#SaudiArabia #LEAP26 - US technology company HP Inc. has launched HP Garage 2.0 in Saudi Arabia, an incubator designed to help startups develop AI solutions, announced on the first day of LEAP 2026. Named after the original HP Garage in Palo Alto where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded the company, the initiative brings together startups, educators and industry partners to support skills development and innovation across the Kingdom.
SO WHAT? - HP is leaning on its own founding story to position itself as a partner for Saudi talent and entrepreneurs. Over the past few years Saudi Arabia has launched a wide range of initiatives to inspire, support, fund and grow an AI startup ecosystem, to include multiple accelerators and incubators, funds of funds, talent development programmes and partnerships. Meanwhile, deeptech startups have begun appearing in the ecosystem, bringing to market a high standard of Saudi-specific AI solutions and platforms. So, HP’s move is well-timed, launching into a much more active and successful AI startup environment than was the case two or three years ago.
KEY POINTS:
HP has launched HP Garage 2.0 in Saudi Arabia, an incubator designed to help startups develop AI solutions, announced on the first day of LEAP 2026.
Garage 2.0 is designed to bring together startups, educators, industry and HP’s own expertise. The initiative aims to foster collaboration and help founders develop solutions aligned with Saudi Arabia’s AI and future-of-work ambitions.
The incubator draws its name and inspiration from the original HP Garage in Palo Alto, where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded the company.
Fadle Saad, Managing Director of HP’s Regional Headquarters, said the initiative reflects HP’s belief that lasting innovation starts with people, aiming to give Saudi innovators the skills, confidence and opportunities to turn ideas into real-world impact.
The initiative is positioned as building on HP’s existing commitment to innovation, education and digital transformation in Saudi Arabia, rather than as a standalone or first-time investment in the market.
HP is showcasing Garage 2.0 and its wider AI-powered device and software portfolio at its LEAP 2026 stand in Hall 3, H3 D20.
ZOOM OUT - Garage 2.0 is the third leg of a Saudi strategy HP has been building over the past few years. HP also reported that its AI R&D Center of Excellence in Dhahran, first announced at LEAP 2025, has moved from commitment into active delivery. The CoE is now producing tools including HP Agent One, an Arabic-capable agentic AI system for IT support, and FlowMaster, which uses OCR and multimodal AI to automate document-heavy administrative processes. The centre is also developing Arabic LLM capabilities focused on the Najdi dialect using Saudi datasets. Alongside that, HP’s Riyadh manufacturing facility, which opened in October 2025, has moved into commercial production and is now shipping locally made HP products across the Kingdom.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: HP
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