What to know about AI innovation hub at Mesa Fiesta Mall site

Article originally posted on AZ Central on January 15, 2026

An AI venture studio, WaveX, backed by LG Electronics, will land at Mesa’s former Fiesta Mall, its owners announced.

NovaWave Capital, LG Electronics’ venture capital firm, made the announcement on Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was also announced that Sunny Day Sports would be an incoming investor.

WaveX will be an innovation hub focused on AI technology startups centered on healthcare, energy, sports and media. LG NOVA also has innovation hubs in West Virginia and Silicon Valley.

Tonton Ali Diallo, the founding managing partner, in a statement, said they are “seeking to build the next generation of AI, energy and health companies that will accelerate America’s innovation economy.”

The announcement was praised by Gov. Katie Hobbs and Sandra Watson, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority.

Hobbs called it a “powerful addition” to Arizona’s “thriving innovation ecosystem.”

WaveX will be folded into the previously announced women’s sport wellness campus at Palo District, said Vicki Mayo, Sunny Day Sports CEO and manager of the Palo District LLC. The former Fiesta Mall site along Alma School Road and Southern Avenue is being reimagined after the city voted to designate the 80-acre site a theme park district, creating an avenue for an entertainment district.

She said the hub will bring together “the best and brightest technologies” and incubate them to make them commercial-ready to come out to the market.

“This would be an opportunity for us to really showcase Arizona as a strong state,” Mayo said. The innovation hub will have “synergy” with the broader vision of the Palo District, she said.

Mayo and her husband, Simer Mayo, a board member of the Arizona Commerce Authority, have their own healthcare startup called TouchPoint Solution.

That company aims to make a wearable technology widely available that helps manage stress by using BLAST, bilateral alternating stimulation tactile.

She envisions similar startups coming out of WaveX. The women’s sport wellness campus is expected to be delivered in 2028, Mayo said.