Web Summit 2026 Lisbon: Dates, Speakers and What to Expect Next Week

Web Summit, one of Europe’s largest technology conferences, returns to Lisbon next week, running from Monday, November 9 to Thursday, November 12, 2026. The official programme leans heavily on AI and robotics, with founders and executives from Cloudflare, Replit, Xiaomi and a long list of Chinese AI and humanoid robot companies already confirmed. For founders and investors, it is the last big European gathering of the autumn before Slush in Helsinki.

When and where is Web Summit 2026?

The conference takes place across four days in the Portuguese capital. Web Summit’s own event page names the MEO Arena as the home of the 2026 edition, while third-party listings such as EgyptInnovate also point to the FIL (Feira Internacional de Lisboa) exhibition centre next door, which has hosted the expo floor in past years. EgyptInnovate lists daily hours of roughly 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

According to the official site, the 2026 programme is organised into 17 tracks. Alongside the main conference, Web Summit runs familiar side programmes including its startup exhibition, Night Summit social events, a Women in Tech programme and the IBM Sports Tech Startup Prize competition.

Who is speaking at Web Summit 2026?

The speaker list published so far is notable for how many of the names come from China’s AI and robotics sector. Confirmed speakers on the Web Summit 2026 page include:

• Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare
• Michele Catasta, president of Replit
• Richard Socher, co-founder and CEO of You.com and Recursive
• Fei Xu, chief marketing officer of Xiaomi Group
• Li Chen, co-founder of robotics company Unitree
• Tao Zhang, co-founder and chief product officer of Manus AI
• Dahai Li, co-founder and CEO of ModelBest
• Leo Haojun Wang, co-founder and CFO of autonomous driving company Pony.ai
• Alan Shen, global managing director of MiniMax
• Ling Ge, chief investment and strategy officer for EMEA at Tencent
• William Shi, president of AgiBot Europe, and Yuli Zhao, chief strategy officer of Galbot

Two humanoid robots, AgiBot’s A3 and Galbot’s G1, also appear on the speaker list, a sign that live robot demonstrations will be part of the show. Government voices are present too: Xiaoxia Qi, director general of the Bureau of International Cooperation at the Cyberspace Administration of China, is listed among the speakers.

What is the theme this year?

Bangladesh Post, reporting on the event in May, said this year’s central theme is “Rebuilding Trust in Tech,” with a focus on security and human-centred innovation. The same report said executives from Google, Apple, Visa, Meta, Huawei, Microsoft and Amazon are expected on the main stage, and that more than 70,000 participants are expected. Web Summit’s own 2026 page does not repeat the attendance number, so that figure should be treated as an estimate.

Topics flagged in coverage so far include artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, cybersecurity and climate technology, along with robotics and fintech.

Why it matters

Web Summit has become a bellwether for where European and global tech attention is heading. This year’s speaker mix tells a clear story: physical AI and humanoid robots have moved from niche demos to headline slots, and Chinese companies are using Lisbon as a stage to reach European customers and investors.

That theme echoes what played out at TechCrunch’s San Francisco conference last month, where robotics and AI infrastructure dominated the agenda. You can read about the companies that made it through that competition in our coverage of the Disrupt 2026 Startup Battlefield Top 20.

For startups, the event’s pitch competition and startup showcase remain the main draw, offering a chance to put products in front of investors who travel to Lisbon specifically to scout early-stage companies.

Key details

• Dates: November 9–12, 2026
• City: Lisbon, Portugal
• Venue: MEO Arena (with the FIL exhibition centre listed by third parties)
• Programme: 17 tracks, plus pitch competitions, masterclasses and mentor sessions
• Expected attendance: more than 70,000, according to Bangladesh Post

What happens next

Web Summit typically adds speakers right up to opening day, so the lineup above is likely to grow. PFM Today will cover notable announcements from the stages in Lisbon next week, and Slush follows a week later in Helsinki on November 18–19.