Microsoft CEO Highlights Importance of AI to Boost Economic Development in Saudi Arabia

Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella has highlighted the importance of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies to support economic development in Saudi Arabia. SPA
Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella has highlighted the importance of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies to support economic development in Saudi Arabia. SPA
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Microsoft CEO Highlights Importance of AI to Boost Economic Development in Saudi Arabia

Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella has highlighted the importance of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies to support economic development in Saudi Arabia. SPA
Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella has highlighted the importance of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies to support economic development in Saudi Arabia. SPA

Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella has highlighted the importance of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies to support economic development in Saudi Arabia in a speech at the Riyadh event “Artificial Intelligence, A New Era.”

At the event, Nadella met on Wednesday with pioneering local business leaders, government officials, and a leading group of technical developers, reiterating the significant role played by AI in providing new opportunities to enhance the digital economy in the Kingdom, ensuring the improvement of citizens' quality of life in alignment with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Nadella said in a statement that the new AI generation will radically transform the level of individuals’ productivity and boost innovation in institutions and business sectors at the global and local levels, including the Kingdom.

Nadella praised Saudi institutions' efforts on the levels of the government and private sector in devoting these technologies to motivate innovation and provide multiple opportunities to strengthen economic development.

During the event, a discussion was held between the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, and the Microsoft CEO about strategies of employing the latest AI innovations. The discussion aimed to fast-track the Kingdom’s vision for its transformation into a digital society that involves a digital government and a prosperous digital economy and support an innovative future that embraces the interest of everyone without exception.



Former ASML CEO says US-China Chip Fight Will Continue

Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Former ASML CEO says US-China Chip Fight Will Continue

Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

The recently retired CEO of semiconductor equipment maker ASML said in an interview with Dutch radio station BNR on Saturday that US-China disputes over computer chips are ideological and not based on facts, and they are set to continue.

Wennink left in April after a ten year term at the helm of ASML that saw it become Europe's largest technology firm. Since 2018, the US has imposed increasing restrictions on what tools the company can export to China, its second-largest market after Taiwan, citing security concerns. According to Reuters, most recently the US has sought to keep the company from servicing equipment already sold to Chinese customers.

"These kind of discussions are not being conducted on the basis of facts or content or numbers or data but on the basis of ideology," Wennink said.

"You can think whatever you want about that, but we're a business where the interests of your stakeholders have to be managed in balance ... If ideology cuts straight through that, I have problems with that."

He said the company has had customers and staff in China for 30 years "so you also have obligations".

As part of seeking to strike a balance, Wennink said he had lobbied where possible to prevent export restrictions from becoming too tight, and at the same time he had complained to high-ranking Chinese politicians when he felt the company's intellectual property wasn't being respected.

"I think in Washington, maybe they sometimes thought, that Mr. Wennink, maybe he's a friend of China," he said.

"No. I'm a friend to my customers, to my suppliers, to my employees, to my shareholders."

He forecast that given geopolitical interests are at stake, the chip war could take decades to play out.

"This is going to go on for a while," he said.