Author: Art Ryan

Google Cloud and private equity firm EQT are joining forces to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across EQT-backed companies. This marks another big move in the deepening connection between Big Tech and private equity. The deal will also enable portfolio companies to adopt more advanced AI tools faster, improve business operations, and discover new opportunities for automation and productivity, Google Cloud and EQT AI said. For Google, the deal also provides a broader distribution channel for its AI products. This comes at a time when cloud providers and AI labs are competing fiercely for enterprise customers. Private equity firms…

Microsoft is reportedly planning to unveil a new AI coding model next week. This marks another major step in the company’s effort to build more of its artificial intelligence technology in-house. According to reports citing The Information, the new model is expected to be focused on software coding tasks. Notably, this area has become one of the most competitive battlegrounds in generative AI. The move could bolster Microsoft’s position in AI-powered developer tools. Additionally, it would give the company more control over the models behind its products. Microsoft’s AI Coding Ambitions Are Growing Microsoft is already a major force in…

The new Travelport Cognizant AI partnership is a significant step for both companies. Travelport is taking a significant step into AI-enabled travel technology through a new collaboration with Cognizant. The companies will incorporate Anthropic’s Claude AI into Travelport’s retail and distribution platforms. The partnership is designed to help fast-track the rollout of artificial intelligence tools across Travelport’s ecosystem. This includes services used by airlines, hotels, travel management companies, online travel agencies and retail travel agencies. It represents another big step for the travel industry to automate bookings, servicing and workflows with AI. Travelport Taps AI to Refresh Travel Retail Travelport,…

Key Takeaways Artificial intelligence is changing how people search and book travel, and hotels are entering a new era of digital competition. Instead of scrolling through long lists of hotel results, travelers are increasingly using natural language to ask AI tools for specific recommendations. A user might search for a “quiet hotel with a west-facing balcony,” a “romantic hotel in the south,” or a “pet-friendly hotel with a spa.” These detailed requests are changing the way hotels think about their online visibility. Hotels spent years focusing on traditional SEO, OTAs, paid listings and review sites. Now they have a new…

SK Hynix has reached the SK Hynix $1 trillion market cap milestone. The company is joining the trillion-dollar club and marking another major achievement in the global AI chip boom. Shares of the South Korean memory chipmaker surged on Wednesday, pushing the company’s market capitalization above $1 trillion. Investors continued to pile into companies supplying the hardware behind artificial intelligence. According to Reuters reporting carried by CNA, SK Hynix shares rose as much as 11.1% in early trade, reaching an all-time high. As a result, the company’s total market value lifted to about 1,624 trillion won, or roughly $1.08 trillion.…

Robinhood is taking a major step into agentic finance by allowing customers to connect AI agents to its platform for trading and credit card payments. The company announced the launch of Agentic Trading and the Agentic Credit Card. These are two new products designed to let users automate certain investment and spending actions through AI-powered agents. The move signals how quickly financial technology companies are beginning to integrate agentic AI into everyday money management. Instead of only using AI for recommendations or chat-based support, Robinhood’s new tools allow AI agents to take action on behalf of users. For example, they…

The OpenAI Foundation has announced an initial $250 million commitment to support workers, communities, and economies. This support will help those facing disruption from artificial intelligence. The initiative, announced on May 27, 2026, will fund grants, partnerships, and direct work focused on helping society prepare for major economic changes caused by AI. According to the OpenAI Foundation, the program is designed to build “secure and abundant economic futures.” Furthermore, it aims to do this as AI reshapes jobs, wages, productivity, and access to opportunity. OpenAI Foundation Launches $250 Million AI Workforce Initiative The OpenAI Foundation said the funding will support…

Amazon is taking its AI shopping ambitions beyond its own marketplace. The company is now offering retailers access to technology behind its Alexa for Shopping experience through a new AWS solution called the Agentic Shopping Assistant. The move signals a major shift in Amazon’s AI strategy: instead of using conversational shopping only to strengthen Amazon.com, the company wants to power AI shopping tools across other online stores as well. One of the first major examples is Kate Spade, which has deployed an AI-powered gift concierge on its website. The assistant is designed to help shoppers find products through natural conversation,…

Google is rolling out new Search features designed to help users find trusted websites, original reporting, and firsthand perspectives more easily inside AI-powered search results. The update brings Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode, while also adding new content carousels and expanded “Highly Cited” labels for influential articles. Google says the changes are meant to make original, useful, and high-quality content more visible as more people rely on AI-generated search experiences. Preferred Sources Come to AI Overviews and AI Mode Google’s Preferred Sources feature lets users choose websites they want to see more often in Search. The company…

Taiwan’s economy is experiencing a powerful surge as global demand for artificial intelligence continues to reshape the semiconductor industry. But while the island’s chipmakers and tech workers are riding the AI wave, many people outside the technology sector say the benefits are not reaching them. The rapid growth highlights Taiwan’s increasingly central role in the global AI supply chain. As companies race to build and train advanced AI systems, demand for high-performance semiconductors has exploded. Taiwan, home to some of the world’s most important chip manufacturing capacity, has become one of the biggest winners of the AI boom. According to…

The Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund has issued an AED 1.5 million credit guarantee to Dubai-founded UAE GovTech AI startup 01Gov, supporting the company’s push to scale its agentic AI platform for government clients. The guarantee will help fund the development of 01Gov’s AI system, One. The platform supports public sector organizations with smarter digital tools. It also offers benchmarking, trend tracking, idea generation, and access to global best practices. Founded in Dubai in 2013, 01Gov builds cloud-based solutions for government entities. Its platform is available online and through mobile apps. Public sector professionals use the tools to improve planning,…

Algeria has taken a step forward in its national artificial intelligence and digital transformation agenda, following a government meeting led by Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb on May 25, 2026, to review progress on the country’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and approve the launch plan for the Dzair Digital Services portal. The meeting highlighted Algeria’s commitment to modernizing public services and building a strong national AI ecosystem. Officials are already implementing the country’s AI strategy across six major pillars, while the Dzair platform has completed testing ahead of its expected launch. Algeria Advances Its National AI Strategy Algeria’s National AI Strategy…

Egypt is stepping up its push to become a regional hub for high-value technology exports with a new seven-year incentive scheme aimed at semiconductor design, embedded systems, electronics design, and advanced digital services. The initiative was launched through an agreement between Egypt’s Export Development Fund and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency, known as ITIDA. The programme will provide financial support to companies based on measurable export growth and job creation, rather than relying only on broad tax incentives. Egypt Targets Semiconductor Design and High-Value Tech Exports The new funding plan is designed to strengthen Egypt’s position in advanced engineering…

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming more than a tool for productivity. Across the Gulf, governments are beginning to treat AI as a core part of national infrastructure, placing new emphasis on sovereign AI in Gulf states as cyber threats become faster, more automated, and more difficult to contain. According to a Gulf News report, countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are shifting from simply adopting AI systems to building AI capabilities that they can control, secure, and govern at a national level. This reflects a broader regional strategy: AI is no longer just about innovation. It…

Avaya and avatarin are taking AI-powered customer experience into a new phase, moving beyond traditional contact centers and into real-world environments such as retail stores, airports, service counters, public facilities, and operational sites. The companies announced the next stage of their collaboration, combining Avaya Infinity with avatarin’s AI, robotics, and real-time interaction technologies. The goal is to connect AI agents, physical AI interfaces, and human experts across multiple customer touchpoints, including voice, chat, web, kiosks, signage, robots, and in-person support. AI Customer Experience Moves Into Physical Spaces Many businesses already use AI agents in digital workflows. However, Avaya and avatarin…

42Crunch has introduced a new integration with Claude Code designed to help enterprises secure AI-generated software at the same speed it is being created. The announcement marks a major step toward what the company calls “agentic DevSecOps,” where security checks, fixes, and validation happen continuously inside AI-driven development workflows. As AI coding agents become more common in enterprise software teams, applications and APIs are being generated and modified faster than traditional security processes can review them. 42Crunch says its new AI coding plugin addresses this challenge by embedding API security directly into the development lifecycle. Real-Time Security for AI-Generated APIs…

Amazon Web Services is bringing agentic AI deeper into its partner ecosystem with the launch of AWS Partner Central AI agents, a new set of AI-powered tools designed to reduce administrative work, simplify funding access, and improve co-selling workflows for channel partners. The new capabilities are built into AWS Partner Central and powered by Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, giving partners automated support for sales pipeline management, funding recommendations, deal tracking, and opportunity guidance. AWS says the goal is to help partner teams spend less time searching through documentation and more time selling, supporting customers, and moving deals forward. AI Agents Aim…

Qualcomm has reportedly secured a major artificial intelligence chip deal with ByteDance, the Chinese technology giant best known as the owner of TikTok. The agreement could become one of Qualcomm’s most important moves yet as it tries to expand beyond smartphone processors and compete in the fast-growing AI infrastructure market. According to a Bloomberg report, ByteDance is expected to buy millions of Qualcomm application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, designed to support AI data center workloads. These chips are expected to help power ByteDance’s AI agent software and broader artificial intelligence services. The reported deal is significant because Qualcomm has been…

Alipay has introduced a next-generation AI payment infrastructure designed to support the rise of AI agents and agent-driven commerce. The company debuted two new services, AI Wallet and Token Pay, as part of its broader push to make payments more secure, automated, and deeply integrated into AI-powered experiences. The launch marks a major step toward what Alipay and Ant Group describe as the agentic economy, where AI agents can help users search, shop, order services, manage transactions, and complete payments with greater autonomy. Alipay Expands Its AI Payment Infrastructure According to Alipay, the new services build on its existing AI…

India is fast becoming the world’s proving ground for voice-first AI travel apps, changing the way millions of users discover, book and experience travel online. Skift says that India’s unique blend of linguistic diversity, mobile-first internet adoption and growing AI ecosystem are setting the stage for the next generation of travel tech. The emergence of generative AI and conversational interfaces is revolutionizing travel platforms across the globe, but India is one-of-its-kind with the seamless integration of voice into the daily digital routine. Why India Is an Ideal Market for Voice-First Travel Tech There are many reasons India has become a…