Web Summit 2026 Opens in Lisbon as EY Puts Impact at €2.5 Billion

Web Summit 2026 opens in Lisbon on the evening of Monday, 9 November, with founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave and Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas scheduled to welcome attendees on Centre Stage at the MEO Arena. The four-day technology conference arrives days after a study by EY, released by Web Summit, put the event’s cumulative value to Portugal’s economy at about €2.5 billion over its ten years in the city. AI agents, humanoid robots and a record Chinese delegation dominate this year’s programme.

What is happening on opening night?

According to Web Summit’s official schedule, the opening night programme on Centre Stage runs from 6pm Lisbon time. After the “Welcome to Web Summit 2026” session with Cosgrave and Moedas, the evening moves to three short talks:

• “The age of agents”, with Manus AI co-founder Tao Zhang.
• “The future of AI”, featuring Cloudflare co-founder Matthew Prince and Lovable co-founder Anton Osika.
• “Welcome to tomorrow”, a robotics and mobility session with speakers including Deli Zhao, founder and president of Xpeng Aridge, and others from companies such as UBTech.

Night Summit meet-and-greets for Iberian and Asia-Pacific attendees follow from 8pm. The main conference days run from Tuesday to Thursday, 10 to 12 November, across the MEO Arena and the FIL exhibition centre in Parque das Nações. Cosgrave is also listed for a press conference on Wednesday, 11 November.

We set out the full speaker line-up in our Web Summit 2026 preview.

How much is Web Summit worth to Portugal?

The headline new figure this year comes from EY. The study, made public on 5 November when Cosgrave held a press conference in Lisbon, estimates Web Summit’s total impact on Portugal at €2.492 billion across ten Lisbon editions, or roughly €250 million a year, Tek Notícias reported. The Portugal News added that, once hosting costs are taken off, Portugal still gains more than €230 million a year.

Key numbers from the EY study, as reported by the two outlets:

Measure	EY figure
Total economic impact, 10 editions	€2.492 billion
Visitor spending over 10 years	€730 million (peak of €118 million in 2025)
Taxes generated in 2025	€50.7 million
Jobs sustained	About 3,000
Wages linked to the event	€76 million
Participants across 10 Lisbon editions	More than 683,000

EY also tracked Portugal’s wider startup scene between 2016 and 2025. Over that period the number of startups rose 132%, from 2,193 to 5,091, their combined annual turnover grew from €1.23 billion to €2.85 billion, and their exports rose from €673 million to €1.57 billion. By the end of 2025 they employed about 28,000 full-time-equivalent staff. EY’s authors describe the event as delivering short-term returns for Lisbon while strengthening the country’s startup ecosystem over time.

Cosgrave told The Portugal News, “Everyone in Lisbon recognises the ‘Web Summit effect’, but it’s hard to measure.” He added that, in his own view, the real impact could be ten times the report’s figures; that is his opinion, not an EY estimate.

Who is attending Web Summit 2026?

Organisers expect more than 70,000 participants from over 100 countries and about 800 speakers, the Spanish news agency EFE reported on 8 November. Humanoid robots, including AgiBot’s A3 and Galbot’s G1, are among the advertised highlights.

Several national delegations have published their numbers:

• China: The Irish Times reported that this is Web Summit’s largest-ever Chinese delegation. In October the organiser said executives from Tencent, Xiaomi, Xpeng and Pony.ai would attend, along with delegations from China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Cyberspace Administration of China.
• Ireland: The Irish Times reported on 7 November that 115 Irish startups are exhibiting, up 36% on 2025, with 36 of them attending free through Web Summit’s Irish Startup Network. Web Summit’s Richard Forde said, “Ireland can be the starting point for ideas that change industries.”
• Egypt: MENA Startup Digest reported that 41 Egyptian startups are travelling, with 24 exhibiting in a national pavilion backed by the IT agency ITIDA and 17 attending as visitors. It is Egypt’s seventh straight year at the event.

For anyone still deciding, The Irish Times listed general admission at €1,595, VIP at €1,950 and the top Chairperson tier at €24,950.

Why it matters

Web Summit remains one of the largest annual meeting points for European startups and investors, and the EY numbers give Lisbon a concrete case for keeping it. That matters because the hosting deal is nearing its end: Tek Notícias noted that the ten-year agreement signed with the Portuguese government in 2018 has roughly two years left, and Cosgrave said talks about what comes next will be dealt with when the time comes.

For founders, the shift in the programme is also telling. The heavy presence of Chinese AI model makers and robot companies shows how much of the AI conversation in Europe now involves firms from outside the United States.

What happens next?

Conference sessions begin on Tuesday morning and run until Thursday, 12 November. Cosgrave’s press conference on Wednesday is the most likely moment for final attendance figures and any news on the Lisbon contract. The European autumn event calendar then moves on to Slush 2026 in Helsinki on 18 and 19 November.