Intel Corp, the world’s largest maker of computer chips, will invest in three technology companies based in the United Arab Emirates.
Intel will finance its investment in Conservus International FZ-LLC, Pulse Technologies FZ-LLC and Vertex Animation Studio FZ- LLC from its US$50 million Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey Fund, the company said yesterday in Dubai.
“We have a strong pipeline for future investments in the region,” Feroz Sanaulla, director of Intel Capital’s Middle East, Turkey and Africa division, said during a press conference. “Several hundred million dollars have been deployed in the region, and you will see more in the next few months.”
Intel, whose processors run more than 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, has announced layoffs this year as the global credit crisis curbed consumer spending, hurting technology companies.
The company said on Jan. 21 it would close five older plants that employ as many as 6,000 people, including its last factory in Silicon Valley, as it copes with a worldwide recession.
“It’s a very unpredictable situation,” Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital said. “We’re in an economic situation where virtually no company is untouched.”
Meanwhile, shareholders of Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Intel’s largest rival, was to vote yesterday on a planned spinoff of plants as part of an investment from the Abu Dhabi government.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained