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'Battlefield' Video Game Sees Big-time Sales

Electronic Arts says more than 15 million hours of 'Battlefield' gameplay were watched at online streaming platforms after the recent release of the latest installment to the military shooter franchise. Martin LELIEVRE / AFP
Electronic Arts says more than 15 million hours of 'Battlefield' gameplay were watched at online streaming platforms after the recent release of the latest installment to the military shooter franchise. Martin LELIEVRE / AFP
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'Battlefield' Video Game Sees Big-time Sales

Electronic Arts says more than 15 million hours of 'Battlefield' gameplay were watched at online streaming platforms after the recent release of the latest installment to the military shooter franchise. Martin LELIEVRE / AFP
Electronic Arts says more than 15 million hours of 'Battlefield' gameplay were watched at online streaming platforms after the recent release of the latest installment to the military shooter franchise. Martin LELIEVRE / AFP

The latest installment of military video game "Battlefield" hit the market with sales rivaling that of blockbuster rival "Call of Duty," publisher Electronic Arts (EA) announced on Thursday.

More than 7 million copies of "Battlefield 6" were snapped up in what EA touted as one of the biggest gaming and entertainment launches of this year, said AFP.

That is on par with sales reported for the October 2024 debut of the most recent "Call of Duty" game, a new installment of which is set for release next month.

"We never take moments like this for granted, so I want to express our sincere gratitude to our global Battlefield Studios and passionate community that has helped get us to this point," EA Executive Vice President Vince Zampella said in a release.

In the days after its October 10 launch, "Battlefield 6" sales set a new record for the franchise, whose beginnings stretch back to 2002, according to EA.

"Together with our players we've had a singular goal: to craft the best Battlefield ever," said general manager of the game Byron Beede.

"And this is just the beginning - our first season of new content is just 12 days away."

While EA says the mass-combat game has won over 100 million players in the past two decades, "Battlefield" lost ground to "Call of Duty" over the years.

The story in the new installment follows a near-future conflict in 2027 that sees the United States and allies fighting a tooled-up private army dubbed Pax Armata.

The game offers hyper-realistic graphics to players on PC, Xbox Series X or S, and PlayStation 5, as well as environments that allow for tactics like demolishing structures with rocket launchers.

Where "Call of Duty" focuses on tighter, smaller skirmishes, Battlefield has always striven to create a more epic canvas.

While dubbed "Battlefield 6", the new EA game is in fact the 10th in the series, which also includes several spin-off titles.

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Technology

DeepSeek Researcher Pessimistic over AI's Impact in Startup's First Public Appearance since Success

The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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DeepSeek Researcher Pessimistic over AI's Impact in Startup's First Public Appearance since Success

The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) developer DeepSeek made its first public appearance in almost a year after it became a global sensation, fielding a senior researcher who told a government-organized internet conference that he was pessimistic about AI's future impact on humanity.

Chen Deli took the stage alongside the chief executives of five other companies including Unitree and BrainCo at the World Internet Conference in the city of Wuzhen, in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The six companies together are known in China as "six little dragons" for AI, Reuters said.

Asked about DeepSeek's global success and how its open-source approach would encourage the progress of AI, Chen said he believed that AI could be a great aid to humans as it improved over the short term, but that it could threaten job losses in 5-10 years as it becomes good enough to take over some of the work humans perform. AI firms needed to be aware of these risks, he said.

"In the next 10-20 years, AI could take over the rest of work (humans perform) and society could face a massive challenge, so at the time tech companies need to take the role of 'defender'," he said.

"I'm extremely positive about the technology but I view the impact it could have on society negatively."

Since it made global headlines in January after releasing a low-cost AI model that outperformed leading US models, DeepSeek representatives have only made one public appearance when its founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng met Chinese President Xi Jinping at a televised meeting with local entrepreneurs in February.

Neither Liang or the company have commented publicly on their success and they have skipped major Chinese technology conferences in the country in the months since.

Since the company's stunning breakout, the Chinese government has positioned DeepSeek as a symbol of the country's technological capabilities and resilience against US sanctions, as the technology rivalry between the two nations intensifies.

While DeepSeek has not released a major model upgrade since January, the company's subsequent announcements have continued to draw significant attention.

In September, it unveiled an upgrade to its V3 model, which it described as its latest "experimental" version that is more efficient to train and better at processing long sequences of text than previous iterations.

The company has also emerged as a key player in China's efforts to build its own AI ecosystem and advance the domestic chip sector.

Chinese AI chip companies including Cambricon and Huawei have developed hardware compatible with DeepSeek's models.

In August, DeepSeek's announcement of an upgraded model optimized for Chinese-made chips prompted a surge in domestic chip stock prices.

Technology

Musk Plans Tesla Mega AI Chip Fab, Mulls Potential Intel Partnership 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Musk Plans Tesla Mega AI Chip Fab, Mulls Potential Intel Partnership 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on May 6, 2024. (AFP)

CEO Elon Musk on Thursday said Tesla probably will have to build "a gigantic chip fab" to make artificial intelligence chips and publicly mused the EV maker could work with Intel.

Tesla is designing its fifth-generation AI chip to power its autonomous ambitions, and Musk at the company's annual meeting laid out potential manufacturing plans.

"You know, maybe we'll, we'll do something with Intel," Musk said to a cheering crowd of Tesla shareholders. "We haven't signed any deal, but it's probably worth having discussions with Intel."

Struggling US chipmaker Intel has its own chipmaking factories, but has lagged far behind Nvidia in the AI chip race. The US government recently took a 10% stake in Intel, which needs to find an external customer for its newest manufacturing technology. Intel shares popped 4% in after-hours trading on Musk's remarks.

Intel declined to comment.

Musk scored an important victory on Thursday as shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.

Musk has teased the AI5 chip before and reiterated that Tesla was also partnering with Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung. The AI chips power Tesla's autonomous driving systems, including the Full Self-Driving software. Tesla is currently on its fourth-generation chip.

A small number of AI5 units would be produced in 2026, with high volume production only possible in 2027, Musk said in an X post on Tuesday, adding that AI6 will use the same fabs but achieve roughly twice the performance with volume production mid-2028.

"Even when we extrapolate the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, it's still not enough," he said on Thursday.

"So I think we may have to do a Tesla terafab. It's like giga but way bigger. I can't see any other way to get to the volume of chips that we're looking for. So I think we're probably going to have to build a gigantic chip fab. It's got to be done," he said.

Musk, who often talks about his vision for the company in abstract terms, did not offer details of how such a fab would be built, but he said that it would make at least 100,000 wafer starts per month. A wafer start is the measurement of the output of a semiconductor wafer plant.

He did say the chip would be inexpensive, power-efficient and optimized for Tesla's own software. This chip would probably consume about a third of the power used by Nvidia's flagship Blackwell chip, at 10% of the cost to make, Musk said.

"I'm super hardcore on chips right now as you may be able to tell," he said. "I have chips on the brain."

Technology

Royal Commission for AlUla Participates in AO4ELT Conference in Chile

The participation reflects RCU's ongoing commitment to enhancing international scientific cooperation in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
The participation reflects RCU's ongoing commitment to enhancing international scientific cooperation in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
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Royal Commission for AlUla Participates in AO4ELT Conference in Chile

The participation reflects RCU's ongoing commitment to enhancing international scientific cooperation in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
The participation reflects RCU's ongoing commitment to enhancing international scientific cooperation in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), through AlUla Manara, participated in the 8th edition of the Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes (AO4ELT8) conference, held in Chile from October 27 to 31, 2025, with the participation of leading scientists, engineers, and research institutions from around the world to discuss the latest developments in astronomy, telescope design, and optical innovation.

This participation marked AlUla Manara's first international scientific appearance, offering an opportunity to strengthen AlUla's presence within the global astronomical community and to establish channels of communication and knowledge exchange with experts and specialized research centers, SPA reported.

The participation reflects RCU's ongoing commitment to enhancing international scientific cooperation and supporting the development of science, education, and sustainable tourism, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

The AO4ELT conference is considered one of the world's leading scientific gatherings in the field of astronomical optics, bringing together top scientists and specialists from observatories and research centers worldwide to discuss the latest technologies and innovations in telescope development.

Through such international engagements, the Royal Commission for AlUla continues to cement AlUla's position as a global center that unites heritage, innovation, and sustainability, inspiring future generations in the pursuit of science and discovery, and reinforcing AlUla's growing role as an international destination for astronomy and natural sciences, a place where knowledge, culture, and exploration converge.