With LEAP Delivering Over US$27.5 Billion In Investment In The Past Three Years, All Eyes Are Now On Its Fourth Edition Running From February 9-12, 2025

LEAP, Saudi Arabia’s award-winning global tech event, is all set to return to the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham for its fourth edition from February 9-12, 2025. 

The world’s most attended tech event, LEAP 2025 will be held under the theme “Into New Worlds.” Co-organized by the Saudi Ministry for Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf, LEAP this year is set to attract more than 680 startups, over 1,000 expert speakers, and more than 1,800 global tech brands, with an expected surge in valued interactions between exhibitors and visitors. 

In a statement, HE Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, emphasized LEAP’s role in defining the Kingdom’s future, saying, “LEAP has made an outstanding contribution to the realization of the Saudi Vision 2030 goals, and has rightly positioned the country as a global technology hub.” 

Faisal Alkhamisi, Chairman of the SAFCP, said, “Over the past three years, LEAP has evolved at a rocket-fuelled pace, playing a critical role in nurturing talent, creativity, and investment. Yet, this is just the beginning. LEAP will continue to reflect the everchanging tech landscape and inspire pioneers from across the globe.” 

Michael Champion, CEO of Tahaluf, Saudi Arabia’s largest B2B event organizer that’s behind iconic brands like LEAP, Cityscape, and Black Hat MEA, added, “In the space of just three years, LEAP delivered an incredible public and private onsite investment totaling more than US$27.5 billion, set ever higher benchmarks for tech events worldwide, and delivered economic impact that stretched well beyond the exhibition and conference floors.” 

LEAP 2024, for instance, famously saw announcements of more than $14 billion in public and private sector technology sector investments and collaborations made at the event. This included global entities like Amazon Web Services (AWS) pledging $5.3 billion to establish a new cloud zone in Saudi Arabia, DataVolt committing $5 billion to develop data centers with more than 300 megawatts of capacity, IBM announcing a $250 million investment to build a global software development center in the Kingdom, and ServiceNow revealing plans to invest $500 million to localize its regional services and upskill Saudi talent through training programs. 

LEAP 2024 also saw Dell Technologies announce its intentions to establish the first tech manufacturing and fulfillment center in the MENAT in Saudi Arabia, aligned with the Kingdom’s goals to become a regional tech manufacturing hub. Saudi oil giant Aramco announced the creation of the Saudi Accelerator Innovation Lab (SAIL), a joint venture with MCIT, which aimed to launch a generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) model called Metabrain, as well as the world’s first industrial grade Gen AI called Aramco LLM. 

Further investments at LEAP 2024 included Investcorp launching a $500 million growth-stage fund, while Oasis Capital introduced a new fund with capital of $100 million. Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning gaming and esports sectors also received attention, with the country’s National Development Fund and Social Development Bank launching a $40 million Gaming and Esports Investment Fund to be managed by one of the Kingdom’s leading asset management firms, Impact46. Similarly, Riyadh- headquartered venture capital firm Merak Capital revealed an $80 million fund for gaming accelerators in the Kingdom. 

LEAP 2024 also saw Saudi Arabia’s Takamol Holdings unveil a $50 million investment arm for early-stage tech companies. In addition, Silicon Valley-headquartered Plug and Play announced its first fund to invest in technology startups, while X by Unifonic – a KSA-based entity that supports softwareas- a-service (SaaS) startups in the MENA region through a venture studio and an accelerator fund – revealed its first investment fund to support business software services for startups. 

Investments in Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure also abounded at LEAP 2024, with global learning platform Datadog Academy announcing its plans to establish its first cloud application security solutions academy in the Kingdom. Similarly, global software company UiPath announced the establishment of its first regional automation academy to train, upskill, and foster Saudi talent, while the India-born Zoho Corp announced the opening of its first two Middle East data centers in Saudi Arabia. Global communications tech giant Zoom unveiled a host of new offerings like Zoom AI Companion, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Contact Center for its customers in the KSA market, while also stating its intention to add launch two more cloud regions in Saudi Arabia. 

Amid all these investments announced at LEAP 2024, the UK and Saudi Arabia also announced a landmark deal to boost research links and collaborate on deep science and tech breakthroughs to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from food security to clean energy. Speaking at the signing, the UK’s Andrew Griffith, who was then the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, said, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on an ambitious journey to modernize its economy, and harnessing the power of science and technology is central to that transformation. Collaboration on a global scale is an essential part of realizing the UK’s ambitions in science and innovation, and the sheer scale of Saudi Arabia’s aspirations means this relationship will be a key part of our own hopes for science and tech in years to come.”