LEAP is Saudi Arabia’s flagship technology conference — the world’s most attended tech event by aggregate visitor count, founded in February 2022 through a joint venture among the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf (the Saudi events joint venture established by Informa PLC, SAFCSP, and the Events Investment Fund), and operating annually as the operational anchor of Saudi Arabia’s contemporary technology commercial calendar. Held at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Centre (RECC) in Malham, the event has grown across its first four completed editions (2022, 2024, 2025, with the 2023 edition consolidated into the broader event cycle) into a gathering that has cumulatively attracted more than half a million visitors and generated more than $42 billion in announced technology investment to Saudi Arabia — a deal-flow scale that has converted what began as a domestic Saudi technology showcase into one of the most consequential global technology event destinations of the contemporary era. LEAP 2025, the fourth edition held 9-12 February 2025, drew more than 200,000-201,000 attendees from more than 180 countries, making it the most attended tech event globally, with $14.9 billion in new AI investments announced on the opening day alone and the cumulative four-edition investment total crossing the $42 billion threshold that placed LEAP among the most commercially productive technology gatherings in international event history.
The institutional architecture behind LEAP is structurally distinctive. The event is co-organised by Tahaluf — the Riyadh-headquartered events joint venture between Informa PLC (the world’s largest trade show organiser), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and the Events Investment Fund (EIF), with Sela (the Saudi-owned event production company) intending to join the joint venture in the near future. The two co-creators of LEAP, both based at Tahaluf, are Mike Champion (CEO, Tahaluf) and Annabelle Mander (Executive Vice President, Tahaluf), whose combined institutional leadership has built LEAP from inaugural concept in 2022 through its evolution into the global flagship status it now occupies. The MCIT institutional backing — under Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology HE Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, who has personally delivered keynote addresses at LEAP openings — provides the cabinet-level political weight that has anchored the event’s commercial credibility and ensured the participation of the senior Saudi institutional cohort that the dealmaking architecture depends on. The SAFCSP role provides the technical and community grounding that connects LEAP to the broader Saudi developer, cybersecurity, and programming ecosystem.
In March 2026, the institutional architecture faced its most consequential operational disruption to date. The escalation of the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz from late February 2026, combined with the regional flight restrictions and the broader instability across the Gulf, forced Tahaluf and Informa to postpone LEAP 2026 from its originally scheduled April dates to 31 August through 3 September 2026 — a five-month delay that converts what had been Saudi Arabia’s first-quarter international technology showcase into a late-summer gathering. The postponement parallels similar postponements at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2026 (moved from May 4-7 to August 17-20 at Dubai World Trade Centre) and the Middle East Energy 2026 event (moved from April 7-9 to September 1-3), reflecting the broader operational disruption that the regional security environment has produced across the Gulf events calendar. Mander’s framing of the postponement — that “hosting LEAP 2026 through early September ensures we continue to deliver the global participation and world-class experience that our community expects” — captures the operational logic. The five-month delay was the lesser of the operational evils available to Tahaluf, allowing LEAP to preserve the international participation and dealmaking quality at what would otherwise have been a substantially compromised April event under continuing regional security pressure. The full Vanderbilt Portfolio analysis of the postponement is maintained at LEAP 2026 Postponed: How War Killed the Kingdom’s Tech Stage.
Quick Facts
- Founded: February 2022
- Inaugural edition: 1-3 February 2022
- Co-organisers: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) · Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) · Tahaluf
- Tahaluf joint venture composition: Informa PLC · SAFCSP · Events Investment Fund (EIF) · Sela (joining)
- Co-creators: Mike Champion (CEO, Tahaluf) · Annabelle Mander (Executive Vice President, Tahaluf)
- Saudi political anchor: HE Eng. Abdullah Alswaha (Minister of Communications and Information Technology)
- Venue: Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Centre (RECC), Malham
- DeepFest co-located AI stream: Powered by Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA)
- Cumulative investment announced (first 4 editions): >$42 billion
- LEAP 2024 attendance (3rd edition, 4-7 March 2024): 215,000+ visitors
- LEAP 2025 attendance (4th edition, 9-12 February 2025): 200,000+ attendees from 180+ countries (most attended tech event globally)
- LEAP 2025 opening-day AI investments: $14.9 billion
- LEAP 2025 economic impact: $817.72 million USD
- LEAP 2025 business connections: 334,940 (120% YoY growth)
- LEAP 2026 dates: 31 August - 3 September 2026 (postponed from April)
- LEAP 2026 attendance target: 201,000+
- LEAP 2026 startup target: 600+
- LEAP 2026 brand target: 1,800+ global tech brands
- LEAP 2026 investor target: 1,900+
- LEAP East debut: Hong Kong (extension brand)
What LEAP Is
LEAP was founded in February 2022 as an annual technology conference held in Riyadh, structured as the institutional flagship of Saudi Arabia’s contemporary technology commercial calendar. The 2022 launch was timed at the inflection point in the broader Vision 2030 trajectory at which the Kingdom’s institutional architecture had developed sufficient operational maturity to host a major international technology event at the scale Saudi Arabia’s strategic ambition required. The inaugural edition — held 1-3 February 2022 — was described at the time as “one of the largest debut technology events to be held globally,” attracting more than 100,000 attendees from the international tech community across industry leaders, investors, and exhibitors.
The strategic logic underpinning LEAP operates on five distinct registers, each contributing to the institutional case for the substantial investment in the event’s annual delivery.
The first is tech-sector commercial dealmaking. The cumulative $42 billion-plus in announced technology investment across the first four editions is the most concrete operational outcome of the LEAP architecture. The deals announced at LEAP — Groq-Aramco Digital, Alat-Lenovo, IBM, Databricks, SambaNova, Tencent Cloud, Salesforce, KKR-Gulf Data Hub, and the broader portfolio — represent technology infrastructure commitments that materially advance Saudi Arabia’s broader digital economy expansion. LEAP’s institutional value proposition is precisely the dealmaking density: a single four-day window in which substantial fractions of the global technology supplier ecosystem and the Saudi institutional buyer cohort are co-located, with the ceremonial and commercial architecture in place to convert exploratory conversations into signed agreements.
The second register is Saudi domestic technology ecosystem signal. LEAP provides the public stage on which Saudi Arabia’s contemporary digital economy progress is communicated to the global technology industry. The headline statistics — $139 billion digital economy / 16 per cent of GDP, $1.72 billion Saudi venture capital (regionally first for the third consecutive year), the substantial Saudisation progress in the technology workforce, the institutional architecture across HUMAIN, SDAIA, Aramco Digital, Alat, and the broader portfolio — gain operational credibility through LEAP’s annual demonstration architecture in ways that pure communications campaigns cannot achieve.
The third register is regional technology positioning vis-à-vis Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the broader Gulf. The Gulf Cooperation Council technology events calendar includes the GITEX Global event in Dubai (the legacy regional technology showcase), the broader Abu Dhabi technology event programming, and the various other regional gatherings. LEAP’s positioning as the most attended tech event globally by 2024-2025 represented a structural shift in regional technology event hierarchy, with Saudi Arabia’s institutional weight, capital scale, and political backing producing an event that has materially exceeded the GITEX precedent on attendance, dealmaking, and international participation metrics.
The fourth register is international diplomacy and soft power. LEAP’s draw of senior international participants — IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, the broader cohort of US technology company senior executives, Chinese technology company senior leadership, European policymakers, Asian government technology officials — provides Saudi Arabia with a substantive international diplomatic platform that complements the broader Vision 2030 soft-power expansion across the Future Investment Initiative, the Saudi-US Investment Forum, the Global AI Summit, and the broader institutional event architecture.
The fifth register is Tahaluf and Informa commercial outcomes. LEAP’s commercial success has materially benefited both Tahaluf (the Saudi-headquartered events joint venture) and Informa PLC (the British events organiser whose Saudi joint venture LEAP operationally anchors). The commercial success has supported Tahaluf’s expansion into the broader Saudi events portfolio (DeepFest, 24 Fintech, the Global Health Exhibition, Cityscape Global, Black Hat MEA, CPHI), and has supported Informa’s institutional positioning as a key partner in Saudi Arabia’s broader events economy expansion.
The combination of these five registers produces an institutional case for LEAP that operates beyond pure event commercial economics, justifying the substantial institutional resources Saudi Arabia and Tahaluf have committed to the event’s annual delivery.
The Institutional Architecture
The LEAP institutional architecture is structurally distinctive and worth detailed examination because it provides the template under which several other major Saudi commercial events operate.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is the primary Saudi government anchor. Under Minister Abdullah Alswaha — one of the senior Vision 2030 cabinet ministers and a frequent LEAP keynote speaker — MCIT provides the political backing, the institutional coordination across the broader Saudi technology ecosystem, and the regulatory framework that the broader LEAP architecture operates within. Alswaha’s keynote address at the LEAP 2025 opening — framing the new wave of investment announcements as bringing the Saudi tech sector “one step closer” to becoming “a global beacon for innovation” — captures the institutional positioning that MCIT has provided across LEAP’s operational evolution.
The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) is the technical and community anchor. SAFCSP — the Saudi national federation for the cybersecurity, programming, and drones communities — provides LEAP with the substantive technical grounding that connects the event to the broader Saudi developer ecosystem, the cybersecurity community, and the technical workforce that the broader Saudi digital economy depends on. SAFCSP’s institutional role is structurally important because it prevents LEAP from becoming a purely commercial event disconnected from the underlying technical communities the event purports to serve.
Tahaluf is the operational delivery vehicle. Established as a joint venture between Informa PLC, SAFCSP, and the Events Investment Fund (with Sela intending to join), Tahaluf operates as the events business that delivers LEAP’s annual operational programme. Tahaluf’s broader portfolio — LEAP, DeepFest, 24 Fintech, the Global Health Exhibition, Cityscape Global, Black Hat MEA, CPHI — positions the joint venture as one of the most operationally productive Saudi events businesses, with LEAP as the flagship institutional brand.
The Tahaluf leadership — Mike Champion as CEO and Annabelle Mander as EVP — represents the operational continuity behind LEAP’s institutional development. Champion’s framing at the LEAP 2025 opening — that “the massive volume of new investments announced on day one builds on the progress made at LEAP and across the Kingdom in previous years, reaffirming Saudi Arabia’s undisputed status as the primary digital accelerator in the Middle East and North Africa” — captures the institutional self-conception that Tahaluf has built into the LEAP brand.
DeepFest is LEAP’s co-located AI stream, powered by the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) and organised by Tahaluf. The DeepFest architecture provides AI-specific programming that complements the broader LEAP technology coverage, with the SDAIA institutional backing providing the substantive AI policy and data governance grounding that contemporary AI events require.
The Events Investment Fund (EIF) is the Saudi sovereign vehicle providing capital backing for the broader events sector expansion, with the LEAP joint venture as one of the operational anchors of EIF’s broader events portfolio investment thesis.
The Operational Track Record
LEAP’s operational track record across its first four editions is among the more analytically interesting case studies in contemporary international event development.
LEAP 2022 (Inaugural edition, 1-3 February 2022) drew 100,000+ attendees from the international tech community in what was described as one of the largest debut technology events globally. The inaugural edition established the operational template — the Riyadh venue, the broad multi-sector programming covering fintech, edutech, smart cities, health technology, creative economy, future energy, gaming, space, sports tech, retail, and AI; the dealmaking architecture; the speaker programme — that subsequent editions have built upon.
LEAP 2024 (3rd edition, 4-7 March 2024) marked the operational scaling that converted LEAP from a Saudi domestic event into the global flagship. Held at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Centre in Malham, LEAP 2024 hosted:
- 215,000+ visitors across the four days
- 1,800 exhibitors
- 1,100 speakers across 10 stages and 19 tracks
- 600+ start-ups
- 1,600 investors with combined assets under management of $4.89 trillion
- $11.9-13.4 billion in announced investment
The Rocket Fuel pitch competition awarded six start-ups a share of a $1 million prize fund — the third edition of the start-up competition that has become an institutional fixture of LEAP. Notable companies in attendance included AbuErdan, One Verse, Ubilite, NewTrace, Next Generation, Hyperlume, and Lisan AI.
LEAP 2025 (4th edition, 9-12 February 2025) consolidated LEAP’s positioning as the most attended tech event globally:
- 200,000-201,000+ attendees from 180+ countries
- 1,800 exhibitors
- 1,000 speakers
- 600 start-ups
- $14.9 billion in new AI investments announced opening day alone
- $817.72 million USD total economic impact
- 334,940 business connections (120 per cent year-on-year growth in leads per exhibitor)
The headline LEAP 2025 deals included:
- Groq–Aramco Digital: $1.5 billion partnership to expand AI-powered cloud computing investments
- Alat–Lenovo: $2 billion investment to establish an advanced AI- and robotics-driven manufacturing and technology hub
- Databricks: $300 million investment in integrated PaaS solutions for application developers
- SambaNova: $140 million commitment for advanced AI infrastructure
- KKR + Gulf Data Hub: strategic investment in 300 MW data centre development
- Salesforce: $500 million investment in Hyperforce and regional cloud capability
- Tencent Cloud: $150 million to establish the Middle East’s first AI-powered cloud region
- IBM: $250 million software development centre (announced 11 months earlier and reaffirmed at LEAP 2025; IBM Chairman & CEO Arvind Krishna joined Alswaha on the LEAP Main Stage)
The LEAP 2025 deal architecture is institutionally instructive because it demonstrates the operational pattern that has converted LEAP from a simple events platform into the structural anchor of Saudi Arabia’s technology commercial calendar. Each of the major deals represents a substantive multi-year commercial commitment between an international technology supplier and a Saudi institutional buyer (HUMAIN, Aramco Digital, Alat, the broader PIF subsidiary cohort), with the LEAP venue providing the operational architecture for the announcement, the surrounding ceremonial framework, and the broader dealmaking density that supports the bilateral and multilateral negotiations that the announcements distill from.
The 2026 Postponement
The LEAP 2026 postponement from April to 31 August through 3 September 2026 was announced in mid-March 2026, approximately five weeks after the late-February escalation of the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted Gulf operations across multiple sectors. The decision was made by Tahaluf and Informa following extensive consultation with partners and stakeholders, with the late-summer rescheduling positioned by Mander as ensuring “the global participation and world-class experience that our community expects.”
The operational logic behind the five-month delay reflects the broader regional events disruption pattern. Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2026 had announced its postponement from May 4-7 to August 17-20 at Dubai World Trade Centre the day before LEAP’s announcement. Middle East Energy 2026 had moved from April 7-9 to September 1-3 — directly overlapping with LEAP 2026’s new dates. The cumulative pattern represented a substantial reorganisation of the Gulf events calendar in response to the regional security environment.
The structural challenges the postponement created are non-trivial. Both Informa and RX (the producer of ATM), and their partners, faced the operational requirement to rebook exhibitors and attendees, rebuild floor plans, hotel blocks, and hosted-buyer programmes, and adjust sponsorship commitments — all on the compressed timeline that the August dates allowed. The compressed global LEAP calendar — with LEAP East making its debut in Hong Kong just weeks before the rescheduled Saudi flagship — created the additional complication that some of the dealmaking and product launches that had been slated for April Riyadh may now flow through LEAP East rather than the rescheduled August LEAP.
The postponement is, in the Vanderbilt Portfolio’s editorial assessment, evidence of operational maturity rather than institutional weakness. Holding LEAP at the originally scheduled April dates under the regional security conditions of late winter / early spring 2026 would have substantially compressed international participation, materially reduced the dealmaking density that LEAP’s commercial value proposition depends on, and exposed the Saudi institutional brand to the reputational risk associated with hosting a major international event under continuing security disruption. The August postponement preserves the commercial integrity of the LEAP architecture at the cost of the calendar continuity, which is the institutionally healthier trade-off.