LEAP 2026: Nokia’s Roque Lozano on Building the Infrastructure Behind the AI Economy
At LEAP 2026, Nokia’s Roque Lozano explains why Saudi Arabia’s data centers, AI factories and next-generation networks could position the Kingdom at the heart of the emerging AI economy.
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As LEAP 2026 brings the global technology ecosystem to Riyadh, the conversation around AI is moving beyond models and applications to the infrastructure required to power them.
Speaking to Entrepreneur Middle East at LEAP, Roque Lozano, Senior Vice President, Network Infrastructure, Middle East & Africa at Nokia, highlighted Saudi Arabia’s growing investment in data centers, AI factories and the networks connecting them.
Lozano points to the emergence of a new “token economy,” where an increasing amount of internet traffic could be generated not by humans, but by machines, bots and AI agents. For Saudi Arabia, this creates an opportunity to move beyond being a consumer of AI and become a producer and exporter of AI-driven content.
The shift is also placing greater demands on connectivity. Nokia is working on Saudi Arabia’s data center interconnection network, while Lozano believes the Gulf could emerge as an early adopter of 6G — enabling networks that can increasingly sense, adapt and operate autonomously.
At LEAP 2026, the message is increasingly clear: the next chapter of the AI race will not only be about who builds the best models, but who builds the infrastructure capable of powering them.
As LEAP 2026 brings the global technology ecosystem to Riyadh, the conversation around AI is moving beyond models and applications to the infrastructure required to power them.
Speaking to Entrepreneur Middle East at LEAP, Roque Lozano, Senior Vice President, Network Infrastructure, Middle East & Africa at Nokia, highlighted Saudi Arabia’s growing investment in data centers, AI factories and the networks connecting them.
Lozano points to the emergence of a new “token economy,” where an increasing amount of internet traffic could be generated not by humans, but by machines, bots and AI agents. For Saudi Arabia, this creates an opportunity to move beyond being a consumer of AI and become a producer and exporter of AI-driven content.
The shift is also placing greater demands on connectivity. Nokia is working on Saudi Arabia’s data center interconnection network, while Lozano believes the Gulf could emerge as an early adopter of 6G — enabling networks that can increasingly sense, adapt and operate autonomously.
At LEAP 2026, the message is increasingly clear: the next chapter of the AI race will not only be about who builds the best models, but who builds the infrastructure capable of powering them.
