LEAP23, the world’s most visionary technology event, opened a four-day run in Riyadh on Monday by announcing more than US$9 billion in investments to support future technologies, digital entrepreneurship, tech startups, and enhance the Saudi Arabia’s position as the largest digital market in the MENA region.

The investments were revealed by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), during a keynote address on the opening morning of LEAP23, which runs at Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre until Thursday, February 9th.  H.E Alswaha confirmed the investments included Microsoft’s US$2.1 billion investment in a global super-scaler cloud in the Kingdom, Oracle investing US$1.5 billion to expand its MENA business by launching new cloud areas in the Kingdom, Huawei’s US$400 million investment in cloud infrastructure for its services in the Kingdom, and the launch of a Zoom cloud area in the Kingdom in partnership with Aramco. An additional US$ 4.5 billion has been invested in global and local assets across multiple sectors at LEAP23, added H.E Alswaha.

Other major announcements on the first day of LEAP23 included Meta launching the opening of the first Metaverse Academy in MENA, WEO Technology and Camel Lab launching Hektar, a multi-content social media app; and MENA Communication and STC launching Beem – a new application for instant messaging, high-quality voice and video calls, and business features. Taking place alongside LEAP and starting Tuesday 7 February, the inaugural DeepFest – in partnership with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) – will gather drivers of the global Artificial Intelligence eco-system to unveil life-changing, multi-sector initiatives in a thought-leadership conference and sector-specific tracks, trainings, live-demos, startup pitches and an exhibition featuring companies transforming the world we live and work in.