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Saudi Arabia Leads Regional AI through Laboratory, Global Development Corridor

Saudi Arabia hosts the second edition of the Global AI Summit under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz (SPA)
Saudi Arabia hosts the second edition of the Global AI Summit under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Leads Regional AI through Laboratory, Global Development Corridor

Saudi Arabia hosts the second edition of the Global AI Summit under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz (SPA)
Saudi Arabia hosts the second edition of the Global AI Summit under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz (SPA)

Saudi Arabia hosted the second edition of the Global AI Summit under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, who also chairs the Board of Directors of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA).

During the summit, the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) announced a new sophisticated AI lab with SenseTime Group. Aramco revealed a new strategic project, the "Global AI Corridor," aimed at building and commercializing the artificial intelligence ecosystem in the Kingdom.

- Vital Sectors

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah al-Swaha said the Saudi government supports all tools that can help seize future opportunities by focusing on AI and its role in serving humanity and drawing the future of the Kingdom.

Swaha touched on the support and empowerment of the Crown Prince and its reflection on the community of entrepreneurs and companies in the Kingdom, adding that it resulted in the adoption of artificial intelligence solutions that serve vital fields in the health, energy, and digital economy sectors.

He recalled some entrepreneurial experiments of the Kingdom, mainly Aramco's adoption of AI solutions in digging and excavation that enabled the company to top energy companies in applying solutions that ensure environmental sustainability.

The Minister said the "The Line" project is a gift from the Crown Prince to humanity on "how to plan smart cities over the 150 coming years and how Saudi Arabia managed to adapt with AI solutions and data to build sustainable communities."

- Digital Gap

SDAIA President Abdullah al-Ghamdi explained that technology has significantly advanced, mainly in AI fields, and has become integral to all aspects of life.

He indicated that in previous centuries, it took nations 200 years to discover the first vaccine for smallpox before the disease was controlled, while this period was reduced to a few months since the spread of the first variant of COVID-19 thanks to technologies of AI.

Ghamdi stated: "We are about to reach the inherent capabilities of AI, where early signs are auspicious, where vertical farms that work today through AI tools can produce food with a production capacity of more than 400 folds of what conventional farms can produce."

AI has proven its ability to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent and can predict some cancer types better than humans, stated Ghamdi.

Ghamdi warned against the digital gap between countries in light of technological development.

According to a recent study, he stated that the gap between the two genders is enormous, where only 12 percent of AI researchers are women.

The official welcomed the recent UNESCO agreement that included recommendations regarding AI ethics and was endorsed by 193 countries, adding that all nations bear the responsibility of implanting these recommendations to enhance the credibility of AI.

- Global Corridor

The president and CEO of Aramco, Amin Nasser, announced the "Aramco Global AI Corridor" to develop and commercialize complex AI solutions, train Saudi talent, support Saudi start-ups and, together with global partners, build a local AI ecosystem.

Nasser said that project is in its first steps, and its design includes several aspects to play four leading roles.

"Establishing an excellence center to develop AI solutions for Saudi Aramco and interested institutions in Saudi Arabia in this technology with immense aspects, enhancing efforts to develop the high-influence intellectual property system connected to AI, and marketing intellectual property products commercially," he added.

Nasser added that the project aims to train and develop young Saudi competencies in AI and support a new generation of emerging Saudi companies based on their activity in the sector.

He explained that the project is called "Global Corridor" because it helps transfer knowledge, exchange ideas, and present solutions.

- Serving Humanity

Director of the Industrial Initiative at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Jurgen Schmidhuber indicated that during three decades, the sector provided human services and shifted in several sectors, namely economic and medical.

He pointed out that industrial networks, AI development, smart cities, and the technology industry helped develop and improve life, especially in the medical field, and reduced the time and effort in diagnosing cases.

Schmidhuber added that artificial intelligence in the auto industry is now used on a larger scale, and self-driving cars are safer through the mechanism of determining lanes, speed, and congestion, noting that it will be applied in smart cities, such as NEOM and others, in line with Vision 2030.

The professor added that companies are not using AI in challenging games, such as chess, which require mental effort and high concentration.

- Bulk Computing

Furthermore, the Vice President of IBM Quantum, Scott Crowder, confirmed that quantum computing would lead the emerging technologies, despite their differences from traditional devices in terms of memory and space.

Crowder noted that one of the global challenges lies in delivering quantum computing to working hands to enable them to build their skills and use them to develop work tasks.

He indicated that optimizing how quantum computing is used will provide software for algorithm developers to write new AI algorithms.

For his part, Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at George Washington University Tarek El-Ghazawi Tariq Al-Ghazzawi indicated that today's engineering requires emerging technologies, as traditional methods consume more time and effort.

- Research and Development

The Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) announced at the conference its investment with SenseTime Group through a joint venture to establish SenseTime MEA, valued at $206.9 million.

The partnership will work to build a sophisticated AI lab, create highly skilled jobs for talented Saudis, and contribute to positioning Saudi Arabia as the region's leading AI-tech hub.

SCAI will work closely with SenseTime to develop solutions across diverse areas, including but not limited to the smart city, business intelligence, healthcare, and education domains.

It will also localize the company's cutting-edge computer vision and deep learning platform to enable the creation of intellectual properties, which will be of immense benefit to the Kingdom and the region.

The AI lab will serve as dedicated research and development center, allowing the next generation of data scientists to benefit from the transfer of technology and SenseTime's extensive expertise.

SCAI CEO Ayman al-Rashed said the agreement is an important strategic step to develop national capabilities and build a robust, innovation-driven AI ecosystem.

"We look forward to working closely to provide world-class AI solutions that will contribute to the success of the diverse smart city, business intelligence, healthcare, and education initiatives in the Kingdom and beyond," he indicated.

For his part, the Executive Chairman of the Board and CEO of SenseTime, Xu Li, indicated that this new joint venture would be a solid foundation for the company's ambitions to expand its footprint in the Kingdom, looking forward to a long-term alliance to enhance expertise in the field jointly.

The 2nd Global AI Summit kicked off Tuesday in Riyadh with the participation of more than 10,000 people and 200 speakers from 90 countries representing policymakers, specialists, and concerned figures with AI.

The three-day summit is held under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the headquarters of the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh.

It shows the Crown Prince's keenness to benefit from this vital sector to realize the development of Saudi Arabia into a pioneering global model in building the knowledge economies to serve current and future generations and in the realization of Vision 2030.

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Technology

A Former OpenAI Leader Says Safety Has 'Taken a Backseat to Shiny Products' at the AI Company

OpenAI showed off the latest update to its artificial intelligence model, which can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods. - The AP.
OpenAI showed off the latest update to its artificial intelligence model, which can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods. - The AP.
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A Former OpenAI Leader Says Safety Has 'Taken a Backseat to Shiny Products' at the AI Company

OpenAI showed off the latest update to its artificial intelligence model, which can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods. - The AP.
OpenAI showed off the latest update to its artificial intelligence model, which can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods. - The AP.

A former OpenAI leader who resigned from the company earlier this week said that safety has “taken a backseat to shiny products” at the influential artificial intelligence company.

Jan Leike, who ran OpenAI's “Superalignment” team alongside a company co-founder who also resigned this week, wrote in a series of posts on the social media platform X that he joined the San Francisco-based company because he thought it would be the best place to do AI research.

“However, I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point,” wrote Leike, whose last day was Thursday, The AP reported.

An AI researcher by training, Leike said he believes there should be more focus on preparing for the next generation of AI models, including on things like safety and analyzing the societal impacts of such technologies. He said building “smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor” and that the company “is shouldering an enormous responsibility on behalf of all of humanity.”

“OpenAI must become a safety-first AGI company,” wrote Leike, using the abbreviated version of artificial general intelligence, a futuristic vision of machines that are as broadly smart as humans or at least can do many things as well as people can.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a reply to Leike's posts that he was “super appreciative” of Leike's contributions to the company was “very sad to see him leave.”

Leike is "right we have a lot more to do; we are committed to doing it,” Altman said, pledging to write a longer post on the subject in the coming days.

The company also confirmed Friday that it had disbanded Leike's Superalignment team, which was launched last year to focus on AI risks, and is integrating the team's members across its research efforts.

Leike’s resignation came after OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever said Tuesday that he was leaving the company after nearly a decade. Sutskever was one of four board members last fall who voted to push out Altman — only to quickly reinstate him. It was Sutskever who told Altman last November that he was being fired, but he later said he regretted doing so.

Sutskever said he is working on a new project that's meaningful to him without offering additional details. He will be replaced by Jakub Pachocki as chief scientist. Altman called Pachocki “also easily one of the greatest minds of our generation” and said he is “very confident he will lead us to make rapid and safe progress towards our mission of ensuring that AGI benefits everyone.”

Technology

Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service in Indonesia

Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk pauses during an in-conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, Britain, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (Reuters)
Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk pauses during an in-conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, Britain, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (Reuters)
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Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service in Indonesia

Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk pauses during an in-conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, Britain, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (Reuters)
Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk pauses during an in-conversation event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, Britain, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (Reuters)

Elon Musk traveled to Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Sunday to launch Starlink satellite internet service in the world’s largest archipelago nation.

Wearing a green Batik shirt, Musk was greeted with a garland of flower petals at a community health clinic in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, where he launched the Starlink service alongside Indonesian ministers, The AP reported.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 17,000 islands sprawled across three time zones with a population of more than 270 million, has been trying for years to secure deals with Musk's Tesla on battery investment and for Musk’s SpaceX to provide fast internet for the country’s remote regions.

During the ceremony, Musk took a speed test of the Starlink internet service with several health workers in Indonesia’s remote regions, including in Aru, one of Indonesia’s unserved and outermost islands in Maluku province.

“This can make it really a lifesaver for remote medical clinics, and I think it could be a possibility for education as well,” Musk told reporters.

“If you can access the internet and then you can learn anything and you can also sell your business services worldwide. So, I think it’s going to be incredibly beneficial," he said.

He also signed an agreement on enhancing connectivity in the country’s health and education sectors. Details about the agreement between the Indonesian government and Musk’s SpaceX, the aerospace company that operates Starlink services, were not provided.

Launching the service at a health clinic aligns with Starlink’s broader mission of providing affordable access to high-speed internet services, particularly in underserved and remote regions, said Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

“Our remote regions need Starlink to expand high-speed internet services, especially to help with problems in the health, education and maritime sectors,” Pandjaitan, a close ally of Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, told reporters. He held separate talks with Musk on Sunday.

Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said earlier that local internet providers, which rely on base transceiver stations to transmit signals, are unable to reach outer islands because they have limited coverage. Starlink’s satellites, which remain in low orbit, will help them deliver faster internet with nationwide coverage.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said of the more than 10,000 clinics across the country, there are still around 2,700 without internet access.

“The internet can open up better access to health services as communication between regions is said to be easier, so that reporting from health service facilities can be done in real time or up to date,” he said.

During his first in-person visit to Bali, Musk is also scheduled to participate in the 10th World Water Forum, which seeks to address global water and sanitation challenges.

Musk spoke in 2022 at the B-20 business forum ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies that took place in Bali. He joined the conference by video link weeks after completing his heavily scrutinized takeover of Twitter.

Musk’s visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met Widodo on April 17 and said the company would “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella visited on April 30 and said the company would invest $1.7 billion over the next four years in new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Indonesia.

Indonesia under Widodo has promoted development of the digital technology and information sectors, aiming to achieve the government’s Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision. The country hopes to become one of the world’s top five economies with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after it won independence from Dutch colonizers.

Technology

Ineos Drives towards Hydrogen Car Future

An Ineos hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier car is driven on a test track during a 'Roadmap to Decarbonisation' event. Adrian DENNIS / AFP
An Ineos hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier car is driven on a test track during a 'Roadmap to Decarbonisation' event. Adrian DENNIS / AFP
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Ineos Drives towards Hydrogen Car Future

An Ineos hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier car is driven on a test track during a 'Roadmap to Decarbonisation' event. Adrian DENNIS / AFP
An Ineos hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier car is driven on a test track during a 'Roadmap to Decarbonisation' event. Adrian DENNIS / AFP

At a sprawling vehicle test center in the English countryside, a hydrogen-powered Grenadier 4x4 made by Ineos Automotive grips steep and rugged tracks, showcasing its off-road capabilities.
Making the demonstrator car was "a really obvious thing" to do, the company's chief executive Lynn Calder told journalists at the unveiling this week, AFP reported.
The young, fast-expanding company is part of petrochemicals giant and hydrogen producer Ineos, run by British billionaire and Manchester United stakeholder Jim Ratcliffe.
"When we embarked upon the demonstrator project, we saw the opportunity to showcase... that we have a completely uncompromised Grenadier in net zero form," she said at the event called "Road to Decarbonisation".
'Not this decade'
Calder cautioned it would be some time before the car was available to buy amid a limited offering of other hydrogen-powered vehicles that are helping drive a path towards net zero carbon emissions.
Ineos cites the high cost of extracting the Earth's most abundant element and a lack of hydrogen refueling stations, especially in the UK, as obstacles to the development of cars deemed greener than popular electric vehicles (EVs).
Is the car "for tomorrow? No because there isn't infrastructure there", Calder said.
"We will keep it warm, we'll continue to talk about it, we will see it as part of the future but it doesn't feel like it's this decade," she added.
Calder spoke from the UTAC vehicle test center in Millbrook, a village north of London, where the hydrogen-powered vehicle quietly navigated dusty sharp bends and other obstacles.
Hydrogen cars work thanks to the cleanest form of the gas combining with oxygen in a fuel cell to generate electricity. The only waste emitted is water vapor.
Hydrogen-powered buses, cars, trucks and vans are all on the market, made by a small number of companies including Hyundai, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall.
With governments pressuring the auto sector to go green, Ineos Automotive plans to launch an electric 4x4 in 2027, the Fusilier, to be sold alongside current diesel and petrol versions of the Grenadier.
Speaking against the din of sports cars speeding in the distance, Calder hit out at the UK government's goal of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035.
'Pipe dream plan'
"I don't think it works, I don't think it's achievable, I think we will fail," she predicted, even after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back the original 2030 date.
The Scottish CEO called it a "pipe dream plan with no strategy around it, no idea how we're going to get there".
Responding, the Department for Transport said a number of incentives were on offer to enable the transition away from polluting vehicles.
It added that demand for EVs was "high", even if recent data shows evidence of slowing sales in the UK and abroad.
Regarding infrastructure, "there are over 61,000 public chargepoints across the UK -- an increase of 44 percent since this time last year", a department spokesperson told AFP.
According to consultants LBST, only 921 hydrogen refueling stations were in operation worldwide at the end of last year.
China was out in front with around 200 stations, or about double the amount in European leader Germany.
The UK currently has just six, even if hydrogen vehicles can offer a longer journey range and are faster at refueling than electric rivals.
Election impact
The country's road to net zero is clouded somewhat by the outcome of this year's general election.
Polls widely suggest that Sunak's Conservatives will lose power to the main opposition Labour Party.
Labour's plans for emissions targets have been called into question after leader Keir Starmer ditched its flagship commitment to spend £28 billion ($35.5 billion) a year on green infrastructure if in power.
Greenpeace UK's senior transport campaigner, Paul Morozzo, called on the next government to reinstate the 2030 ban and increase tax on polluting vehicles.
He added that it must "get on with delivering a proper network of EV charging points all across the country and get the transition to EVs back on the road".
As for hydrogen, with so little infrastructure, the fuel "isn't viable or desirable for mass transit" at the current time, he told AFP.

Technology

Reddit Stock Jumps after OpenAI Partnership

Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
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Reddit Stock Jumps after OpenAI Partnership

Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)
Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. (Reuters)

Shares of Reddit rose nearly 15% on Friday, following a partnership with artificial intelligence firm OpenAI that is expected to boost advertising income for the social media platform.

The jump pushed the stock up at $64.80, within striking distance of the record closing price of $65.11 hit in late-March, and added $1.38 billion to the company's market value.

The partnership, announced on Thursday, allows Reddit to leverage OpenAI's technology to build tools and features, and OpenAI's ChatGPT platform to integrate Reddit's content in a "real-time, structured" manner. OpenAI will also become an advertising partner for Reddit.

The deal could yield more than $50 million to $60 million annually for Reddit, Piper Sandler lead analyst Thomas Champion said in a note on Friday.

More than half the analysts covering the stock have a "buy" or higher rating, with a median price of $63.

The deal delivers on Reddit's "IPO promise of seizing opportunities to make more of AI," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

The company's shares have gained more than 90% since their debut in March at $34 a piece.

In a February filing, the company indicated its intentions to explore new monetization channels beyond advertising revenue, including offering creator tools and licensing its data to third parties.

Reddit already has data licensing agreements with undisclosed firms that are projected to contribute at least $66.4 million in revenue this year. The license allows third parties to access, search, and analyze data on the platform.

The deal comes amidst a growing number of lawsuits against OpenAI, with firms alleging unauthorized use of their content for training large language models.

In recent months, OpenAI has also secured content licensing deals with several publishers, including the Associated Press and the Financial Times.

Technology

Nigeria Court Rules Binance Executive Can Face Trial on Behalf of Crypto Exchange

Nigeria Court Rules Binance Executive Can Face Trial on Behalf of Crypto Exchange
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Nigeria Court Rules Binance Executive Can Face Trial on Behalf of Crypto Exchange

Nigeria Court Rules Binance Executive Can Face Trial on Behalf of Crypto Exchange

A Nigerian court on Friday ruled that Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan can stand trial on behalf of the cryptocurrency exchange in an ongoing tax evasion case.

Binance and executives Gambaryan, a US citizen and head of financial crimes compliance, and British-Kenyan national Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, face four counts of tax evasion.

In a separate case, they have also been charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in specialised financial activities without a licence. They have all pleaded not guilty to the money laundering charges.

Binance's lawyer declined to comment after Friday's court hearing. Gambaryan's lawyer also had no comment, Reuters reported.

Gambaryan remains in custody while Anjarwalla fled the country in March. Nigeria's security adviser's office has said it is working with Interpol to seek Anjarwalla's arrest.

The CEO of Binance has accused Nigeria of setting a dangerous precedent after its executives were invited to the African country in February for talks with authorities and then detained as part of a crackdown on crypto.

Binance itself has not been charged in the tax evasion case by Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which has said Gambaryan could face the charges on the exchange's behalf.

Gambaryan's lawyer has previously said Gambaryan was "neither a director, partner nor company secretary" and had no written instructions from Binance to face the charges on its behalf.

Judge Emeka Nwite ruled on Friday that Gambaryan should be served with the charges against Binance because he is the chief financial compliance officer of Binance and he was duly appointed to represent it in a meeting in Nigeria.

Gambaryan will be arraigned in court on Wednesday to take a plea on behalf of Binance.

Gambaryan's bail application in relation to the money laundering case was denied on Friday.

Nigeria has blamed Binance for its currency woes after cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian naira currency, as the country grappled with chronic dollar shortages.

Technology

UK's CMA Rejects Probe into Microsoft-Mistral AI Tie-up

UK's CMA Rejects Probe into Microsoft-Mistral AI Tie-up
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UK's CMA Rejects Probe into Microsoft-Mistral AI Tie-up

UK's CMA Rejects Probe into Microsoft-Mistral AI Tie-up

Britain's competition watchdog said on Friday it would not investigate the partnership between Microsoft and Mistral AI, weeks after it invited views on the tie-up.

In February, Microsoft invested $16 million in Mistral AI, partnering to make the French start-up's artificial intelligence models available through its Azure platform. It has also invested in ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the Mistral partnership did not qualify for investigation under Britain's merger regulations. "The CMA has considered information submitted by Microsoft and Mistral AI, together with feedback received in response to its invitation to comment," a CMA spokesperson said, Reuters reported.

"Based on the evidence, the CMA does not believe that Microsoft has acquired material influence over Mistral AI as a result of the partnership and therefore does not qualify for investigation."

The CMA in April sought comments on the partnership, as well as separate links between Microsoft and Inflection AI and a tie-up between Amazon and Anthropic.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: "Investment and partnership are essential to new players in the AI economy.

"We welcome the CMA's determination that our fractional investment and partnership with Mistral AI does not qualify as a merger or acquisition."

European Union antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who has been looking into Big Tech's partnerships with AI start-ups, met Mistral AI last month. "We need vibrant competition in AI, now," she wrote on X after the meeting.

Technology

Technology Leads European Shares Lower

Rate-sensitive technology and real estate were the worst-hit sectors, down 0.7% each. (File/AFP)
Rate-sensitive technology and real estate were the worst-hit sectors, down 0.7% each. (File/AFP)
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Technology Leads European Shares Lower

Rate-sensitive technology and real estate were the worst-hit sectors, down 0.7% each. (File/AFP)
Rate-sensitive technology and real estate were the worst-hit sectors, down 0.7% each. (File/AFP)

European shares kicked off Friday's trade on a weaker note, led by declines in technology and real-estate companies, as investors looked forward to euro zone inflation data for some clarity on the path for interest rate cuts beyond June.

The pan-European STOXX 600 dipped 0.2% as of 0715 GMT, but was on track for its second straight weekly advance owing to a robust corporate earnings season.

All eyes are on the final euro zone inflation reading later in the day, after a report showed European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel advocated caution about further rate cuts after a likely first one in June.

Rate-sensitive technology and real estate were the worst-hit sectors, down 0.7% each, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, personal and household goods led sectoral gains, with luxury group Richemont climbing 6% after quarterly results.

H&M rose 2.5% after RBC upgraded the fashion retailer to "outperform" from "sector perform".

French re-insurer Scor dropped 8.0% after first-quarter results.

Nibe lost 4.6% after Citigroup downgraded the Swedish heat-pump maker to "neutral" from "buy", while German utility E.ON lost 4.1% on trading ex-dividend.

Technology

CoreWeave Raises $7.5 billion Debt from Blackstone, Others

CoreWeave Raises $7.5 billion Debt from Blackstone, Others
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CoreWeave Raises $7.5 billion Debt from Blackstone, Others

CoreWeave Raises $7.5 billion Debt from Blackstone, Others

Specialized cloud services provider CoreWeave is raising $7.5 billion in debt from financiers led by Blackstone and Magnetar to expand its infrastructure to meet rising artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, it said on Friday.

The deal is one of the largest debt financing rounds for a startup and adds firepower to CoreWeave's balance sheet as it looks to expand its cloud computing services to more customers, Reuters reported.

The Nvidia-backed company has raised more than $12 billion in equity and debt investments over the past 12 months, including a $1.1 billion series C investment led by private equity firm Coatue earlier this month.

"The caliber of investors in this large debt financing round is a powerful testament to ... the insatiable market appetite for AI infrastructure," CEO and co-founder Michael Intrator said in a statement.

Coatue, Carlyle, CDPQ, DigitalBridge Credit, funds managed by BlackRock, Eldridge Industries and Great Elm Capital Corp were also part of CoreWeave's latest debt raise.

CoreWeave has seen a boost from businesses rapidly adopting generative AI technology. It has partnerships with AI startups and competing cloud providers to build clusters to power AI workloads.

Technology

Microsoft Offers Cloud Customers AMD Alternative to Nvidia AI Processors 

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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Microsoft Offers Cloud Customers AMD Alternative to Nvidia AI Processors 

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. (Reuters)

Microsoft said on Thursday it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia, with details to be given at its Build developer conference next week.

It will also launch a preview of new Cobalt 100 custom processors at the conference.

Microsoft's clusters of Advanced Micro Devices' flagship MI300X AI chips will be sold through its Azure cloud computing service. They will give its customers an alternative to Nvidia's H100 family of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) which dominate the data center chip market for AI but can be hard to obtain due to high demand.

To build AI models or run applications, companies typically must string together - or cluster - multiple GPUs because the data and computation will not fit on a single processor.

AMD, which expects $4 billion in AI chip revenue this year, has said the chips are powerful enough to train and run large AI models.

As well as Nvidia's top-shelf AI chips, Microsoft's cloud computing unit sells access to its own in-house AI chips called Maia.

Separately, the Cobalt 100 processors Microsoft plans to preview next week offer 40% better performance over other processors based on Arm Holdings' technology, the company said. Snowflake and others have begun to use them.

The Cobalt chips, which were announced in November, are being tested to power Teams, Microsoft's messaging tool for businesses, and positioned to compete with the in-house Graviton CPUs made by Amazon.com.

Technology

Video Game Maker Ubisoft Swings to Full-Year Operating Profit on Record Bookings

A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. (Reuters)
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Video Game Maker Ubisoft Swings to Full-Year Operating Profit on Record Bookings

A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. (Reuters)

French video games group Ubisoft swung to an operating profit for its full-year to end-March, it said on Wednesday, as record bookings helped it reverse a year earlier loss of 500 million euros, its biggest ever.

Ubisoft's full-year net bookings jumped 33.5% to 2.31 billion euros, on a non-IFRS operating income of 401.5 million euros ($435.35 million).

"Our full-year 2024 results confirm that Ubisoft is back on track on its profitable growth trajectory, with record annual and fourth quarter net bookings", CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement.

During the year, the company reported strong growth in both the "Rainbow Six" and "Assassin's Creed" franchises as well as new releases, driving bookings up and compensating for the long-delayed "Skull & Bones" game.

"Skull & Bones", released in February, received poor review scores, among the lowest for any Ubisoft game and was not a big seller, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Reuters.

Skull & Bones got off to a "slightly slower start than expected", Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet said during a call with journalists, adding that it still had the second-best daily playtime for a Ubisoft game.

The firm hopes to boost the game's audience and keep players engaged for longer in the first half of its financial year beginning April 1.

To address concerns from Britain's antitrust regulator regarding Microsoft's acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, the latter agreed to sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft.

Ubisoft started receiving payments from Microsoft in the first three months of the year, which have already exceeded the company's initial investment of between 50 million-100 million euros, Duguet said on the call.

For the quarter to come, the company expects net bookings of around 275 million euros.