LEAP 2025 Attracts $14.9 Billion Investments on First Day

LEAP 2025, the four-day technological conference which began in Riyadh on Sunday, has attracted new investments and strategic partnerships valued around $14.9 billion, including $10.9 billion in investments in infrastructure, AI projects, and start-up funding rounds in the country, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Communications and IT said.

Prominent investors include Alat, an innovative company focused on transforming global industries by creating a world-class manufacturing hub, teamed up with Lenovo, while Groq and Aramco Digital together investing $1.5 billion to launch the world’s largest AI inference node in Saudi Arabia.

Salesforce has allocated $500 million to develop a Hyperforce platform to serve regional clients and Databricks will invest $300 million to develop full PaaS services that enable app developers to increase innovation.

Tencent Cloud also committed $150 million to launch the Middle East’s first AI-supported cloud region in Saudi Arabia and SambaNova has announced plans to invest up to $140 millio to bolster AI infrastructure and roll out a large language model.

HP will launch a manufacturing hub in Riyadh and an AI and R&D center in Dhahran, while Cisco is will set up cloud services data centres, developing AI skills, and kicking off a “phased plan” for local manufacturing. Both companies did not disclose the amounts to be invested. KKR and Gulf Data Hub are jointly developing data centers with 300 MW capacity;

Saudi Arabia-based AI start-up Allam is planning to introduce its language model to the Qualcomm AI Cloud, alongside other cloud-based AI solutions from Allam and Alibaba Cloud launched its Qwen LLM and Platform for AI (PAI) on the Kingdom’s public cloud, while also kicking off an AI Empowerment Program. Even King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) and Huawei inked an MOU to partner on smart city applications and advanced technologies.

New Manufacturing Facility

Alat and Lenovo launched works on their new manufacturing base in Riyadh and the facility will be constructed on a 200,000 sq. m. campus site at “Riyadh Integrated” operated by Special Integrated Logistics Zone (SILZ) and will produce millions of “Saudi Made” laptops and desktops, as well as servers in a factory designed, constructed, and operated to high standards of sustainability.

Today’s celebration follows the deal closing that was announced a month ago, and marked the completion of the $2 billion investment (via three-year zero-coupon convertible bonds) alongside the strategic collaboration agreement that was initially announced in May 2024.

The new manufacturing hub, which is expected to begin production in 2026, is located just 15 minutes from Riyadh´s international airport in Saudi Arabia’s the Kingdom’s Special Integrated Logistics Zone (SILZ).

It will complement Lenovo’s extensive manufacturing footprint of 30+ factories around the world spanning Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, and the US, and further increase supply chain resilience and flexibility.

The new manufacturing hub will also enable Lenovo to be closer to customers in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Lenovo is highly regarded for its supply chain excellence, consistently featuring as one of the world’s top supply chains, across all industries – recently being ranked by Gartner as #10 on its list of the world’s top 25 supply chains. The new factory in Riyadh will build on Lenovo’s existing presence in the region and enable the company to bring its industry-leading products, services, and solutions to market more quickly, capitalizing on the significant IT and business services industry growth momentum in the MEA region.