E-commerce and trade

OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank expand Stargate with new US data centres

A collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank has announced five new data centres under the Stargate initiative, a $500 billion plan to expand US AI computing infrastructure.

The latest sites bring total planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts, with over $400 billion already committed, putting the project ahead of schedule to meet its 2025 target of 10 gigawatts.

Oracle will lead three projects in Texas, New Mexico and the Midwest, adding over 5.5 gigawatts of capacity and creating more than 25,000 jobs.

SoftBank will develop facilities in Ohio and Texas, expected to scale to 1.5 gigawatts within 18 months. SB Energy, its affiliate, will provide rapid-build infrastructure for the Texas site.

The companies described the expansion as a step toward faster deployment and greater cost efficiency, making high-performance computing more widely accessible.

Site selection followed a nationwide review of more than 300 proposals, with further projects under evaluation, suggesting investment could surpass the original commitment.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stressed that compute power is key to unlocking AI’s promise, while Oracle and SoftBank leaders highlighted scalable infrastructure and energy expertise as central to the initiative. With Stargate, the partners aim to anchor the next wave of AI innovation on US soil.

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EU and Indonesia free trade deal strengthens tech and digital supply chains

The European Union and Indonesia have concluded negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and an Investment Protection Agreement (IPA), strongly emphasising technology, digitalisation and sustainable industries.

The agreements are designed to expand trade, secure critical raw materials, and drive the green and digital transitions.

Under the CEPA, tariffs on 98.5% of trade lines will be removed, cutting costs by €600 million annually and giving EU companies greater access to Indonesia’s fast-growing technology sectors, including electric vehicles, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

European firms will also gain full ownership rights in key service areas such as computers and telecommunications, helping deepen integration of digital supply chains.

A deal that embeds commitments to the Paris Agreement while promoting renewable energy and low-carbon technologies. It also includes cooperation on digital standards, intellectual property protections and trade facilitation for sectors vital to Europe’s clean tech and digital industries.

With Indonesia as a leading producer of critical raw materials, the agreement secures sustainable and predictable access to inputs essential for semiconductors, batteries and other strategic technologies.

Launched in 2016, the negotiations concluded after the political agreement reached in July 2025 between Presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Prabowo Subianto. The texts will undergo legal review before the EU and Indonesia ratification, opening a new chapter in tech-enabled trade and innovation.

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ChatGPT Go launches in Indonesia with $4.5 monthly plan

OpenAI has launched its low-cost ChatGPT Go subscription in Indonesia, pricing it at 75,000 rupiah ($4.5) per month. The new plan offers ten times more messaging capacity, image generation tools and double memory compared with the free version.

The rollout follows last month’s successful launch in India, where ChatGPT subscriptions more than doubled. India has since become OpenAI’s largest market, accounting for around 13.5% of global monthly active users. The US remains second.

Nick Turley, OpenAI Vice President and head of ChatGPT, said Indonesia is already one of the platform’s top five markets by weekly activity. The new tier is aimed at expanding reach in populous, price-sensitive regions while ensuring broader access to AI services.

OpenAI is also strengthening its financial base as it pushes into new markets. On Monday, the company secured a $100 billion investment commitment from NVIDIA, joining Microsoft and SoftBank among its most prominent backers. The funding comes amid intensifying competition in the AI industry.

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NVIDIA and OpenAI partner to build 10 gigawatts of AI data centres

OpenAI and NVIDIA have announced a strategic partnership to build at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centres powered by millions of NVIDIA GPUs.

A deal, supported by the investment of up to $100 billion from NVIDIA, that aims to provide the infrastructure for OpenAI’s next generation of models, with the first phase scheduled for late 2026 on the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform.

The companies said the collaboration will enable the development of AGI and accelerate AI adoption worldwide. OpenAI will treat NVIDIA as its preferred strategic compute and networking partner, coordinating both sides’ hardware and software roadmaps.

They will also continue working with Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and other partners to build advanced AI infrastructure.

OpenAI has grown to more than 700 million weekly users across businesses and developers globally. Executives at both firms described the new partnership as the next leap in AI computing power, one intended to fuel innovation at scale instead of incremental improvements.

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Emerging AI trends that will define 2026

AI is set to reshape daily life in 2026, with innovations moving beyond software to influence the physical world, work environments, and international relations.

Autonomous agents will increasingly manage household and workplace tasks, coordinating projects, handling logistics, and interacting with smart devices instead of relying solely on humans.

Synthetic content will become ubiquitous, potentially comprising up to 90 percent of online material. While it can accelerate data analysis and insight generation, the challenge will be to ensure genuine human creativity and experience remain visible instead of being drowned out by generic AI outputs.

The workplace will see both opportunity and disruption. Routine and administrative work will increasingly be offloaded to AI, creating roles such as prompt engineers and AI ethics specialists, while some traditional positions face redundancy.

Similarly, AI will expand into healthcare, autonomous transport, and industrial automation, becoming a tangible presence in everyday life instead of remaining a background technology.

Governments and global institutions will grapple with AI’s geopolitical and economic impact. From trade restrictions to synthetic propaganda, world leaders will attempt to control AI’s spread and underlying data instead of allowing a single country or corporation to have unchecked dominance.

Energy efficiency and sustainability will also rise to the fore, as AI’s growing power demands require innovative solutions to reduce environmental impact.

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New GitHub app turns conversations into code in Teams

GitHub has launched a new app for Microsoft Teams that integrates Copilot directly into workplace chats. The tool is designed to turn everyday conversations into code, pull requests and documentation, bringing development work closer to team discussions instead of separating them into different platforms.

An app that functions like an additional team member who understands the codebase. It can open pull requests, write code, automate tasks and request reviews, while respecting repository and organisational policies.

Analysing project history and surfacing relevant files provides context-aware support without removing human oversight.

Teams can now move from reporting a bug to delivering a fix entirely within a chat channel. From identifying problems to discussing solutions and seeing Copilot carry out changes step by step, the whole workflow remains visible to the team.

Progress updates are displayed in real time inside Teams instead of requiring developers to switch tools.

The new app is previewed, with GitHub inviting user feedback before a wider rollout. The earlier GitHub for Teams app has been renamed GitHub Notifications, which now focuses only on surfacing issues, pull requests and workflow updates.

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Huawei highlights benchmark projects for AI digital innovation

The Chinese tech company, Huawei, has introduced over 30 global benchmark showcases at HUAWEI CONNECT 2025, highlighting how AI is reshaping digital transformation across education, healthcare, finance, government, and energy.

The company emphasised that networks have become the backbone of intelligent upgrades instead of serving only as information channels.

Among the examples, Shenzhen Welkin School presented an innovative education model to expand equitable learning opportunities. In finance, China Pacific Insurance demonstrated how its intelligent computing centre uses large-model training and inference to accelerate digital services.

Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore showcased an innovative campus network that improves the visitor experience and sets a new standard for digital innovation.

These initiatives were developed jointly by Huawei and its partners, creating replicable practices that can be applied worldwide. Leaders from Huawei and industry organisations attended the launch, underlining the collaborative nature of these projects.

The showcases will be open for on-site visits, offering customers direct insight into how AI can be integrated into networks to boost efficiency and enhance user experience.

Huawei noted that the insights gained from these projects will guide future innovations. The company and its partners aim to refine solutions and extend their applicability across various sectors by drawing on proven industry applications.

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Landmark tech deal secures record UK-US AI and energy investment

The UK and US have signed a landmark Tech Prosperity Deal, securing a £250 billion investment package across technology and energy sectors. The agreement includes major commitments from leading AI companies to expand data centres, supercomputing capacity, and create 15,000 jobs in Britain.

Energy security forms a core part of the deal, with plans for 12 advanced nuclear reactors in northeast England. These facilities are expected to generate power for millions of homes and businesses, lower bills, and strengthen bilateral energy resilience.

The package includes $30 billion from Microsoft and $6.8 billion from Google, alongside other AI investments aimed at boosting UK research. It also funds the country’s largest supercomputer project with Nscale, establishing a foundation for AI leadership in Europe.

American firms have pledged £150 billion for UK projects, while British companies will invest heavily in the US. Pharmaceutical giant GSK has committed nearly $30 billion to American operations, underlining the cross-Atlantic nature of the partnership.

The Tech Prosperity Deal follows a recent UK-US trade agreement that removes tariffs on steel and aluminium and opens markets for key exports. The new accord builds on that momentum, tying economic growth to innovation, deregulation, and frontier technologies.

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Intel to design custom CPUs as part of NVIDIA AI partnership

The two US tech firms, NVIDIA and Intel, have announced a major partnership to develop multiple generations of AI infrastructure and personal computing products.

They say that the collaboration will merge NVIDIA’s leadership in accelerated computing with Intel’s expertise in CPUs and advanced manufacturing.

For data centres, Intel will design custom x86 CPUs for NVIDIA, which will be integrated into the company’s AI platforms to power hyperscale and enterprise workloads.

In personal computing, Intel will create x86 system-on-chips that incorporate NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets, aimed at delivering high-performance PCs for a wide range of consumers.

As part of the deal, NVIDIA will invest $5 billion in Intel common stock at $23.28 per share, pending regulatory approvals.

NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang described the collaboration as a ‘fusion of two world-class platforms’ that will accelerate computing innovation, while Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the partnership builds on decades of x86 innovation and will unlock breakthroughs across industries.

The move underscores how AI is reshaping both infrastructure and personal computing. By combining architectures and ecosystems instead of pursuing separate paths, Intel and NVIDIA are positioning themselves to shape the next era of computing at a global scale.

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Xbox app introduces Microsoft’s AI Copilot in beta

Microsoft has launched the beta version of Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered assistant within the Xbox mobile app for iOS and Android. The early rollout covers over 50 regions, including India, the US, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

Access is limited to users aged 18 and above, and the assistant currently supports English instead of other languages, with broader language support expected in future updates.

Copilot for Gaming is a second-screen companion, allowing players to stay informed and receive guidance without interrupting console gameplay.

The AI can track game activity, offer context-aware responses, suggest new games based on play history, check achievements, and manage account details such as Game Pass renewal and gamer score.

Users can ask questions like ‘What was my last achievement in God of War Ragnarok?’ or ‘Recommend an adventure game based on my preferences.’

Microsoft plans to expand Copilot for Gaming beyond chat-based support into a full AI gaming coach. Future updates could provide real-time gameplay advice, voice interaction, and direct console integration, allowing tasks such as downloading or installing games remotely instead of manually managing them.

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