Credit: GITEX GLOBAL
GITEX GLOBAL 2026 returns to Dubai this December with new dates, a new venue and a new format. A one-day summit opens the event on 7 December at Dubai World Trade Centre. A four-day expo follows from 8 to 11 December at Dubai Exhibition Centre in Expo City Dubai.
The organisers have named Huawei, Microsoft, Snowflake, Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, HCL Software, Telnyx, Intel, AWS and AMD among the companies headlining this year. First-time exhibitors include Joby Aviation, Workday and Nexthink.
A summit first, then the expo
The GITEX Summit is a full-day meeting of ministers, policymakers, tech leaders, investors and founders, according to the organisers. It runs from 9:30am to 5pm in Sheikh Maktoum Hall at Dubai World Trade Centre.
The programme is built around three themes: the compute economy, the new map of capital and future frontiers.
Speakers announced so far include Peng Xiao, CEO of G42, Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar and DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi. New York University emeritus professor Gary Marcus, Sensofusion’s Mikko Hyppönen and ControlAI’s Connor Leahy are also on the list, alongside deputy ministers from Poland and Azerbaijan and the ITU’s deputy secretary general.
The expo moves to Dubai Exhibition Centre and runs from 10am to 5pm each day. The organisers expect more than 6,000 exhibitors from more than 80 countries. They bill it as the world’s largest tech and AI show. They have framed this edition under the theme “The Global Reset 2027”. Expand North Star and LIVX by GITEX run alongside it at the same venue.
Who is coming
Huawei, a Platinum Sponsor, arrives after unveiling a next-generation AI computing architecture designed to connect up to one million AI processors. TNW covered its SuperPoD plans at Huawei Connect in September.
Microsoft, a Gold Sponsor, is accelerating its $15.2 billion investment in the UAE. That includes 200MW of new AI computing capacity with G42, due online by the end of 2026. G42’s ties to the US have shaped its chip access this year.
AWS will bring Amazon Bedrock, which the organisers say supports generative AI applications at more than 100,000 organisations. AMD will show its Instinct accelerators and EPYC processors for hyperscale data centres.
Joby Aviation makes its GITEX GLOBAL debut as Dubai prepares for its first commercial electric air taxi service. Nexthink, a $3 billion unicorn, is also a first-timer; its digital employee experience technology now reaches more than 20 million employees.
Workday, whose HR and finance platform is used by more than 65% of Fortune 500 companies, debuts too. So does Riello UPS, a European maker of uninterruptible power systems that scale up to 1,600 kVA.
Snowflake has a $6 billion strategic collaboration with AWS. Lenovo is also on the list, arriving after announcing an AI Cloud Gigafactory built on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin architecture.
On stage, Dr Tony Han, founder and CEO of WeRide, joins the speaker line-up. WeRide launched Dubai’s first fully driverless, fare-charging robotaxi service with Uber, the same pairing that took its robotaxis to Madrid. It plans to deploy 1,200 robotaxis across the Gulf by 2027. Patrick Johansson, Ericsson’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, is speaking too.
Robots, cyber defence and data centres
GITEX WORLD RobotiX is the event’s showcase for physical AI: machines that sense their surroundings and act in the real world. It brings together live robotics demos, product launches, buyer meetings, pilot project talks and investor conversations. Its focus extends to vision, simulation, fleet orchestration, cybersecurity and connectivity.
Cyber Valley gathers security companies including Cloudflare, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, Trend AI, Veeam and Zscaler. Talks will cover agentic AI threats, machine-speed defence, sovereign security and protecting critical infrastructure. The Cyberbase Village adds live hacking challenges and hands-on workshops.
The data centre programme follows what the organisers call a race worth nearly $3 trillion in investment. Close to 100 GW of new capacity is expected worldwide by 2030. Abu Dhabi’s planned 5 GW UAE-US AI Campus is part of that build-out, and Gulf investment money is already moving into the sector. Sessions will cover gigawatt-scale projects, high-performance compute, energy resilience, advanced cooling and sovereign infrastructure.
How to attend
Registration for GITEX GLOBAL 2026 is open on the GITEX website. The summit takes place on 7 December at Dubai World Trade Centre, and the expo runs from 8 to 11 December at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City Dubai.
A visitor pass covers the expo, Expand North Star, LIVX and the free conferences, but not the summit. Summit access comes with the GITEX Summit, Premium and All Access passes. Online prices for the visitor pass apply until 7 December.
TNW is a media partner of GITEX GLOBAL 2026. TNW readers get an exclusive 50% discount on delegate passes with the code MEDIAGG50ENS when registering.
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