GITEX 글로벌2026 runs 7–11 December with its main expo inside the new Dubai Exhibition Centre for the first time, more than 6,800 exhibitors expected, and a summit day stacked with ministers and AI's most recognisable names.
For forty-five years, the technology industry's biggest stage was a sprawling complex of halls on Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road. In December, it moves. GITEX GLOBAL — the show that bills itself as the world's largest tech and startup exhibition — runs 7–11 December 2026, and for the first time in its 46th edition its main expo floor will not be at the Dubai World Trade Centre at all. The four exhibition days, 8 to 11 December, sit inside the new Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City Dubai, on the site of Expo 2020. The summit day, 7 December, stays at DWTC.
The scale attached to the move is where it gets interesting. Organisers say they expect more than 200,000 attendees from over 180 countries, more than 6,800 exhibiting companies and more than 400 government entities — a step up on last year, and the reason a bigger building was needed. The venue is part of a US$2.7 billion expansion of Expo City, which organisers describe as the world's largest indoor events space, with north and south halls hosting GITEX for the first time.
What sits inside the halls has been rebuilt too. GITEX has long sold itself on scale; for 2026 it has reorganised the floor around infrastructure. New or expanded zones cover the compute, power and infrastructure backbone behind AI, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, a GITEX MOVE area for physical AI and a robotics park, and a new FDX platform for finance and tokenisation. Digital defence, intelligent cities, next-generation connectivity and a new energy section for powering data centres fill out the rest. The old argument that Dubai is where the world's platforms announce things still holds; the difference is that the floor plan now looks like a power grid rather than a trade fair.
The speaker list explains why the summit day is invite-only by design. Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, is on the bill, alongside UAE ministers including H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications; Estonia's Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, Liisa-Ly Pakosta; and Ciyong Zou, Deputy Director General of UNIDO. Corporate names run from Microsoft and Huawei to Cerebras, Snowflake, IBM, AMD and G42, and the organisers say 80% of attendees will be C-level.
The other change is calendar. GITEX has run in October for decades. Moving to December puts it in the middle of Dubai's peak season, and organisers are marketing it as a "TechCation" — a citywide programme mixing the show with the city's food and nightlife. Expand North Star, the organiser's dedicated startup event, is folded back inside GITEX for the first time. Whether the December slot wins more of the region's buyers, or simply fights the holiday week for staff, is the open question. What is not in doubt is that the world's largest technology show has changed its address, its dates and its subject matter in the same breath.
For an industry that talks endlessly about where the compute physically lives, the location is the story. Dubai is betting that the argument for hosting the largest AI-adjacent trade fair on earth is not only conference space but proximity to the data-centre and energy build-out the same government is funding. If the December numbers land, the case becomes hard to ignore. If they fall short of 200,000, then the most-cited technology exhibition in the world will have moved house with the timing to prove it.Editor note — verify before publishing:(a) The dates (Scale Summit 7 Dec at DWTC; Expo 8–11 Dec at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City), the "first-ever edition at Expo City Dubai" framing, the 2.2M sq ft / $2.7B expansion / 20,000 parking details and the named speakers are all confirmed on the official gitex.com site. (b) The200,000+ attendees / 6,800 exhibiting companies / 180+ countries / 400+ government entitiesfigures come from theDubai Exhibition Centre's own event listing, which quotes the organiser's expectations — these are organiser targets, not results; attribute them as "organisers expect". (c) The official gitex.com homepage and press-release feed currently render their headline counters as unresolved"80 +"placeholders for exhibiting companies, countries, speakers and delegates.Do not publish "80+" as a figure— it is a broken page element. The "80% of attendees are C-level" claim is a separate, organiser-stated marketing figure and is fine if attributed. (d) The "46th edition" numbering is confirmed by the Dubai Exhibition Centre listing; GITEX's own site still carries "GITEX GLOBAL 2025, marking its 45th edition" in its copy, so state the edition number only once and attribute it. (e) The conference day is labelled"GITEX Scale Summit"on the main site and"GITEX Summit"in the press-release feed — pick one and use it consistently (this brief uses Scale Summit). (f) Quotes from Andrew Feldman (Cerebras), Amr Kamel (Microsoft UAE), Eliah Seton (SoundCloud) and Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Estonia), plus the country-by-country "media coverage" blurbs (Czech Republic, UK, Spain, Serbia), areorganiser marketing— attribute or cut. (g) Confirm final visitor-pass pricing before publication; a secondary guide quotes AED 580–630 for 2025 and notes 2026 pricing was not locked in at the time of writing. (h) Confirm the list of named speakers closer to the date — GITEX adds names through the autumn. (i) Confirm the specific hall plan and sector names on gitex.com before publishing, as the sector list is still being edited.