Rio de Janeiro (People's Daily) – Web Summit Rio 2026 opened Monday, June 8, at Riocentro in Rio de Janeiro, drawing a record 40,287 attendees from over 100 countries and regions, along with 1,572 startups and 688 investment institution representatives.

The opening ceremony of Web Summit Rio 2026 n Rio de Janeiro on Monday June 8 (Photo: Shi Yuanhao/People's Daily)

Chinese robotics featured prominently in the opening ceremony, when a G1 humanoid robot and a Go2W wheeled-legged robotic dog ‒ both made by Hangzhou-based Unitree ‒ took the stage together in a live demonstration.

It was the first time non-human guests had participated in the summit's opening segment.

"This year we have broken all records," said Artur Pereira, country manager of Web Summit Rio, at the opening ceremony.

"These entrepreneurs will build our future and the connections they make during the summit will help transform the world."

He noted record levels of investment from China in the tech world and said that open-source AI models were overtaking Silicon Valley's closed models.

Attendees fill the startup zone at Web Summit Rio 2026 in Rio de Janeiro on Monday June 8. (Photo: Shi Yuanhao/People's Daily)

The number of participating startups rose 12 percent from 2025, spanning artificial intelligence and machine learning, healthtech, SaaS and fintech. Forty-three percent had a female founder.

The number of solo founders more than doubled compared to last year, a trend analysts attribute to new development tools that allow entrepreneurs to build product prototypes faster and with fewer resources.

Since the inaugural Web Summit Rio in 2023, 192 startups from the summit's program have raised a combined $487.2 million, according to organizers.

Participants pose for a photo at Web Summit Rio 2026 in Rio de Janeiro on Monday June 8. (Photo: Shi Yuanhao/People's Daily)

The four-day summit featured 479 speakers across 14 thematic tracks ‒ including the newly added Sport Summit and Machine Summit ‒ along with 133 themed meetups.

Delegations from China, Austria, Cape Verde, Finland, Portugal, Chile and Germany attended, alongside representatives from 720 media organizations.

Executives from Huawei, Nvidia, IBM, Microsoft, Google and others took part in discussions, as did representatives from the European Commission and Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Multiple Olympic medalists and Brazilian football legends appeared at the sport summit.

Attendees try virtual reality headsets at Web Summit Rio 2026 in Rio de Janeiro on Monday June 8. (Photo: Shi Yuanhao/People's Daily)

Now in its fourth consecutive year, Web Summit Rio has attracted a cumulative total of more than 130,000 attendees and 5,000 startups.