
Aker, Nscale, OpenAI plan $1 billion Norway AI facility
The partnership, called Stargate Norway, will use 100 per cent renewable energy to power the AI facility, Norwegian conglomerate Aker said in a joint statement with Nscale and OpenAI.
Stargate Norway will be owned by a 50/50 joint venture between Nscale and Aker, investing about $1 billion for the initial phase of the project and with the potential to increase the site's capacity tenfold in future phases, they said.
The facility, located in a hydropower-rich region of Norway, will be among the first AI gigafactories in Europe, Nscale CEO Josh Payne said in the statement.
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Independent Singapore
6 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Singapore ranks 2nd worldwide in AI readiness but falls behind in AI innovation
Photo: Freepik/ (for illustration purposes only) SINGAPORE: Singapore ranked second globally for artificial intelligence (AI) readiness, based on Salesforce's Global AI Readiness Index, which looked at 16 countries across five key dimensions: enabling AI regulatory frameworks, AI diffusion and adoption, AI innovation, AI investment, and human capital, AI talent, and skills. Singapore received an overall index score of 26.5 out of 50, above the global average of 22.1. Each of the five dimensions was equally weighted at 10 points. The city-state also kept its lead in the Asia Pacific after ranking as the region's most AI-ready nation in Salesforce's 2021 and 2023 Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index, Singapore Business Review reported. Singapore ranked highest in enabling regulatory frameworks, scoring 9.8, backed by its Model AI Governance Framework and National AI Strategy 2.0. Meanwhile, it scored 8.0 in AI diffusion and adoption, driven by its Smart Nation vision and Public Sector AI Playbook, which guides AI use in transport, urban planning, and public services. For AI investment, Singapore scored 2.3, higher than the global average but way behind the US, which scored 8.8. The city-state also scored above the global average in terms of fostering AI talent; however, it trails behind Germany (6.2) and the US (6.0). Interestingly, Singapore scored weakest in AI innovation with only 0.7, below the global average of 1.7. The report noted that while the city-state has a largely enabling environment for AI, its innovation remains concentrated, with less focus on emerging areas like agentic AI. It added that Singapore is taking a lighter-touch approach by encouraging voluntary guidelines, industry self-regulation, and ethical AI principles to strike a balance between innovation and responsible AI use. Photo: salesforce /TISG Read also: Microsoft cuts jobs again as AI costs climb, to let go of about 9,000 employees () => { const trigger = if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { => { if ( { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });

Straits Times
16 hours ago
- Straits Times
AI cannot supplant learning; it must enable it: Desmond Lee
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Young people need to develop strong judgment, reasoning abilities and foundational knowledge, even as artificial intelligence (AI) tools are able to perform both mundane and complex tasks, said Minister for Education Desmond Lee. AI cannot supplant learning – it must enable it, he said to the media on July 8 at Oasis Primary School in Punggol, in his first school visit since his appointment as education minister. Other key priorities for the Ministry of Education (MOE) include helping students develop social and emotional skills and effect a 'generational shift' away from competition based on grades and towards a passion for learning. Mr Lee cited the example of how AI could help young lawyers draft submissions, but only those with proper training and experience are able to assess and improve on the AI output. Mr Lee, accompanied by Oasis Primary School principal Danny Poh and Oasis Primary English head of department Munirah Eszham, during his first school visit in the role. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI 'You can tell what is right, what is wrong. What is real and what is not, and what is right for your situation,' he said. To this end, Mr Lee said it is important to prepare children for an AI-pervasive future, while also fostering in them curiosity and social-emotional skills. This would first require the age-appropriate use of AI in classrooms and teaching children about what AI is and its limits. With social and emotional skills becoming increasingly important – not just in school, but also in workplaces and the wider community – this is another area of focus for MOE . Mr Lee said: 'All these social-emotional skills can be more important than just your academic hard knowledge.' These include compassion, expressing oneself appropriately, navigating challenging environments and being able to self-regulate and empathise with others. At Oasis Primary School, Mr Lee observed Primary 4 English and art lessons that demonstrated how the school integrates social-emotional skills into these subjects. During the English lesson, pupils used the popular young adult book Wonder – about a boy with facial deformities – as a springboard to share how they would feel if they faced discrimination. For the art lesson, pupils worked in groups to come up with a superhero logo based on values. Mr Lee said such approaches bring lessons to life. 'It doesn't just give our children the foundation in the subject, but also uses the opportunity to get them to think critically, think thoughtfully, to engage with classmates and to think about how they relate to people who are different from themselves,' he said. By including group work, these activities go beyond nurturing individual creativity, and encourages pupils to collaborate and share ideas with each other, he added. 'You can see leadership in action. You see collaboration in action, cooperation, give and take and also working towards a product that is bigger than the sum of the individual parts. So that was very encouraging,' the minister said. On MOE's efforts to shift away from an emphasis on competition around grades so that students can develop a lifelong passion for learning, he said: 'It will take time, and we require three parties to play a part – our pre-schools, primary schools as well as our parents.' Another key area is how schools can better partner with the community to support children from more challenging backgrounds, such as those whose families are beneficiaries of ComLink+, a scheme to support lower-income households. Likening the approach to a triangle comprising housing, education and jobs and skills, Mr Lee said these areas are where these families need help. 'I think it will give them a better shot in achieving stability, self-reliance and, ultimately, social mobility.' Mr Lee said there is a need to strengthen the transition from pre-school to primary school, especially through MOE kindergartens. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI Visiting the MOE Kindergarten (MK) located at Oasis Primary School, Mr Lee also said there is a need to strengthen the transition from pre-school to primary school, especially through MKs. 'Our pre-school landscape is diverse and rich, and we are the better off for it. But MKs allow an opportunity to test-bed ideas for us to be able to look at enhancements to pre-school pedagogies,' he said. He noted that many parents appreciate MKs sitting within primary schools, as many pre-schoolers go on to attend primary schools near their homes. Madam Nur Liyana Saine, 38, whose daughter Faiha Fatiha, eight, had moved from MK@Oasis to Primary 1 in the same school, said the child's familiarity with the environment made the move easier. Mathematics and science teacher Nur Liyana Saine at Oasis Primary School, with her daughter Faiha Fatiha. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI 'She knew what to expect, like where to go during morning flag-raising and reading time, because she had experienced it in MK,' said Madam Liyana, who is a mathematics and science teacher at Oasis Primary School. 'For a six-year-old, big spaces like the school hall can be intimidating. But because she had been there for events like Chinese New Year celebrations, it felt familiar,' she added. The MK programme was started in 2014 to provide quality pre-school education that is affordable to Singaporeans. Among other goals, it aims to 'encourage bilingualism in the early years and help lay a strong foundation for language learning in the later years', the ministry had said previously. An MOE spokesperson said the ministry plans to open 60 MKs by 2029. After observing mother tongue lessons at MK@Oasis, Mr Lee reiterated that bilingualism remains a key strength for Singapore and that early exposure to mother tongue languages is crucial. 'It gives us a cultural ballast and richness in our identity. And from a utilitarian, pragmatic point of view, it connects us with the region and the world,' he said. He added that as a largely English-speaking environment, schools must be deliberate in supporting the use of mother tongue languages. 'When you start young, we have a better chance of that following us all through life.'
Business Times
18 hours ago
- Business Times
Meta to share AI infrastructure costs via US$2 billion asset sale
[NEW YORK] Meta Platforms is pressing ahead with efforts to bring in outside partners to help fund the massive infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence (AI), disclosing plans in a filing on Thursday (Jul 31) to offload US$2 billion in data centre assets as part of that strategy. The strategy reflects a broader shift among tech giants, long known for self-funding growth, as they grapple with the soaring cost of building and powering data centres to support generative AI. The social media giant said earlier this week that it was exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centres to help finance its massive capital outlay for next year. 'We are exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centres,' Meta chief finance officer Susan Li said on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday. While the company still expects to fund much of its capital spending internally, some projects could attract 'significant external financing' and offer more flexibility if infrastructure needs shift over time, Li said. The company did not have any finalised transactions to announce, she said. The disclosure in Meta's quarterly filing, however, signals that plans are firming up. In its quarterly filing on Thursday, Meta said it had approved a plan in June to dispose of certain data centre assets and reclassified US$2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as 'held-for-sale'. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up These assets were expected to be contributed to a third party within the next twelve months for co-developing data centres. Meta did not record a loss on the reclassification, which values the assets at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair value less costs to sell. As at Jun 30, total held-for-sale assets stood at US$3.26 billion, according to the filing. Meta declined to comment for this story. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into constructing AI data centre 'superclusters' for superintelligence. 'Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,' he said. The Instagram and WhatsApp owner on Wednesday raised the bottom end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by US$2 billion, to US$66 billion to US$72 billion. It reported stronger-than-expected ad sales, boosted by AI-driven improvements to targeting and content delivery. Executives said that those gains were helping offset rising infrastructure costs tied to its long-term AI push. REUTERS