Tech & Business
09.02.2023
Meta, Microsoft, Huawei… At LEAP, tech giants bet big on Saudi Arabia
From February 6 to 9, Riyadh is hosting the second edition of LEAP, its global technology trade show. While the scope of the event already reveals Saudi Arabia’s obvious appetite and know-how in terms of innovation, the announcement of more than $9 billion in investments in the country by tech giants such as Microsoft and Meta tends to make the kingdom a key player in what is called the fourth industrial revolution.
What if we told you that the future of tech was being played out in the Middle East? Since Monday, tech giants and other GAFAMs, but also a host of innovative start-ups from all over the world, as well as private and public investors are in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to take part in the second edition of LEAP, the new global innovation event.
900 exhibitors from all over the world
The program will include more than 400 talks, 700 speakers and 900 exhibitors working in fields as varied as virtual reality, e-sports, AI, retail, cybersecurity, health tech, among many others.
أحداث مُفعمة بالتقنية والابتكار، من عاصمة التقنية الرياض للعالم🇸🇦🇸🇦
هكذا كان يومنا الثاني من #ليب23#LEAPinSAUDI pic.twitter.com/qyoe5PHpuw
— LEAP (@LEAPandInnovate) February 8, 2023
Alessio Petracchi, Account Director of Mirror, an Italian start-up specialized in the Metaverse, is one of the foreign exhibitors who came to “network” at LEAP. “Here we meet a lot of very interesting realities,” he admits. So it’s good to be here. The same is true of Amol Sood, CEO of Equivital, a market leader in mobile human health monitoring solutions. “You get a lot of foot traffic, people want to know what’s next. We’re seeing a lot of interest in what we’re doing,” he says, enthusiastically.
Meta opens first Metaverse academy in the region
This LEAP 2023 was also the scene of strong announcements, including massive investments in tech in the kingdom at the initiative of Microsoft, Zoom, Oracle, Huawei or Meta, which will create, in Arabia, its first academy of Metaverse in the MENA region. We can see that there is a movement towards education, towards the transfer of knowledge, as well as their massive adoption, putting Saudi Arabia as a kind of center for the MENA region, comments Faisal Alsaif, influencer specialist in new technologies.
منصة @Hektarapp الاجتماعية في يومها الثاني ضمن مؤتمر #ليب23 ؛ تجمع الكثير من المزايا، وهي مساحتك الاستثنائية في منصات التواصل الإجتماعي ✨ pic.twitter.com/8Ew1PZ3wT1
— LEAP (@LEAPandInnovate) February 7, 2023
After a first edition that attracted more than 100,000 visitors, this LEAP 2023 now confirms Saudi Arabia as an innovation powerhouse in the world. Dr. Basma AlBuhairan, Director General of the Centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Saudi Arabia), a state-owned innovation investment body, is convinced: the kingdom is aiming to become a leader in the fourth industrial revolution. “We will not only be a regional leader, but we will also, be a global leader when it comes to technology and innovation.”