Web Summit opens in Lisbon on 9 November with China-heavy lineup and humanoid robots

A decade after the first edition

The first Web Summit in Lisbon took place in 2016 at the MEO Arena, when prime minister António Costa and Lisbon mayor Fernando Medina joined the celebrations. Ten years later, Observador's radio programme describes a conference where political debate has been moved to a pavilion away from the main stage. The largest technology companies of the Western world have given way to a growing Chinese delegation, and the enthusiasm of the early years is described as fading. Observador's technology reporter Cátia Rocha was set to discuss what has changed and where the event may go next.

China takes centre stage

Chinese speakers dominate this year's lineup. Ricardo Chaves, director of the artificial intelligence centre at BPI, said 16 of the 20 main speakers are Chinese, and some of them are robots. Among the first 10 speakers highlighted by the organisers, eight are Chinese and two are robots from China. The opening session features Deli Zhao of Xpeng Aridge, Yuli Zhao of Galbot and William Shi of AgiBot, the company Chaves's sources describe as the world's largest maker of humanoid robots. Notícias reports that this is the largest Chinese participation in the event's history. Paddy Cosgrave, the Web Summit CEO, wrote on X that the speaker panel has no parallel in the Western world.

Humanoid robots and absent US giants

Humanoid robots are on the speaker programme and are expected to appear during the first day, according to Notícias. Chaves also pointed out that Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and NVIDIA are not present at the event, a choice he linked to these companies now announcing their launches without relying on conferences. He tied the shift toward Chinese models to cost, since each move from manual work to AI-assisted work adds token expenses for businesses. He summed up the appeal of the Chinese models in one line.

“The Chinese models are open, which means that sometimes they are not even paid for.”

The agenda also includes Tao Zhang of Manus AI, Matthew Prince of Cloudflare and Richard Socher of Lovable. Software-as-a-service companies, which have faced AI threats to their business model over the past year, are a theme of the event.

Opening day and scale

Doors open at 16:30 on 9 November, and the first speeches take the main stage at 18:00 with minister Gonçalo Matias in the opening session.

Organisers expect about 70,000 participants between 9 and 12 November, with 900 speakers and more than 2,000 startups. Portugal brings 78 companies, with a focus on artificial intelligence and health technology, according to Startup Portugal as reported by Notícias. Brazil sends a delegation of more than 200 companies led by ApexBrasil. Observador reports that tickets are sold out and that the last batch available until the end of the week was priced around 1,600 euros.

Portugal (78 companies)78

Brazil (more than 200 companies)200

Portugal (78 companies)

78 companies

Brazil (more than 200 companies)

200 companies

Data from the article text

The future of the event in Lisbon

The current contract with Lisbon runs until 2028, and it remains undecided whether the conference stays in the city after that. Cosgrave has not given details on the matter, according to Notícias. Observador notes that Cosgrave often mentions the future of the event in Lisbon at press conferences, while also referring to other cities interested in hosting it. Observador's radio programme describes signs that the event is looking for a new home, and Article 1 reports that negotiations over its future in the city are under way.