STC, Aramco units co-lead $19mln investment in US firm Graphiant
The two investment arms have co-led a $19 million investment for the network connectivity company as part of a Series B fundraising, bringing the round's total to $102 million.
The US firm also said it is opening its regional headquarters in Riyadh, adding that it will work with stc Group on localisation, skills development and new infrastructure initiatives.
Graphiant seeks to provide a single, unified network solution for AI, cloud, SaaS, B2B and branch networking for entities in the public sector, telecom and enterprise space.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Filipino Times
2 hours ago
- Filipino Times
Marcos Brings Home $446M in Investments from India Visit
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. announced Friday that his five-day state visit to India secured US$446 million in direct investments for the Philippines. Marcos also projected an additional US$5.6 to US$5.7 billion in potential investments could follow as a result of the trip. During his visit, Marcos held several business meetings, including discussions with the ISON Group focused on healthcare, BPO, renewable energy, and insurance. He also met with NephroPlus Group CEO Rohit Singh to explore stronger cooperation in advancing Universal Health Care in the Philippines. NephroPlus reaffirmed its commitment to expanding access to patient-centered renal care, with 39 dialysis centers already operating nationwide.
Gulf Today
8 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Foreign investors pump $2.5 billion into Korean stocks in July
Foreign investors bought more Korean stocks for the third month in a row in July, helped by the strong performance of the local stock market, data showed Thursday. According to Yonhap news agency, offshore investors bought a net 3.41 trillion won (US$2.46 billion) worth of local stocks last month, following a net purchase of 3.07 trillion won the previous month, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Foreigners had been net sellers of Korean stocks for nine consecutive months through April, but turned to net buying in May. Following their purchase in July, offshore investors owned 921.6 trillion won worth of local stocks, or 27.7 percent of total market capitalisation. By country, investors from the United States were the top buyers, net purchasing 2.48 trillion won worth of shares, followed by those from Ireland with 765 billion won, according to the data. In the local bond market, foreign investors purchased a net 3 trillion won worth of bonds last month, marking the sixth consecutive month of net buying. Their holdings of local bonds had come to 307.7 trillion won as of end-July, accounting for 11.4 percent of listed bonds here, the data showed. In July, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose more than 6 percent, hitting a yearly high of 3,254.47 on July 30. WAM
Gulf Today
8 hours ago
- Gulf Today
TCS layoffs herald AI shakeup of $283 billion outsourcing sector
Indian outsourcing giant Tata Consultancy Services' decision to cut over 12,000 jobs signals the start of a broader AI-fueled trend that could end up eliminating around half a million jobs over the next two to three years from the $283 billion sector, experts said. While TCS pegged the move to shed 2 per cent of its workforce to skill mismatches rather than AI-related productivity gains, experts viewed the largest-ever layoffs by India's top private employer as the beginning of things to come in the labour-intensive sector. Roughly 12,200 TCS middle and senior management jobs will be lost. The industry, which has played a crucial role in creating a middle class in India, is increasingly seeing AI being used for everything from basic coding to manual testing and customer support. The sector employed 5.67 million people as of March 2025 and accounted for over 7 per cent of India's GDP. It has a huge multiplier effect due to the direct and indirect jobs it creates and the cars-to-homes consumption it drives in the world's fifth-largest economy. It has historically absorbed a majority of India's engineers but that will change as rising AI use ekes out more efficiencies and demands newer skills that many current employees lack, according to half a dozen industry veterans, analysts, and staffing firms. 'We are in the midst of a massive transition that will transform white-collar work as we know it,' said Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research founder and chairman Ray Wang, echoing other experts who warned that more layoffs are likely on the cards. The most vulnerable employees include pure people managers with minimal tech knowledge, those in charge of testing or identifying bugs and ensuring user-friendliness before delivering software to clients, and infrastructure management staff who provide basic tech support and ensure networks and servers are working well, experts said. 'About 400,000 to 500,000 professionals are at risk of being laid off over the next two to three years as their skills don't match client demands,' tech market intelligence firm UnearthInsight's founder Gaurav Vasu said, adding that about 70% of those layoffs would impact workers with 4-12 years' experience. 'This (fear stemming from TCS layoffs) may hurt consumer demand for tourism, luxury shopping and even delay long-term investments such as real estate,' Vasu said. TCS and its peers Infosys, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, LTIMindtree, and Cognizant collectively employ over 430,000 workers with 13 to 25 years of experience, according to staffing firm Xpheno. 'At the moment, they may appear like the big fat middle layer,' Xpheno's co-founder Kamal Karanth said. None of the IT firms responded to Reuters queries seeking comment. 'With cost optimization being the key driver for new deal wins, clients are asking for productivity benefits - a trend which is also growing due to the rise in AI adoption. This requires IT firms to do more work with the same number of employees or the same work with fewer employees,' Jefferies analyst Akshat Agarwal said in a research note. TCS, which had more than 613,000 workers before the layoffs, said in its late July announcement it was gearing up to be 'future-ready' by investing in new technologies, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for its clients and itself, and realigning its workforce model. It did not answer Reuters queries on how many layoffs were tied to AI adoption and why it could not redeploy the affected employees. 'This is very devastating news,' said a 45-year-old, Kolkata-based TCS employee affected by the latest layoffs. 'It is very difficult for people my age to get new jobs.' Some others who are still at TCS fretted over its mediocre performance bonuses for senior employees in recent quarters, a new 'bench policy' that limits the time somebody could be without a project regardless of personal circumstances or past performance, on-boarding delays, and the emotional turmoil caused by the layoffs. 'All these developments have tanked the morale of mid-career folks like me,' a Pune-based TCS employee said. The Indian outsourcing sector has been a key employment engine since the 1990s, offering upward mobility to millions of engineers. But revenue growth has weakened recently as its clients, stung by inflation and US tariff uncertainty, defer discretionary spending and demand better cost management. 'The tech industry is at an inflection point, as AI and automation move to the very core of how businesses operate,' industry body Nasscom said. During past tech revolutions, disruption was felt at the organisational level. 'With AI, for the first time, the onus is on the individual to reinvent or re-skill themselves,' former Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani said. Reuters
