عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Technology

STC Group, Microsoft Team Up for Corporate Digital Transformation Innovation across Saudi Arabia

A man passes the Saudi Telecom STC office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 6, 2018. (Reuters)
A man passes the Saudi Telecom STC office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 6, 2018. (Reuters)
TT
TT

STC Group, Microsoft Team Up for Corporate Digital Transformation Innovation across Saudi Arabia

A man passes the Saudi Telecom STC office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 6, 2018. (Reuters)
A man passes the Saudi Telecom STC office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 6, 2018. (Reuters)

stc group, an engine of digital transformation, announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with Microsoft to further advance its digitalization and drive innovation across Saudi Arabia.

As part of the partnership, the organizations will jointly develop and deploy cutting-edge solutions that will transform and empower organizations across various industries, while enabling small businesses to grow and thrive in the digital economy, according to a press release by stc, SPA reported.

"Our strategic partnership with Microsoft marks a defining moment in the history of digital transformation for both stc group and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said stc group CEO Olayan Alwetaid.

“This collaboration isn't just about technology; it's about promoting a future where Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of global innovation, setting the standard for what's possible in the digital age. Together with Microsoft, we will work to bring the latest technologies to Saudi Arabia and help businesses of all sizes to embrace digital transformation, advance economic diversification, and create a more vibrant and prosperous future for our country.”

The collaboration between the organizations, the release said, aims to enable stc’s subsidiaries to explore new markets, develop disruptive business models, and bring innovative products and services to market. By jointly developing and deploying the latest advanced technologies, the partnership aims to support high-quality, safe, and secure digital experiences for businesses across the Kingdom.

The alliance will also serve as an innovation powerhouse, powering the transformation of industries from the Kingdom to the world.

“We are excited about this next phase in our journey with stc. Our aim is to empower businesses of all sizes and industries with tailored digital solutions that enable them to innovate and solve their unique challenges to drive equitable business growth.” Said President Microsoft EMEA Ralph Haupter.

Most Viewed

 
 
Technology

Five Apple Anecdotes as iPhone Maker Marks 50 Years

A fan takes photos at an event in London to mark the 50th birthday of US tech giant Apple. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
A fan takes photos at an event in London to mark the 50th birthday of US tech giant Apple. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
TT
TT

Five Apple Anecdotes as iPhone Maker Marks 50 Years

A fan takes photos at an event in London to mark the 50th birthday of US tech giant Apple. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
A fan takes photos at an event in London to mark the 50th birthday of US tech giant Apple. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

iPhone maker Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 1, having marked pop culture and the tech industry like few other firms since its beginnings in 1976.

Here are five things you may not know about the history of the California giant.

Apple logo

Designer Rob Janoff said that Apple cofounder Steve Jobs gave him one terse instruction when he commissioned a new logo in January 1977: "don't make it cute".

"I just wanted to make the computer easy and fun to be around," Janoff told Forbes in 2018.

He included the bite mark for scale to set the apple apart from similar round fruit like cherries -- learning only later it was a homonym for the computer term "byte".

And belying urban legends, there was no link to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve or the death of computing pioneer Alan Turing.

Janoff added that the Apple job was "the only time in my entire career where I presented only one solution" to a client.

"But it was just so right".

'1984' ad

In a totalitarian sci-fi world, a hammer thrown by a young athlete smashes a "Big Brother" figure declaiming to brainwashed citizens from a vast screen.

Tens of millions of Americans saw director Ridley Scott's one-minute Apple advert during the Super Bowl on January 22, 1984.

Broadcast with an announcement of the release of the Apple computer, it was more than a little inspired by George Orwell's dystopian novel named for the year.

The ad's originality lay in the fact it did not directly show off the product, but instead promised a new world of emancipation for consumers thanks to home computers.

Bold colors

Apple's devices have over the years played with color to set themselves apart from more staid competitors.

Its first-generation iMacs, released in 1998, offered transparent shells in candy-like blue, green and more -- combining a pop of visual interest with a glimpse at the high tech workings within.

The iPod music player, at first available in metallic grey, quickly diversified into a whole spectrum of bright colors.

Later, the "rose gold" variant of the iPhone 6S in 2015, spawned many copycats, surfing a years-long trend dubbed "millennial pink".

09:41 photos

Anyone who has watched more than one Apple product announcement or browsed its website will see a remarkable coincidence: almost every screen appears to show the time as 9:41 am.

Australian game developer Jon Manning said he asked Scott Forstall, then-head of Apple's mobile operating system iOS, about the phenomenon when he bumped into him in California in 2010.

Forstall explained that the timing was down to Steve Jobs' preferred structure for announcements.

"We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation," Forstall said.

"When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly".

Apple's third man

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have gone down in history as the Apple co-founders.

In fact, a third man also signed the three-page contract that launched the company on April 1, 1976: Ronald Wayne.

According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, Wayne, an engineer at the Atari video game company, was in charge of hardware engineering and documentation in the fledgling business.

But while his two co-founders were throwing themselves into the business, Wayne feared losing what little savings he had if Apple failed.

Just 11 days later, he gave up his co-founder status, selling his 10 percent stake for two instalments of $800 and $1,500.

That 10-percent share of Apple would have been worth around $370 billion by 2026.

Technology

Huawei's New AI Chip Finds Favor with ByteDance, Alibaba Which Plan to Place Orders

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Huawei is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Huawei is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
TT
TT

Huawei's New AI Chip Finds Favor with ByteDance, Alibaba Which Plan to Place Orders

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Huawei is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Huawei is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

Customer testing of Huawei's new AI chip, designed to challenge Nvidia in the China market, has gone well and big tech giants including ByteDance and Alibaba plan to place orders, two people familiar with the matter said.

The development marks a milestone for Huawei, said Reuters.

Despite a government campaign to encourage the use of domestic semiconductors, the Shenzhen-based firm struggled to persuade big tech firms in the private sector to adopt its current flagship chip, the Ascend 910C, in large quantities, industry sources have previously said.

This ‌time around, tech ‌firms intend to use the new 950PR more extensively, much happier ‌now ⁠that the chip ⁠is more compatible with Nvidia's CUDA software system and has better response speeds, said the two people and a third person with knowledge of those plans.

Huawei plans to ship around 750,000 950PRs this year, according to two of the people. They said samples were sent to customers in January, and that mass production should begin next month, setting the stage for fully fledged shipments to start in the second half of the year.

The sources were not authorized to speak ⁠to media and declined to be identified. Huawei, ByteDance, Alibaba did not reply ‌to Reuters requests for comments.

RESTRICTIONS ON NVIDIA CHIPS

A ‌launch of the 950PR comes at a difficult time for Nvidia in China. Many of its ‌artificial intelligence chips have been banned from sale in China by Washington on worries ‌that the technology could boost the capabilities of the Chinese military.

The Trump administration last year greenlighted the sale of Nvidia's H200 chips - more powerful than currently restricted products - albeit with a number of conditions that could limit amounts sold.

The H200 has also recently received approval from Chinese authorities, but it remains unclear ‌when they will be allowed into the country.

Huawei mentioned its new chip last September when it outlined its long-term semiconductor plans for ⁠the first time and ⁠said it would be launching some of the world's most powerful computing systems.

The 950PR, which uses traditional DDR memory, will be priced at around 50,000 yuan ($6,900) per card, while a premium version with faster HBM memory will sell for around 70,000 yuan, the sources said.

Where previously Huawei had stuck to its proprietary CANN software system, the new chips will allow developers at Chinese tech firms, which have generally used Nvidia's software system thus far, to migrate those models more easily.

The sources said that compared to the 910C, the chip only offers a small improvement in raw computing power, but it is designed to excel in handling inference workloads - the process of running trained AI models to answer queries or execute tasks.

Demand for AI inference computing in China is surging as the country's tech sector shifts its focus from model development to real-world deployment, a trend turbocharged by the rapid adoption of open-source AI agent OpenClaw.

Technology

ByteDance Quietly Rolls Out SeeDance 2.0 Globally

A smartphone displays the logo of Seedance 2.0, the image-to-video and text-to-video AI model. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP/File
A smartphone displays the logo of Seedance 2.0, the image-to-video and text-to-video AI model. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP/File
TT
TT

ByteDance Quietly Rolls Out SeeDance 2.0 Globally

A smartphone displays the logo of Seedance 2.0, the image-to-video and text-to-video AI model. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP/File
A smartphone displays the logo of Seedance 2.0, the image-to-video and text-to-video AI model. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP/File

Chinese artificial intelligence powerhouse and TikTok creator ByteDance has quietly rolled out its latest video generator SeeDance 2.0 worldwide, while its US rival OpenAI called time on a similar product.

The SeeDance 2.0 model was launched in China last month, both stunning and spooking the entertainment industry with its ability to produce near-Hollywood-quality clips from simple text prompts.

However, it has also sparked concerns over copyright infringement, said AFP.

"We have further expanded Dreamina Seedance 2.0 in more markets in CapCut today, across Africa, South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with more regions coming soon," CapCut, ByteDance's popular video editing tool, posted on X on Thursday.

It said the SeeDance 2.0 model would initially be available to some paid users.

The rollout includes "firm safeguards" to prevent violations of its safety policies, including the unauthorized use of individuals' likenesses or intellectual property, CapCut said.

Major Hollywood production studios including Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros and Netflix, have threatened legal action against Beijing-based ByteDance over accusations of copyright infringement.

Reports this month suggested that backlash had prompted ByteDance to pause SeeDance 2.0's global launch.

It was not immediately clear if ByteDance had resolved those legal issues. The United States is not among the current rollout markets.

ByteDance, which runs popular short video platforms TikTok and Douyin, has invested heavily in AI in recent years against a backdrop of increasing global regulatory scrutiny of such platforms.

ByteDance announced on Friday the sale of Moonton, an important gaming asset, to a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund for more than $6 billion.

Moonton runs Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, one of Southeast Asia's most popular gaming titles.

ByteDance's move coincides with a broader shift in the AI industry towards more "agentic" tools that focus on performing practical, real-life tasks.

US AI giant OpenAI said on Tuesday it was shutting down its popular consumer-facing video-generating service Sora, a move widely understood to focus more on providing business users with agentic AI capacities.