Latest news with #LEAP2025
Arabian Business
4 days ago
- Business
- Arabian Business
Groq and Saudi's HUMAIN announce day zero launch of OpenAI's latest models
Groq, the Silicon Valley-based AI company, and HUMAIN, a PIF company and Saudi Arabia's leading AI services provider, have announced the immediate availability of OpenAI's two open models on GroqCloud. This will deliver gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B with full 128K context, real-time responses, and integrated server-side tools live on Groq's optimised inference platform from day zero. OpenAI's open models are live and already running on Groq. Try gpt-oss-20B and gpt-oss-120B today. Groq delivers 128K context and built-in tools such as code execution and browser search. For the first time, developers and enterprises can deploy open models backed by OpenAI… — Groq Inc (@GroqInc) August 5, 2025 Groq and HUMAIN launch OpenAI models Groq is the AI inference platform redefining price performance. Its custom-built LPU and cloud have been specifically designed to run powerful models instantly, reliably, and at the lowest cost per token—without compromise. Over 1.9 million developers trust Groq to build fast and scale smarter. HUMAIN is owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and is a global AI company delivering full-stack capabilities across four core areas – next-generation data centres, hyper-performance infrastructure and cloud platforms, advanced AI models, including the world's most advanced Arabic multimodal LLMs, and transformative AI solutions that combine deep sector insight with real-world execution. In February this year at LEAP 2025, Saudi Arabia committed US$1.5 billion in funding to Groq for expanded delivery of its advanced LPU-based AI inference infrastructure. The agreement followed the operational excellence Groq demonstrated in building the region's largest inference cluster in December 2024. Brought online in just eight days, the rapid installation established a critical AI hub to serve surging compute demand globally. From its data centre in Dammam, Groq is now delivering market-leading AI inference capabilities to customers worldwide through GroqCloud, and the new announcement is another extension of that partnership. Groq's global data centre footprint across North America, Europe, and the Middle East ensures reliable, high-performance AI inference. Through GroqCloud, the new open models are now available worldwide with minimal latency. Groq's purpose-built stack delivers the lowest cost per token for OpenAI's new models while maintaining speed and accuracy. For a limited time, tool calls used with OpenAI's open models will not be charged. gpt-oss-120B is currently running at 500+ t/s and gpt-oss-20B is currently running at 1000+ t/s on GroqCloud. It is available at $0.15/M input tokens and $0.75/M output tokens. gpt-oss-20B is available at $0.10/M input tokens and $0.50/M output tokens. Groq has long supported OpenAI's open-source efforts, including the large-scale deployment of Whisper. This launch builds on that foundation, bringing their newest models to production with global access and local support through HUMAIN. Jonathan Ross, CEO of Groq, said: 'OpenAI is setting a new high-performance standard in open source models. Groq was built to run models like this – fast and affordably – so developers everywhere can use them from day zero. Working with HUMAIN strengthens local access and support in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, empowering developers in the region to build smarter and faster.' Tareq Amin, CEO at HUMAIN, added: 'Groq delivers the unmatched inference speed, scalability, and cost-efficiency we need to bring cutting-edge AI to the Kingdom. Together, we're enabling a new wave of Saudi innovation—powered by the best open-source models and the infrastructure to scale them globally. We're proud to support OpenAI's leadership in open-source AI.' To make the most of OpenAI's new models, Groq is delivering extended context and built-in tools like code execution and web search. Web search helps provide real-time relevant information, while code execution enables reasoning and complex workflows. The platform delivers these capabilities from day zero with a full 128k token context length.
Channel Post MEA
01-07-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Zscaler Expands Public Data Center Footprint In Saudi Arabia
Zscaler has announced the strategic expansion of its public data center (DC) infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, reinforcing its long-term commitment to the Middle East's dynamic digital economy. This move enhances the availability of Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) in the region and supports growing customer demand for secure, scalable cloud solutions that align with local compliance and data sovereignty requirements. As digital transformation accelerates across the Kingdom, Zscaler's expanded infrastructure ensures lower latency, improved performance, and full alignment with Saudi Arabia's regulatory landscape. The data center investment allows organizations across the region to embrace cloud-first strategies with greater confidence, enabling seamless, secure access to applications and data – regardless of user location. 'We're deeply invested in the Middle East's digital future,' said Saeed Agha, Vice President of Emerging Markets at Zscaler. 'Our growing presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a reflection of our commitment to helping organizations adopt Zero Trust architecture at scale, while assuring to meet the highest standards of data privacy, sovereignty, and operational resilience.' Zscaler's approach is anchored in three core pillars: Data Localization & Customer Control: Zscaler adheres to strict Privacy by Design principles. Customer content is not stored, logs are tokenized and encrypted, and logging data is retained only as long as necessary – within preferred geographies. Zscaler adheres to strict Privacy by Design principles. Customer content is not stored, logs are tokenized and encrypted, and logging data is retained only as long as necessary – within preferred geographies. Transparency & Government Access: Zscaler maintains a firm stance on transparency. In 2024, the company received 91 government requests for user data and disclosed none – reinforcing its customer-first data protection philosophy. Zscaler maintains a firm stance on transparency. In 2024, the company received 91 government requests for user data and disclosed none – reinforcing its customer-first data protection philosophy. Built for Resilience: Zscaler's global cloud infrastructure is engineered with multi-layered failover, disaster recovery, and service continuity, ensuring businesses remain securely connected even during outages or disruptions. With over 150 data centers globally – including an expanding footprint in Saudi Arabia – Zscaler's Zero Trust Exchange platform enables organizations to securely connect users, workloads, and devices across distributed environments, all while reducing risk and complexity. This latest milestone follows Zscaler's successful presence at LEAP 2025 and further strengthens its position as the trusted security partner for governments, enterprises, and critical sectors across the Middle East.
Express Tribune
17-06-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
C/A slips back into $103m deficit
Listen to article Pakistan recorded a current account deficit of $103 million in May 2025, narrowing from a deficit of $235 million in the same month last year but reversing the $47 million surplus seen in April 2025. Although Pakistan posted a rare current account surplus of $1.8 billion during the first eleven months of FY25 — marking a significant turnaround from the $1.6 billion deficit recorded in the same period last yearexperts caution that underlying external sector vulnerabilities remain a cause for concern. "The trade deficit expanded in May 2025, increasing to $3.2 billion compared to $2.2 billion in the same period last year," wrote AHL. The overall trade balance posted a deficit of $27 billion in 11MFY25, up from $23 billion during the same period last year. "We expect the country to post a current account surplus of $1.6 billion in FY25 after 14 years," said the brokerage house. "This growth is mainly due to an increase in remittances by 26% year-on-year to $38.1 billion, in our view." The surplus was largely driven by a sharp 26% year-on-year jump in workers' remittances, which soared to $38.1 billion. This inflow has helped cushion the impact of a widening trade deficit, as goods imports surged by 11% to $54.1 billion, outpacing the modest 4% growth in goods exports that stood at $29.7 billion. Exports faced a fresh blow in May 2025, slipping by 19% year-on-year to $2.4 billion, while technology exports, once seen as a potential growth engine, edged down 1% to $329 million. This underperformance underscores Pakistan's struggle to diversify and expand its export base. Nasheed Malik of Topline Securities noted that Pakistan recorded monthly IT exports worth $329 million in May 2025, reflecting a slight decline of 1% year-on-year but an increase of 4% on a month-on-month basis. These exports were also higher than the 12-month average of $314 million. Notably, this marked the first year-on-year decline in IT exports after 19 consecutive months of growth. Export proceeds averaged $16.5 million per day in May 2025, up from $15.9 million in April 2025. Cumulatively, IT exports reached approximately $3.5 billion during 11MFY25, showing a strong 19% year-on-year increase. This impressive growth is attributed to several key factors: the expansion of Pakistani IT companies' client base globally, especially in the GCC region; the relaxation by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) of the permissible retention limit in Exporters' Specialised Foreign Currency Accounts from 35% to 50%; the allowance of equity investment abroad through these accounts; and the stability of the Pakistani rupee, which has encouraged exporters to repatriate a larger portion of their earnings. Pakistani IT firms have also been actively engaging with international clients, as demonstrated by their participation in major global events such as LEAP 2025 in Saudi Arabia and Web Summit Qatar 2025, said Malik. A significant development in FY25 is the SBP's introduction of a new category — Equity Investment Abroad (EIA) — specifically for export-oriented IT companies. Under this provision, IT exporters can now acquire equity stakes in foreign entities by utilising up to 50% of the proceeds from their specialised foreign currency accounts. This measure is expected to further boost the confidence of IT exporters and incentivise the repatriation of export earnings to Pakistan. Meanwhile, the services sector remains in deficit, posting a gap of $2.7 billion for the period, as service exports failed to offset persistent import demand. The primary income deficit, largely reflecting profit repatriation and interest payments on external debt, stood at a hefty $7.9 billion in 11MFY25. Adding to the concern is the sharp decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, which dropped to $1.98 billion, indicating foreign investors' cautious stance amid Pakistan's challenging economic and political landscape. Analysts warn that the recent surplus is not structural but cyclical, heavily reliant on remittances and import compression. "If imports rebound or remittance growth slows, the surplus could swiftly reverse," a market observer noted. The outlook for the external account remains uncertain, with potential risks stemming from volatile global oil prices and rising debt servicing needs, both of which could strain Pakistan's fragile external position. In May 2025, Pakistan's primary income deficit narrowed significantly by 47% year-on-year to $777 million, compared to $1,478 million in May 2024, largely due to the absence of hefty profit repatriation recorded in the same period last year. However, on a month-on-month basis, the deficit widened by 31%. Meanwhile, the balance on secondary income improved by 12% year-on-year, rising to $3.9 billion in May 2025 from $3.5 billion in May 2024, supported by strong inflows such as workers' remittances. On a month-on-month comparison, however, secondary income declined by 13% from $3.5 billion recorded in April 2025.
West Australian
11-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
James Limnios: Housing supply needed to capitalise on IT jobs boom
The recent announcement that ECU City in Northbridge will be home to Western Australia's first Apple Foundation Program when it opens in 2026 could be a major boon for the economic diversification of our minerals-based economy. This announcement is very significant as the Apple Foundation Program is designed to produce the next generation of app developers, entrepreneurs, and digital innovators. Overall, it is estimated that 1.8 million new tech workers will be needed in Australia by 2030, and skills such as scripting languages and software development principles will be in high demand. This huge potential for this bonanza in IT jobs to transform the WA economy is further underlined by the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025. This groundbreaking report surveyed more than 1,000 companies around the world — representing 22 industry clusters and more than 14 million workers — to take the pulse of the job market and uncover how organisations expect it to evolve between now and 2030. According to the executives who were surveyed, the three fastest-growing jobs in percentage terms are big data specialists, fintech engineers, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning specialists. A huge 86 per cent of respondents to the survey expected AI and information processing technologies to transform their business by 2030. It is for this precise reason that Saudi Arabia is making significant strides in AI investments, with a total of $14.9 billion announced at the LEAP 2025 conference, aiming to position the Kingdom as a global leader in digital innovation. While the new Apple Foundation Program at ECU Central will be a critical building block in ensuring that WA shares in this global boom in IT jobs, we still need a smarter housing policy so we can fully capitalise on this expected boom and help diversify our economy. The essential role housing will play in capturing this massive new jobs growth in sectors such as AI was confirmed during my recent business trip to Greece, where our company is a marketing partner in the massive Ellinikon urban renewal development in Athens. My involvement in the Ellinikon project has been an amazing professional experience as the project has fully embraced the 'smart concept' and AI. It has highlighted to me the rapid growth in IT, its mobility throughout the world and the housing requirements for this sector as well as the need for 'smart housing'. The Ellinikon development is attracting very strong interest from IT professionals throughout the world who now have the freedom to live from virtually anywhere in the world because of our global digital economy. They are attracted to living in the Ellinikon development because it will become one of the world's greatest urban villages due to outstanding planning and its location in a prime Athens location. These IT specialists want to relocate to a safe family-oriented environment that offers an excellent lifestyle with lots of nearby facilities within walking distance. Perth is equally well positioned to attract IT specialists from throughout the world because we tick many of the lifestyle requirements they are seeking, except for one major deficiency. Unfortunately, we cannot compete in the type of housing they require. This is because over recent years, the entire focus of our housing strategy has been to help solve our housing crisis through urban sprawl. This has involved the fast-tracking of new housing developments in the outer Perth rim where there are few amenities and a strong sense of community. The thousands of new houses that are being constructed in these urban fringe areas virtually all look the same, are boring and lack any genuine diversity that smartly designed new urban infill housing developments can now offer and what young IT professionals want. Modern infill developments do not mean high-rise towers but an exciting mix of townhouses, boutique apartment complexes, and villas. So, when WA has a historic opportunity to transition from a commodity-based State economy like Saudi Arabia into a society with a much broader economic base that includes a strong IT international sector, housing is once again our weakness. That is why we need to work quickly to put together an action plan that will provide desperately needed infill developments in near city locations. This will allow Perth to take advantage of the massive economic benefits that will flow from the huge opportunities in the global IT sector. To make this happen, housing and infill development have to become an integral part of our economic development and investment strategy at the State Government level as soon as possible. The clock is ticking, and we don't have time to waste if we are not to miss out on this golden opportunity that the global IT sector can offer WA. James Limnios is Managing Director of Limnios Property Group
Syyaha
04-05-2025
- Business
- Syyaha
Qualcomm, Aramco, and Saudi Arabia's Research, Development, and Innovation Authority announce startups selected for 'Design in Saudi Arabia with AI' accelerator program
Qualcomm, through its subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies International, Inc., Aramco, through its subsidiary Aramco Overseas Company B.V., together with Saudi Arabia's Research, Development, and Innovation Authority (RDIA) today announced the startups selected to participate in the inaugural 'Design in Saudi Arabia with AI' (DISAI) accelerator is a collaborative effort between Qualcomm, Aramco, and RDIA, launched at LEAP 2025 to empower early-stage startups in AI, IoT, and wireless technologies. The program underscores Qualcomm's commitment to fostering technological advancement and digital transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi initiative aims to enhance the Kingdom's technology innovation ecosystem by helping to nurture early-stage startups by providing intellectual property training and guiding them from product design and development through commercialization. The selected participants will gain access to Qualcomm Technologies' mentorship, Aramco's industrial experience, and RDIA's strategic six selected startups, listed alphabetically, are:• Agile Loop: AI-driven integration of user and enterprise workflows with IoT devices using agentic edge AI.• Manyface: Predictive maintenance, sensor monitoring, and processing for oil and gas wells using edge AI.• Mobisense: Real-time speech-to-text transcription and LLM-based summarization, categorization, and responsiveness embedded in 5G networks, ensuring data privacy.• Orbital Universe: Carbon sequestration monitoring in Saudi Arabian mangrove plantations using edge AI, IoT sensors, and space imaging data.• Pix Convey: Modular AGV chassis with intelligent map-less navigation for diverse applications, including passenger transportation and logistics. • Thakaa Med: Advanced diagnostic and treatment solutions using edge AI to enhance workflows and optimize operations for healthcare institutions. 'As someone new to the Kingdom, I am genuinely impressed by the talent, entrepreneurial spirit, and ingenuity represented by the inaugural DISAI cohort members,' said Sudeepto Roy, Qualcomm Incorporated Vice President, Engineering. 'Their innovative approaches in the industrial, healthcare, and sustainability sectors, along with advanced 5G connectivity, edge AI, and IoT integration, are truly world class. The high quality of submissions was such that we decided to mentor six startups instead of the originally planned five. Qualcomm is honored to be part of their journey and eagerly anticipates their future successes.''We are proud to join forces with Qualcomm and RDIA on the first national run of this critical program,' said Sami A. Ajmi, Aramco Acting Senior Vice President of Digital & Information Technology. 'Through our Saudi Accelerated Innovation Lab (SAIL), we are dedicated to the pursuit of fostering digital transformation and industrial innovation in the Kingdom. The DISAI program exemplifies our continued dedication to building a strong technology sector and supporting Saudi entrepreneurs. We are excited to see the innovative solutions these startups can develop by harnessing the limitless potential of advanced AI, IoT, and digital technologies to make a positive impact in the Kingdom and beyond.''RDIA is dedicated to empowering Saudi Arabia's talented minds and fostering a culture of innovation,' said Dr. Mohammed Alotaibi, RDIA Acting Head. 'The DISAI program highlights the strong talent and forward-thinking approaches of our inaugural cohort. Their work in the industrial, healthcare, and sustainability sectors, enhanced by advanced technologies, shows their potential to drive significant change. We are proud to support these innovators as they pave the way for a prosperous future that is aligned with Saudi Vision 2030. ' The DISAI program's incubation period will run from April until November 2025, with the shortlisted startups participating in a finale event, during which they will demonstrate their products and services. Throughout the program, the startups will receive guidance from Qualcomm and Aramco's experts, receive patent training, get to experience Qualcomm Technologies' leading advanced AI technologies, and have the opportunity to connect with potential investors and partners.
