More than 1,520 start-ups and 600 investors gather in Doha for an expanded edition of the annual Web Summit.

The future of artificial intelligence (AI) has been the focus of tech entrepreneurs and financial backers gathered in Doha for the second annual Web Summit hosted by Qatar.

The four-day digital technology and emerging innovation summit kicked off its second day on Monday, with attendees eyeing an AI environment being transformed rapidly.

Leading entrepreneurs from around the world, including Alexander Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and general partner at Seven Seven Six, took centre stage at the event on the opening day.

Reporting from Doha, Al Jazeera’s Colin Baker said the summit is grappling with questions over the future of AI amid “companies and investors that are changing that landscape more rapidly than we expected”.

The United States and China are leading in preparedness for AI, said Wang of US company Scale AI. DeepSeek demonstrated that it is a relatively close race between the two countries and that others will have to follow suit soon.

“Nearly every country in the world, or nearly every company in the world, will ultimately likely build AI technology on top of either the US technology stack or that of the Chinese technology stack,” Wang said.

Qatar is seeking to use its gas wealth to help it become a regional AI leader amid rising competition from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The government in Doha announced on Sunday that it had signed a five-year deal with Scale AI to deploy AI-powered tools and training in a push to improve government services in the Gulf Arab state.

Initially started in Dublin in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit began as a small 150-person tech conference. At last year’s event, Qatar focused on attracting early-stage tech companies by offering incentives such as free visas, tax exemptions, business licences, office space, and funding for promising firms.

The Web Summit Qatar 2025 features more than 25,000 attendees from 124 countries and some 1,520 start-ups, over 600 investors, and about 380 speakers, alongside 180 industry partners.