The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in collaboration with Google Cloud, launched on Wednesday a specialized training program in machine language analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The initiative aims to expand Saudi cadres and sectors through virtual technologies.
Participants in the ten-week program will receive four weeks of initial training at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, providing them with the opportunity to learn from Google experts.
The next six weeks will consist of remote sessions leading up to Google certifications.
The program strengthens the strategic partnership with Google Cloud, strengthening its facilities in Saudi Arabia for secure cloud infrastructure and driving business growth.
Apple’s weak business functionality in China might have surprised investors, but consumers and analysts have noted the increasingly demanding situations facing the company in its third-largest market.
The intensifying festival of domestic rivals, coupled with longer refresh cycles as consumers spend more cautiously amid an economic slowdown, have slowed Apple’s expansion in China, with sales falling 13% in the quarter ended December to $20. 8 billion and no estimate of $23. 5 billion.
“Apple’s drop in sales in China is unexpected given the strong festival of local brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi,” said Toby Zhu, an analyst at research organization Canalys.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
As the world’s largest smartphone market, China is crucial to Apple’s sales growth. For years, Apple has been the premium phone brand of choice in the country but the tide is now turning.
Pressure on Apple intensified in the second part of the year after Huawei returned to the high-end smartphone market with its Mate 60 series phones powered by a locally made chip.
Other big Android brands like Xiaomi have also entered the high-end territory that Apple has historically dominated. Xiaomi unveiled its premium Mi 14 style in October, touting its long-lasting battery and camera capabilities. It sold 1 million devices within a week of its launch. launch.
Canalys’ Zhu said Chinese brands are entering Apple’s core value segment by introducing more expensive foldable products.
Chinese consumers have also complained about the lack of innovation in Apple’s iPhones, especially in terms of aesthetics, in previous versions.
“Another hurdle Apple wants to overcome is how it can bring more print points to shoppers and its symbol as a pioneering generation. This is especially important as other Android vendors are now integrating foldable products and artificial intelligence into their products,” said Will Wong, smartphone analyst at IDC.
At the same time, Chinese consumers are holding on to their phones for longer due to the economic slowdown. Consultancy Counterpoint said in June that the replacement cycle lasted more than 40 months.
For its sales in China, Apple has lowered its prices. A major sales crusade led online retailers to add Alibaba and Pinduoduo to the iPhone 15’s transparent stock in October, just a month after its launch in the country. In January, Apple introduced infrequent sales on its iPhones.
The October relief effort appears to have stemmed the decline: Apple’s phone shipments fell just 2. 1% in the final quarter of 2023, while Huawei’s sales rose 36. 2%, according to data from the organization. of IDC studies.
Most likely, Apple will continue to face pressure from China in the future. Analysts at Jefferies expect Apple’s shipments to China to decline by double-digit percentage in 2024.
“The big failure in China is worrisome because it may be just the beginning of a longer downtrend there,” said Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.
The Ministry of Investment of the UAE and the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a framework for investments in digital infrastructure with a focus on data center projects in Greece.
The agreement was signed through the UAE’s Minister of Investment, Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, and the Greek Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou.
The knowledge centers that will be developed within the framework of this agreement may have a total capacity of 500 megawatts.
The knowledge media market in Greece has seen significant expansion in recent years, largely driven by the country’s Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2025, which aims to facilitate the transformation of companies into virtual businesses and integrate virtual technologies into their economic sectors.
Projections suggest that the Greek knowledge center market will reach $1. 218 billion by 2028, up from $735 million in 2022, with a compound annual growth of around 9%.
With 15 knowledge centers, Greece is set to expand its knowledge infrastructure with another 139 megawatts of electrical capacity from new knowledge centers slated to grow over the next five years. This positions the country as the largest knowledge center in Southeast Europe and the second largest. in the Mediterranean until 2028.
Greece benefits from a network of more than ten submarine cables connecting the country to global markets, further bolstered through multiple national web exchange points, resulting in particularly improved connectivity and reliability and increased attractiveness for businesses seeking effective and reliable knowledge sharing.
The MoU between the UAE and Greece focuses on forging effective collaboration by building relationships between public and private organizations. The agreement additionally proposes the implementation of incentives to support pertinent initiatives and aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge.
On Friday, Apple retail outlets in the U. S. will begin promoting the Vision Pro, the tech giant’s $3,499 headset and its first major release since the Apple Watch nine years ago.
Vision Pro’s release by the world’s most iconic device maker is a major milestone for the lovers of virtual or augmented reality, who see the technology as the next chapter in online life after the smartphone.
But with a high sticker price, and the middling success of similar and cheaper releases from Facebook owner Meta, early reviews are unconvincing that the Vision Pro will be a game-changer, at least initially.
Vision Pro is an “amazing” product, writes The Verge, but it “also represents a number of trade-offs” that are “impossible to ignore. “
It’s “an impressive product, requiring many years and billions of dollars to make,” but “even afterward, I still have no idea who or what it’s intended for,” the New York Times wrote.
Reviewers recognize a certain “wow” factor, highlighting its state-of-the-art symbol and the joy of opening and ending apps floating in space with eyes and fingers.
However, the headset is heavy, damages the user’s hair, and requires a bulky battery, they add.
As part of a major promotional campaign, Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair dressed in the Vision Pro on Thursday.
He received a complaint at a convention in June when he revealed that the device had ever tried it.
Apple refers to the Vision Pro as its first foray into “spatial computing,” refusing the term virtual reality, which is typically associated with tech geeks and gamers.
In commercials, in addition to streaming movies, use Vision Pro to work, chat with friends, or navigate between apps.
Apple says there are six hundred apps and games designed specifically for Vision Pro, as well as a million compatible apps.
“These incredible apps will change how we experience entertainment, music, and games,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations.
Disney has partnered with Apple and will supply 150 3D videos at launch, the companies said.
Netflix, Spotify and Google have all refused to replace their apps, particularly for headphones.
The Vision Pro can be tested by appointment at Apple retail outlets in the U. S. and Canada. U. S. That’s because the device requires fine changes and some training, as “most consumers don’t enjoy gesture controls,” Forrester Research wrote in a note.
According to analysts at Wedbush Securities, pre-orders have been plentiful and Apple expects to sell about 600,000 devices this year.
“For us, Apple’s purpose is for Vision Pro to work alongside the iPhone and other Apple devices for years to come,” said Wedbush’s Dan Ives.
NVIDIA Corp saw a record increase in its market price in January, the largest monthly increase on record, driven by rising optimism around synthetic intelligence (AI), positive analyst projections and the company’s announcement of expanded AI offerings.
The world’s most valuable chipmaker saw its market value expand by an unprecedented $296.52 billion to about $1.52 trillion, surpassing its previous high of $248.23 billion in gains seen in May 2023.
Last month, Nvidia’s inventory hit new highs following the announcement of new desktop GPUs and advancements in AI-related parts and software.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, the world’s highest-value company, also saw a sharp increase in its market value, totaling $159. 36 billion, largely attributed to growing demand for its Azure cloud service.
The tech giant reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Tuesday, even as investors were wary of emerging costs, which are expected to “increase significantly” sequentially.
As of Wednesday, Microsoft’s market cap stood at $2. 95 trillion, surpassing Apple Inc. ‘s $2. 85 trillion market capital.
Meanwhile, Meta Platforms saw its market price last month, surpassing the $1 trillion mark for the first time since September 2021.
Meta’s inventory jumped more than 14% to a record high of $451 after Thursday’s bell, lifting its market capitalization from $148 billion to $1. 16 trillion after the Facebook owner posted a 25% gain to $40. 1 billion for the December quarter and declared its first quarter. dividend.
On the other end of the spectrum, Tesla Inc emerged as the worst-performing company among the world’s 20 largest companies in terms of market capitalization, squandering about 24. 5% of its value over the past month on concerns such as slowing growth. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk warned that sales expansion would be “significantly weaker” this year despite recent price cuts.
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday reported a 34% year-on-year drop in operating profit for the latest quarter, as weak demand for its TVs and other consumer electronics offset hard-won gains in the slowly recovering PC chip market.
The South Korean tech giant said it expects its business to improve around 2024, predicting increased demand for semiconductors that will power artificial intelligence features increasingly used in smartphones, private computers and other products. However, macroeconomic uncertainties could continue to impact your business. in the short term.
Samsung’s operating profit was measured at 2. 8 trillion won ($2. 1 billion) for the three months to December, compared with $4. 3 trillion ($3. 2 billion) at the same time last year. Its operating profit for the full year 2023 was 6. 5 trillion won ($4. 8 billion). , down 85% from 2022 and the company’s lowest since 2008, when global markets were going through a currency crisis.
While the company’s semiconductor department posted a loss of 14. 9 trillion won ($11 billion) in 2023, the losses narrowed in the fourth quarter as the DRAM returned to profit. The company announced in October that it plans to more than double its production capacity for complex components of high-bandwidth memory chips by 2024 to meet the demands created by AI.
“In 2024, the memory industry expects the market to continue despite various potential headwinds, coupled with interest rate policies and geopolitical issues,” Samsung said in a statement.
The company is also focused on boosting its sales of its latest smartphone, the Galaxy S24, which is built with an array of new features enabled by AI, including live translation during phone calls in 13 languages and 17 dialects.
The first human patient received an implant from brain chip startup Neuralink on Sunday and is recovering well, the company’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said.
“Early effects show promising detection of neural spikes,” Musk said Monday in a post on social media platform X.
Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body.
Last year, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban on the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. The U. S. Department of Health gave the company permission to conduct its first trial to test its implant in humans, a step in the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a multitude of neurological problems.
In September, Neuralink gained approval for enrollment in the human trial.
The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain it is intended to move, Neuralink previously said, adding that its initial goal is to allow other people to access a computer’s cursor or keyboard. using only your thoughts.
The “ultra-thin” wires in the implants transmit signals to the participants’ brains, Neuralink said.
Neuralink’s first product would be Telepathy, Musk said in a separate post on X.
The startup’s PRIME is a test of its brain-computer wireless interface to compare implant and surgical robot protection.
Neuralink did not respond to a Reuters request for details.
The company has faced calls for scrutiny regarding its security protocols. Reuters reported earlier this month that the company had been fined for violating U. S. Department of Transportation regulations. U. S. Customs and Drug Administration (DOT) related to the movement of hazardous materials.
The company was valued at about $5 billion last June, but four lawmakers in late November asked the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Musk misled investors about protecting his generation after veterinary records showed disorders with implants in monkeys. adding paralysis. seizures and swelling of the brain.
Musk wrote in a social media post on Sept. 10 that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant.” He added that the company chose “terminal” monkeys to minimize risk to healthy ones.
Pony Ma, chief executive and co-founder of Tencent Holdings, has said that the company’s video games business faces great challenges from competitors but is catching up in artificial intelligence (AI) development.
Ma, speaking at Tencent’s annual meeting at a Shenzhen stadium on Monday, said the company is resting on its laurels in gaming as its competition has seen more successes. Video games account for more than 30% of Tencent’s revenue.
Chinese media outlet Jiemian published parts of Ma’s speech online. A person with direct knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because they are not permitted to speak to the media, confirmed the contents.
Ma’s speech underscores considerations about whether Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company and operator of China’s largest social network, WeChat, can protect its prestige as China’s most sensible tech company in an era of greater festival and disruptive new technologies.
Tencent responded to a request for comment on Tuesday.
“Gaming is our core business. . . But over the past year, we have faced significant challenges,” Ma said. “We find ourselves lost, while our competition continues to produce new products, giving us the feeling of having completed nothing. “
Ma added that the new games released through Tencent had performed as well as the company had hoped.
Ma’s comments come at a time when Chinese game developers miHoYo and NetEase have outperformed Tencent with blockbuster titles like “Genshin Impact” and “Eggy Party. “While hits beyond Tencent like “Honor of Kings” and “PUBG Mobile” continue to generate strong revenue, the products fall short of expectations.
When it comes to AI, Ma said Tencent has stood firm. “In spite of everything, we can keep up with the leading companies. We don’t see ourselves as the most advanced, but at least we’re not too far behind,” he said. .
Ma said Tencent’s focus now should be on integrating its “Hunyuan” AI model into different business scenarios as a way to boost efficiency rather than to quickly turn AI into products.
“In the short term, in the next one or two years, I think there probably still won’t be a big application of local AI,” he said.
Ma’s speech also focused on e-commerce. In recent years, Tencent has tried to make WeChat more like ByteDance’s Douyin short-video platform, which has generated huge profits through e-commerce streaming.
“WeChat is our most physically powerful platform in terms of the number of daily users and its ecosystem. But he’s 12 years old. . . Now, how to locate new shoots from the old tree that is WeChat is the big question for us. Mom said.