The second day of LEAP 2026 featured panel discussions on the development of integrated government services and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in empowering people and expanding opportunities. The sessions also addressed how organizations are moving beyond investing in technology toward achieving tangible, scalable outcomes.
 During a session titled “Tawakkalna: From 1,700 Services to an Integrated Government Experience,” Director of the National Information Center (NIC) at the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) Dr. Esam Alwagait said Tawakkalna represents a transformation that goes beyond technology to reshape administrative thinking and practices, to simplify the user experience and bring services together on a single platform.
 Alwagait said Tawakkalna’s success is the result of collaboration among 62 entities to provide integrated services across sectors including education, health, justice, interior, and commerce. He added that the goal is to move beyond bringing services together on a single platform and to enable users to complete their transactions seamlessly, without having to switch between services.
 Governor of the Digital Government Authority (DGA) Eng. Ahmed Alsuwaiyan said Tawakkalna’s success is built on its architecture, governance model, adoption, and use, helping maintain the platform’s flexibility while ensuring that entities responsible for individual services retain responsibility for their design, development, and operation.
 Alsuwaiyan said the platform has more than 36 million users, handles over 85 million transactions daily, and offers more than 1,700 services from 370 government and private-sector entities, demonstrating its broad use and contribution to improving the user experience.

he second day of LEAP 2026 saw the announcement of major investments and launches worth a total of around $2.5 billion, covering data centers, cloud services, technology localization, and research and development, strengthening the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s position as a global hub for digital infrastructure and advanced technologies in the intelligent era.
Al Moammar Information Systems (MIS) topped the day’s announcements with a $1.2 billion investment to expand data centers in Saudi Arabia and increase its operational capacity to reach a total capacity of 192 megawatts, supporting growing demand for computing and artificial intelligence services.
NHC Innovation announced the development of data centers in the Khuzam Digital Valley at a value of $880 million, providing integrated digital infrastructure with scalable capacity, targeting 65 megawatts by 2033.
As part of Saudi investment activity globally, Vision Invest and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) are leading a $300 million strategic investment in WIOCC to support the expansion of digital infrastructure in Africa and enhance connectivity and digital services across the continent’s markets.
In cloud services, Mobily and BytePlus announced a joint investment of more than $150 million to launch BytePlus cloud services in Saudi Arabia and expand access to advanced solutions for companies and enterprises.
In support of advanced technology localization and national capacity building, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the expansion of its “Saudi Made” program from localizing hardware to localizing integrated technology solutions. It also announced the launch of the Saudi Innovation Center in collaboration with Intel to empower startups and national talent in artificial intelligence.
Nokia also announced the opening of its first research and development center in Saudi Arabia to accelerate the development of AI-powered network automation technologies, strengthen research and innovation capabilities, and develop advanced telecommunications solutions from Saudi Arabia.
The second-day announcements reflect the Kingdom’s growing appeal to domestic and international technology investment and the expansion of its ecosystem to encompass data centers, cloud services, research and development, and technology localization, while extending the impact of its investments to global markets.
LEAP 2026 will continue through September 3 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham, bringing together technology leaders, investors, innovators and startups from around the world in a program exploring the future of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital infrastructure and advanced technologies.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh that its first AWS Cloud Infrastructure Region in Saudi Arabia is on track to launch in December 2026.
Together with HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund–owned company, AWS will also make up to 50 megawatts (MW) of capacity available in Saudi Arabia’s first AI Zone by 2028 as part of an expanded strategic collaboration.
AWS is HUMAIN’s preferred AI partner, driving AI innovation across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and globally. The AI Zone capacity will include AWS’s Trainium chips and the latest NVIDIA AI infrastructure for customers to run AI training and inference workloads.
Increased cloud and AI capacity is key to growing the Kingdom’s AI leadership and supporting public and private sector organizations to build a future-ready economy in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
HUMAIN’s ALLAM Arabic large language model will soon be available through Amazon Bedrock, so customers can securely access advanced Arabic-language AI capabilities through a fully managed generative AI platform.
The expanded collaboration also includes the availability of HUMAIN Fabric, HUMAIN’s AI-native data infrastructure and a component of the HUMAIN ONE platform, via AWS Marketplace.
With the new region, developers, startups, and enterprises will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from data centers located in Saudi Arabia.
All AWS regions are sovereign-by-design, reflecting AWS’s commitment to offering customers advanced sovereignty controls and features available in the cloud.
“Saudi Arabia is home to some of the most ambitious and inventive builders, from startups and enterprises reimagining industries to public sector organizations deploying AI at scale, and the new AWS region in the country will help them to continue to innovate,” said AWS CEO Matt Garman.
“The launch of our new region and our partnership with HUMAIN will deliver the full-stack cloud and AI infrastructure to help power new industries, create jobs, and accelerate the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha said Saudi Arabia is building the computing power needed for the Intelligence Age and strengthening its position as a global computing partner. He said, “The launch of AWS’s new region and its expanded partnership with HUMAIN will help accelerate AI innovation, enable new industries, and advance the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”
The region, first announced in March 2024, represents more than $5.3 billion (SAR19.88 billion) in planned cloud infrastructure investment. This launch will expand the AWS Global Infrastructure to 40 regions worldwide.
According to an IDC report commissioned by AWS, AI will contribute an estimated $130 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030. The new region will help accelerate this potential by empowering organizations to innovate faster and operate more efficiently, while providing access to advanced AI services like Amazon Bedrock.
Saudi organizations including Abdul Latif Jameel, Almosafer, stc group, Red Bull MOBILE, and AWS Partners like ZainTECH, Accenture, and Tamkeen Technologies will be running AI workloads on AWS.
stc group has announced a strategic collaboration with AWS to accelerate the adoption of cloud and AI services in Saudi Arabia, while ZainTECH has signed a multiyear agreement to help organizations adopt AWS solutions and strengthen their security and compliance readiness.
Beyond infrastructure, AWS is making an investment in Saudi Arabia’s workforce development.
The Amazon Academy, launched with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), provides free training in cloud computing, AI, logistics, and retail, aiming to train over 100,000 Saudi citizens for digital careers. AWS has also partnered with 11 higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia, and is training up to 10,000 women through the AWS Saudi Arabia Women's Skills Initiative at no charge.
Across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Republic of Türkiye, AWS commits to reaching two million people with AI and cloud training by 2030 and has already served more than 680,000 individuals to date.
Additionally, AWS is establishing two innovation centers in Saudi Arabia to provide technical mentorship and training to startups and entrepreneurs.