During the first week of September, LEAP 2026 took place in Riyadh, where Saudi officials and Chinese technology companies expanded cooperation across AI, cloud, robotics, hardware and networks, showing how Saudi Arabia telecom companies became essential for domestic technology capacity.
Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia wants global technology companies to build infrastructure, manufacture products, train workers and operate platforms locally. That ambition is turning the Kingdom into an interesting testing ground for Chinese technology as competition with the US takes a deeper route into AI and digital infrastructure.
Building Saudi Arabia’s AI Backbone
The growing presence of Huawei in Saudi Arabia highlights the nature of the expanding relationship beyond telecom equipment. Huawei used LEAP to promote a full-stack AI strategy combining networks, computing, cloud systems and applications for government, finance and energy.
The size of Saudi Arabia telecom provides a strong foundation. The Kingdom’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market has reached $53 billion, up 89.5% since 2017, while the digital economy now contributes 16% of GDP and 5G coverage has reached 86%.
For Saudi Arabia telecom operators, however, the next stage is no longer simply about expanding mobile coverage. AI systems require faster data-center connections, automated networks, large computing clusters and reliable low-latency infrastructure.
Huawei is promoting Agentic RAN, AI OTN and AI WAN alongside 5G, routers and DWDM technology.
The expansion of ICT Saudi Arabia is also moving into the hardware that powers AI. Huawei says it invests more than 20% of annual revenue in research and development, covering network chips, general-purpose processors, AI chips, storage and optical modules.
That gives Saudi Arabia telecom companies access to infrastructure such as Huawei’s Atlas SuperPoD, which supports up to 8,192 NPUs for large AI workloads. Huawei is also building an ecosystem around HarmonyOS, openEuler and GaussDB.
Sovereign cloud is another important part of Huawei in Saudi Arabia. Huawei Cloud operates three availability zones under the Kingdom’s Class C security classification, keeping data within Saudi borders while offering response times below 25 milliseconds.
For telecom Saudi Arabia, this local control is increasingly important as governments and regulated industries move sensitive workloads into the cloud. Huawei’s AI-Centric Network also includes network automation, performance assurance, lossless transmission and built-in security.
Technology deployment is being paired with workforce development. Huawei says it works with more than 800 global software vendors, 1,500 local system integrators and 300 delivery partners. Through more than 30 ICT Academies, it trains around 10,000 professionals annually, strengthening the skills base behind ICT Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh Builds Around Both China and the US
The wider LEAP announcements show why Saudi Arabia telecom companies are becoming part of a much larger technology ecosystem. Chinese autonomous-driving company WeRide plans to deploy up to 10,000 robotaxis in Riyadh by 2030, while Saudi PIF-backed HUMAIN has commissioned an Arabic-language AI model from China’s MiniMax.
Tencent Cloud has also secured a Saudi operating license for government and financial clients after investing $150 million in the Kingdom. Meanwhile, Lenovo plans to begin mass production of a laptop unveiled at LEAP in Riyadh by the end of 2026, expanding the Saudi Arabia ICT market into local hardware manufacturing.
These developments increase pressure on telecom operators in Saudi Arabia because robotaxis, AI services and cloud platforms all depend on continuous connectivity, secure data movement and computing resources working together.
Yet Riyadh is not moving exclusively toward Beijing. AWS is building $5.3 billion worth of data centers in Saudi Arabia, while access to advanced US chips remains critical to the Kingdom’s AI ambitions.
The following creates a strategic limit around telecom in Saudi Arabia. To secure US export licenses for advanced chips, HUMAIN will not allow Chinese frontier AI models to be trained on its US-approved computing capacity, although its CEO says Chinese open-source models can still be offered through Saudi data centers.
The balancing strategy was visible in July, when Chinese minister Li Lecheng met Saudi minister Abdullah Alswaha in Beijing to discuss AI, cloud computing, digital infrastructure, talent and subsea cables. No commercial agreement was announced, but the meeting showed where future cooperation could move.
For Saudi Arabia telecom operators, subsea cables are especially important because sovereign AI depends not only on local data centers but also on secure international fiber links. These networks are increasingly strategic as cyber risks and geopolitical tensions grow.
“The Gulf is of vital importance for China’s tech outreach,” said James Kynge, senior research fellow for China and the world at Chatham House. “It is a really important focal point for China to show the whole world, not just the region, that its tech is often better to buy and to operate than US tech.”
Academic Karim Alwadi described the scale more sharply.
“People don’t appreciate how big this is, it’s a tsunami,” Alwadi said. “Ride the wave.”
The real test for Saudi Arabia telecom companies will be whether these investments create lasting domestic capability. Riyadh is effectively using competition between China and the US to build AI compute, sovereign cloud, local manufacturing, connectivity and technical skills on its own terms.
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