LEAP 2026: Riyadh Hosts the World’s Fastest-Growing Tech Event
📅 Date: August 31 – September 3, 2026
📍 Venue: Riyadh Exhibition & Convention centre (RECC), Malham, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
🔗 Website: onegiantleap.com
🎟️ Tickets: Register Now
🌟 About the Event
LEAP 2026 Riyadh returns to the city for its fifth edition, from August 31 to September 3, 2026. Since its launch, the event has grown into one of the world’s largest technology gatherings, drawing attention from policymakers, industry leaders, and innovators alike. The rapid expansion over five years reflects a rising global interest in Saudi Arabia’s technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
LEAP was founded in 2022 by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The founders include the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, and Tahaluf. Since launch, it has grown from about 100,000 attendees to over 200,000 visitors.
The 2026 programme spans more than 20 tracks and 300-plus hours of content. It covers artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, gaming, smart cities, and digital commerce.
Organisers expect more than 1,800 exhibiting global technology brands, 600-plus startups, and 1,900-plus investors. These participants represent a combined assets-under-management figure north of $22 trillion. This positioning makes LEAP 2026 Riyadh both an investment event and a technology showcase. The event blends finance and tech with a global audience and decision makers.
Fintech occupies a particularly prominent slice of the agenda, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s aggressive push to build out its digital finance ecosystem under Vision 2030. Dedicated fintech pavilions sit alongside sessions on digital banking, payments infrastructure, and open finance, giving financial technology companies direct access to regional banks, regulators, and sovereign investors actively deploying capital into the sector.
Running alongside the main LEAP programme is DeepFest, now in its fourth edition and positioned as the region’s most influential dedicated AI event, drawing global AI researchers, enterprise leaders, and policymakers into a tightly focused parallel track. The Startup and Scaleup Programme adds another layer, featuring the Rocket Fuel Pitch Competition, which awards $1 million in equity-free prize funding to promising early-stage companies.
With 14-plus stages, hundreds of exhibitors, and a genuinely global attendee base, LEAP 2026 has positioned itself less as a regional tech conference and more as a rival to the world’s largest technology gatherings, backed by the kind of government investment and sovereign capital presence few other events can match.
🔍 Key Highlights
- ✅ 4 days (Aug 31–Sep 3) at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention centre
- ✅ 200,000+ attendees, 1,800+ exhibiting tech brands, and 600+ startups expected
- ✅ 1,900+ investors with a combined $22 trillion+ in assets under management
- ✅ 20+ tracks and 300+ hours of content across AI, fintech, cybersecurity, and gaming
- ✅ DeepFest AI programme runs alongside the main LEAP event
- ✅ Rocket Fuel Pitch Competition awarding $1M in equity-free funding
- ✅ Dedicated fintech pavilions with strong regional bank and regulator presence
👥 Who Should Attend
LEAP is built for technology companies, fintech founders, AI researchers, enterprise buyers, investors, and government and policy delegations exploring Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing digital economy. Its scale and sovereign capital presence make it particularly relevant for fintechs and payment companies evaluating Gulf market entry.
📈 Why LEAP Matters
LEAP’s growth trajectory spans from 100,000 attendees in 2022 to over 200,000 by 2025. This pattern signals Saudi Arabia’s broader strategy of using large-scale flagship events to accelerate its digital transformation goals under Vision 2030.
Unlike many tech conferences that specialise narrowly, LEAP deliberately spans AI, fintech, cybersecurity, and gaming under one roof, mirroring how the Kingdom’s own economic diversification strategy treats these sectors as interconnected growth engines rather than separate industries.
For payment and fintech companies specifically, LEAP’s fintech pavilions highlight the region’s focus. The parallel presence of Money20/20 Middle East and Seamless Middle East extends the opportunity across Saudi Arabia. This timing makes the Gulf a concentrated, multi-week window for engagement with regulators and banks. Investors actively funding the region’s digital finance build-out are also in attendance.
The events occur later in the same September, reinforcing the calendar for regional deals. Participants can meet regulators, banks, and investors actively funding the Gulf’s digital finance expansion. This concentrated window supports strategic partnerships and accelerate pilots across fintech services. Optimising attendance at the event will maximise networking outcomes for firms.
📌 Good to Know Before You Go
- Ticket pricing increases in phases, with the current phase running until August 23, 2026, register early to save
- Student passes require a valid .edu email for verification
- Riyadh hotel availability tightens significantly during LEAP week, book well in advance
- The venue’s scale means a clear plan of priority halls and sessions is essential, the show floor is too large to cover casually
