look familiar: artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, hardware innovation and the venture ecosystem that finances them.
A parallel event, DeepFest, runs alongside LEAP as the region’s largest dedicated AI festival, reflecting how thoroughly artificial intelligence has become the center of gravity for technology investment and innovation globally.
For regional media, LEAP is a rare opportunity to cover global announcements at the moment they happen — new product launches, new funding rounds and new partnerships between large technology firms and startups.
But it is also a chance to ask different questions: Which of those announcements have implications for founders in the Kingdom? What do they mean for government policy, businesses trying to adopt new technology and the domestic investment landscape?
Coverage will run across The Saudi Times’ website and social platforms — LinkedIn, Instagram and X — throughout the event week and in the days after, with preview reporting ahead of 31 August and analysis once the final keynotes have concluded on 3 September.
Follow The Saudi Times on social media for announcements, daily dispatches and exclusive interviews from LEAP 2026.
