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Day 3 of LEAP25 Conference in Riyadh Sees $1.79 Billion in Technology Investments

The third day of the LEAP25 conference in Riyadh featured a series of investments by major technology companies and startup rounds, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional hub for technology and innovation. (SPA)
The third day of the LEAP25 conference in Riyadh featured a series of investments by major technology companies and startup rounds, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional hub for technology and innovation. (SPA)
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Day 3 of LEAP25 Conference in Riyadh Sees $1.79 Billion in Technology Investments

The third day of the LEAP25 conference in Riyadh featured a series of investments by major technology companies and startup rounds, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional hub for technology and innovation. (SPA)
The third day of the LEAP25 conference in Riyadh featured a series of investments by major technology companies and startup rounds, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional hub for technology and innovation. (SPA)

The third day of the LEAP25 conference in Riyadh featured a series of investments by major technology companies and startup rounds, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional hub for technology and innovation and a global destination for tech and artificial-intelligence (AI) investments.

Tuesday's announced investments totaled $1.79 billion, focusing on digital talent development; support for research, development, and innovation; AI; cloud computing; and strengthening technological infrastructure.

The Saudi Communications, Space, and Technology Commission (CST) announced the launch of the third cohort of the Emerging Technology Regulatory Sandbox, enabling innovators and startups to test new technologies in a flexible and secure regulatory environment and facilitating their market entry.

Equinix announced the launch of the region's largest cloud-computing data center, with an investment exceeding $1 billion, further solidifying the Kingdom’s position as a global hub for cloud service providers and technological innovation.

White Helmets announced the launch of the "Asif" AI agent to enhance efficiency and accuracy in construction projects, keeping pace with future developments.

At the investment fund level, Hands On Global Management announced the launch of a $300 million fund to develop and distribute games locally and internationally. The company also revealed plans to establish a new headquarters in the Kingdom to support the growth of the gaming industry and expand its global reach.

In support of startups, the National Technology Development Program (NTDP) launched accelerators and funding funds worth $150 million to foster innovation in the information-technology (IT) sector and drive the growth of tech startups in Saudi Arabia.

Joa Capital launched the first infrastructure fund in partnership with Buildnow Trading, with an $80 million investment to meet the needs of the Kingdom's thriving construction sector.

Ula Capital announced the launch of the first Saudi fund dedicated to investing in applied AI and deep tech projects, with a value of $75 million, to strengthen the Kingdom’s leadership in these advanced fields and support technological innovation in the region.

To reinforce the Kingdom’s position as a leading driver of innovation and growth in the region, Sharaka Financial announced the launch of a $30 million investment fund to support the growth of startups across the Middle East and North Africa.

Meanwhile, Orbit Startups, in collaboration with Sanabil Investments, introduced a $60 million accelerator program aimed at investing in 200 early-stage tech startups.

Regarding startup funding rounds, Merit announced the successful completion of its Series B investment round, securing $28 million to enhance its innovative tech solutions and expand its global market presence.

In addition, UltiAcademy secured $28 million in a Series B funding round led by Rua Ventures, with key participation from the Jordan Investment and Venture Capital Fund. The investment will support the company’s expansion in the Kingdom and the launch of a generative AI-powered digital learning platform to enhance the digital learning experience across the region.

BRKZ closed the second phase of its Series A funding round, securing $22.5 million to expand the smart construction sector in the Kingdom through advanced technology solutions, supporting smart-city projects.

Buildnow announced securing $9.76 million in funding, led by Arbah and STV, to boost its advanced digital solutions for the construction supply chain across the Middle East and North Africa.

Hydratac Inc. announced a $3 million investment in Hands On Global Management’s fund to develop military shooting simulation games, aiming to drive innovation in the regional gaming industry and expand interactive experiences in this field.

As part of efforts to develop national digital talent, Microsoft announced a collaboration with the National Academy of Information Technology to launch the region’s first datacenter academy, offering specialized programs in AI and technological infrastructure.

Huawei announced the expansion of its investments in digital talent development with the launch of the AI Knowledge Hub, aimed at promoting lifelong learning and training 25,000 people.

Meanwhile, Accenture revealed the establishment of its first academy in the region, focusing on cybersecurity, data and AI, digital engineering and manufacturing, and emerging technologies, with a target of training 15,000 individuals.

Atomcamp announced the launch of a regional academy to provide advanced education in data science and AI, aiming to enhance the capabilities of talent in the Kingdom and the region, with a target of training 20,000 people.

Torod company closed its Series A funding round, raising $11.3 million, led by Waed company, to support the development of the first AI-powered logistics agent.

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Technology

Adobe Launches AI Suite for Corporate Clients as Competition Heats Up

Adobe launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools (Reuters)
Adobe launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools (Reuters)
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Adobe Launches AI Suite for Corporate Clients as Competition Heats Up

Adobe launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools (Reuters)
Adobe launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools (Reuters)

Adobe launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools on Monday to help corporate clients automate and personalize digital marketing functions, in a bid to fend off competition from autonomous tools offered by startups such as Anthropic.

A selloff in software stocks, sparked by the rise of AI tools that can automate a growing number of human tasks, is pressuring firms like Adobe and its peers, as investors weigh the threat from offerings by Anthropic and OpenAI, Reuters reported.

Shares of Adobe were up 2.2% in morning trading. As of last close, the stock has fallen about 30% so far this year.

Adobe said the new suite, dubbed CX Enterprise, uses AI agents to help businesses manage how they interact with customers.

The design software maker is also teaming up with several technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft , Anthropic, OpenAI and Nvidia, to ensure its new AI system works across different platforms.

Anthropic on Friday unveiled Claude Design, an experimental feature that allows users to create visuals such as prototypes, slide decks and one-page documents using its chatbot.

Technology

AI ‘Agent’ Fever Comes with Lurking Security Threats

05 March 2026, Berlin: The letters "AI" for Artificial Intelligence are displayed on a wall during the opening of the Google AI Center Berlin. (dpa)
05 March 2026, Berlin: The letters "AI" for Artificial Intelligence are displayed on a wall during the opening of the Google AI Center Berlin. (dpa)
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AI ‘Agent’ Fever Comes with Lurking Security Threats

05 March 2026, Berlin: The letters "AI" for Artificial Intelligence are displayed on a wall during the opening of the Google AI Center Berlin. (dpa)
05 March 2026, Berlin: The letters "AI" for Artificial Intelligence are displayed on a wall during the opening of the Google AI Center Berlin. (dpa)

Artificial intelligence "agents" promise to save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems like OpenClaw is setting cybersecurity experts on edge.

Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today claims more than three million users worldwide.

The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude that can carry out online tasks.

"We've moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are definitely much greater," said Yazid Akadiri, principal solutions architect at Elastic France, an IT security company.

In an article titled "Agents of Chaos" that has yet to be peer-reviewed, a 20-strong team of researchers studied the behavior of six AI agents created with OpenClaw.

They spotted a dozen potentially dangerous actions executed by the systems, from deleting an email inbox to sharing personal information.

Many users have posted similar stories of OpenClaw mishaps online.

"When you deploy agents, you have no control over what they'll do, and when you try to look at what they're doing, you'll find them going far beyond the limits you set," said Adrien Merveille, an expert at the Check Point cybersecurity agency.

And the security gaps are not limited to the agents' own mistaken actions.

To carry out useful work, the tools need access to personal accounts for email, calendars or search engines -- drawing the attention of cyberattackers.

- 'Delete your database' -

AI agents are likely to become top targets for hackers as their use spreads, said Wendi Whitmore, chief security intelligence officer at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.

"As soon as (attackers) are inside an environment, (they're) immediately going to the internal LLM (agent) that's being used and using that then to interrogate the systems for more information."

Palo Alto's Unit 42 research division said in early March that it had found traces of attempted attacks in the form of hidden instructions for agents added to websites.

One such command ordered any agent who might read it to "delete your database".

Other cybersecurity firms and researchers have warned that attackers could gain access to agents via so-called skills -- downloadable files that users can add to their systems to give them new abilities.

Among such files freely available for download, some include hidden instructions for malicious actions like exfiltrating data.

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger says he is well aware of the risks.

"I purposefully didn't make it simpler so people would stop and read and understand: what is AI, that AI can make mistakes, what is prompt injection -- some basics that you really should understand when you use that technology," he told AFP in March.

Whitmore argued that expecting users to create their own guardrails for agents is "pretty unrealistic".

"People are going to adopt innovation and really see what it's capable of before they ask the questions about, 'how do I secure my own data?'," she predicted.

"That's going to cause some significant challenges in terms of data breaches in 2026."

Technology

Humanoid Robots Race Past Humans in Beijing Half-Marathon, Showing Rapid Advances

A robot runs in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
A robot runs in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Humanoid Robots Race Past Humans in Beijing Half-Marathon, Showing Rapid Advances

A robot runs in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
A robot runs in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026. (AFP)

Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they whizzed past human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the sector's rapid technical advances.

The race's inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last year's champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.

This year's contrast was stark. Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by remote control during the 21-km (13-mile) race. The robots and ‌12,000 men and ‌women ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions.

The winning robot, developed by Chinese ‌smartphone ⁠brand Honor, finished ⁠the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.

Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including ⁠manufacturing.

"Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer, ‌for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications," Du ‌said.

ROBOTICS IMPROVEMENTS

Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China's improvements in ‌robotics.

"The humanoid robots' running posture I saw was really quite impressive... considering that AI has only been developing for ‌a short time, I'm already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance," said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

"The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don't know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete," he said.

Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, ‌said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.

Guo said he takes regular classes in robotics theory and ⁠programming at his elite Beijing ⁠school, and is part of his school's team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.

ECONOMICALLY VIABLE APPLICATIONS

While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon's showcasing of these machines' physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.

However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.

Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialization of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial.

China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has enacted a wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.

The country's most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased China's push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.

That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.