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Top Tech Investors to Participate in 3rd Edition of LEAP in Riyadh

The event will feature more than 1,000 top speakers at 10 different stages. SPA
The event will feature more than 1,000 top speakers at 10 different stages. SPA
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Top Tech Investors to Participate in 3rd Edition of LEAP in Riyadh

The event will feature more than 1,000 top speakers at 10 different stages. SPA
The event will feature more than 1,000 top speakers at 10 different stages. SPA

LEAP is slated to hold its third edition, from March 4 to 7 at Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center, Malham, under the theme “Into New Worlds”.
Organized by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones, and Tahaluf company, the event will feature more than 1,000 top speakers at 10 different stages, according to a statement from the organizing committee.
LEAP will host the Investor Stage, in which world’s top investors will discuss innovative investment opportunities. This stage will also address topics such as the intersection of technology with government policies and innovation, and successful financing strategies.
It will also feature the Startup Stage, in which expert speakers such as Blossom Accelerator CEO & Founder Emon Shakoor, Raiven Capital Founding Partner Supreet Singh Manchanda, and Adaverse Founding Partner Vincent Li will discuss startup growth and innovation.
Sessions will address topics such as business planning and strategies, nurturing concepts into viable startup ideas, and the importance of enhancing user experience.
According to the statement, the Rocket Fuel Pitch competition returns at the third edition of LEAP, with total prizes exceeding $1,000,000 in six categories: LEAP Award $250,000 for the strongest, most outstanding startup across the whole competition, Shooting Star Award $150,000 for the early stage startup beginning its journey, the Aviatrix Award $150,000 for the best, most innovative startup pioneered by women founders, Technology for Humanity Award $150,000 for the startup that best embodies the “tech for humanity” spirit of LEAP, the Into New Worlds Award $150,000 for the most impressive startup occupying the Metaverse and Web 3.0 space, and the Artificial Intelligence Award $150,000 for the startup that presents the most exciting, ground-breaking usage of artificial intelligence.
The third edition of LEAP, held in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha'at), and strategic partner STC, will be attended by world leading tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, Cisco, Avaya, SAP, ServiceNow, Ericsson, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Alibaba Group, and Huawei.

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Technology

Foxconn Says Third Quarter to Outperform Market Expectations on AI Strength

Signage at Foxconn booth at the International Automobile & Motorcycle Parts & Accessories Show (AMPA) trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Signage at Foxconn booth at the International Automobile & Motorcycle Parts & Accessories Show (AMPA) trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Foxconn Says Third Quarter to Outperform Market Expectations on AI Strength

Signage at Foxconn booth at the International Automobile & Motorcycle Parts & Accessories Show (AMPA) trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Signage at Foxconn booth at the International Automobile & Motorcycle Parts & Accessories Show (AMPA) trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Foxconn's ‌third-quarter performance is expected to outperform market expectations given strong AI-related demand, the Taiwanese contract electronics maker said on Saturday, though it offered caution about "volatile" global politics.

Foxconn, Nvidia's biggest server maker and a major Apple supplier, has been a big beneficiary of the trend towards AI, reporting last month a 35% rise in ‌second-quarter profit that ‌beat analyst forecasts.

"In the ‌third ⁠quarter, as AI ⁠demand continues to grow, and ICT products also enter the peak season of the second half of the year, operations are expected to gradually gain momentum," it said in a statement, referring ⁠to information and communication technology.

"Currently, the ‌company's visibility ‌for the third quarter has improved compared to ‌the previous month, with overall performance expected ‌to outperform market expectations," it added, without giving details.

However, Foxconn said it remained necessary to "monitor the impact of the volatile global ‌political and economic situation". It likewise did not elaborate.

Foxconn, formally called ⁠Hon ⁠Hai Precision Industry, does not provide numerical forecasts.

It said revenue last month rose 51.98% from a year earlier to T$921.8 billion ($29.15 billion), the highest amount ever for August and the second month in a row it has exceeded T$900 billion.

Foxconn's shares closed up 3.4% on Friday, before the revenue data was released, outperforming the broader market's 1.5% gain.

Technology

OpenAI Begins Rollout of New Powerful AI Model GPT-6 Astra

The OpenAI logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Begins Rollout of New Powerful AI Model GPT-6 Astra

The OpenAI logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. (Reuters)
The OpenAI logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. (Reuters)

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Thursday it would begin rolling out its newest and most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) model to select customers, saying it had built in safeguards to mitigate security risks.

"At this level of capability, safety has to become our top priority," OpenAI President Greg Brockman told reporters on a call about the release of GPT-6, also known as Astra.

Just over a year has passed since OpenAI launched the previous version of its flagship model, GPT-5, said AFP.

Concerns about the capabilities of advanced models have grown since then, following incidents involving systems built by OpenAI and rival developer Anthropic.

OpenAI paused some model development for two weeks this summer after two models it was testing were involved in a security breach at AI platform Hugging Face.

The San Francisco-based company said Astra was developed with stronger safeguards after that incident, though Astra itself was not involved in the hack.

Some cybersecurity customers will get access to the new model Thursday, the company said, with a wider rollout to other paying customers to follow. Users on the free tier or the cheapest paid plan will not get access.

"We are working towards getting Astra in everyone's hands as quickly as we can; I know it is frustrating and I appreciate the patience. It should be quick," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on social media Thursday afternoon.

In a blog post, OpenAI said Astra can autonomously handle a wide range of "tedious" computer tasks, including website creation, scientific analysis, game development, cybersecurity and coding.

To illustrate the time savings of building autonomous AI agents with Astra, the company said the model could cut apartment hunting from six hours to under 10 minutes.

"It's not unreasonable to feel that we are now in the AGI era," Brockman said on the call, referring to artificial general intelligence, a hypothetical stage at which AI systems match human intelligence across most tasks.

OpenAI previously had an agreement with Microsoft, one of its earliest and largest investors, under which an exclusivity clause would end once OpenAI reached AGI. Those terms were scrapped in April.

- 'Limited window' -

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki acknowledged there was still uncertainty about how a new model behaves once released.

"A model can become very good at achieving a goal, and it can still act in ways that go against what the person intended," Pachocki said on the same call.

"We also have to be willing to slow down or withhold further scaling when our confidence in safety is not sufficient," he added.

Altman explained in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday afternoon why the company decided to release a new model with this level of uncertainty and risk.

"The world is very close to a complete change in the landscape of cyber attacks, and the only way that we see for society to collectively defend itself... is to use tools like Astra to rapidly defend against these new cyber threats," Altman said.

In July OpenAI confirmed that it had reached one billion active users across all of its products, including both free and paid users.

OpenAI, Anthropic and more than 100 other organizations signed an open letter last week calling for a coordinated global response to AI-related cybersecurity risks, warning that the window to strengthen cyber defenses was limited.

Anthropic went further on Monday, calling for industry-wide coordination on safety and on the pace of developing increasingly capable models.

"I believe that shared safety standards and international coordination on further AI development need to be prioritized now," OpenIA's Pachocki said on Thursday.

The US state of Alabama opened an investigation into OpenAI last week over the Hugging Face breach, his office citing what it called the company's complete lack of oversight and adequate safeguards.

It also comes as OpenAI and rival Anthropic are both racing towards becoming public companies over the next several months, though OpenAI might not hold its IPO till sometime in 2027, according to reports.

Technology

Deputy CEO of NCAI Highlights AI’s Future at DeepFest 2026

Deputy CEO of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) Dr. Hotham Altwaijry said the future of AI will be shaped by countries that can maximize the value of their technologies.(SPA)
Deputy CEO of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) Dr. Hotham Altwaijry said the future of AI will be shaped by countries that can maximize the value of their technologies.(SPA)
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Deputy CEO of NCAI Highlights AI’s Future at DeepFest 2026

Deputy CEO of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) Dr. Hotham Altwaijry said the future of AI will be shaped by countries that can maximize the value of their technologies.(SPA)
Deputy CEO of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) Dr. Hotham Altwaijry said the future of AI will be shaped by countries that can maximize the value of their technologies.(SPA)

Deputy CEO of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) Dr. Hotham Altwaijry said the future of AI will be shaped by countries that can maximize the value of their technologies. He explained that the current phase requires greater focus on using AI optimally and harnessing its potential to achieve tangible impact that benefits humanity and society, the Saudi Press Agency said on Friday.

His remarks came during the opening session of the fourth and final day of DeepFest 2026. He highlighted the evolving relationship between humans and AI, as well as technology's role in enhancing human capabilities and improving experiences.

Altwaijry explained that SDAIA recognized early on that a meaningful partnership between humans and AI cannot be achieved through algorithms, models, and technical concepts alone. Rather, it requires enabling individuals to experience AI’s potential firsthand.

He noted that AI has now become an integral part of today’s work environments, contributing to software development and testing, analyzing and preparing business requirements, and giving individuals greater space to focus on user experience, creativity, and exploring new ideas and solutions.