Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani opened Web Summit Qatar 2026 yesterday, highlighting Qatar’s push to scale innovation and announcing major investments in artificial intelligence (AI), startup funding, and residency reforms to position the country as a global technology hub.
Speaking at the opening of the region’s largest technology gathering, HE Sheikh Mohammed underlined the rapid pace of global digital transformation and the growing role of young innovators. He noted that nearly six billion people are now online, including around 1.2bn young people aged between 15 and 24 who are building, coding and funding the technologies of the future.
Against this backdrop, he said Qatar is positioning itself to compete and collaborate at the highest level.
To support this ambition, the PM announced the creation of CAI, a national artificial intelligence company that will deliver sovereign AI infrastructure and software systems to secure Qatar’s capabilities and power future use cases. He stressed that sovereign digital capacity is increasingly critical as AI adoption accelerates worldwide.
He outlined the pillars underpinning Qatar’s innovation ecosystem, pointing to the country’s physical, digital and financial connectivity. Qatar, he said, is globally connected through its award-winning airline and airports, while its subsea cable networks and high-performance computing infrastructure provide the low-latency environment required for advanced AI development. Financially, he added, Qatar offers a safe and tax-efficient environment where capital can scale.
“This year, we move from momentum to scale, to reinforce Qatar’s commitment to the global startup ecosystem,” the prime minister said.
As part of this push, he announced a major expansion of the fund of funds programme, building on the Qatar Investment Authority’s initial $1bn initiative that has already anchored 12 major venture capital firms in Doha.
The programme will be expanded by an additional $2bn, significantly increasing the capital available to support startups and innovation-driven companies.
Capital support will be paired with technical capacity, with Qatar-based startups set to receive dedicated high-performance computing credits to accelerate growth. The PM also announced an eightfold increase in startup incentives and the expansion of Qatar Development Bank’s startup programme for 2026, following a year in which startup registrations doubled and applications exceeded 6,000.
In a move aimed at attracting and retaining global talent, he unveiled the Ruby residency programme, a new 10-year residency scheme for entrepreneurs, founders and senior executives. He also highlighted reforms to speed up company formation, banking and residency procedures, which can now be completed within days.
Web Summit Qatar 2026 runs until February 4 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre and brings together policymakers, global technology leaders, investors, startups and cultural figures. The opening night offered an early glimpse of the show floor and the networking-driven ethos that defines the event.
Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave described this year’s edition as a record-breaking one, with more than 1,600 startups exhibiting, 85% of them from outside Qatar. He said nearly 1,000 investors are attending, a 27% increase from last year, reflecting growing global interest in emerging tech hubs.
“The future of technology is truly global,” Cosgrave said, thanking Qatar’s leadership and partners for their support and welcoming participants from around the world to Doha.