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AI Business
Los Angeles-based Firecrawl has secured a $75M Series B led by Smash Ventures, with backing from Y Combinator, Altos Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Freestyle and Offline Ventures. The company plans to use the funding to expand Alexandria, its data-licensing service, and add more third-party data integrations.
AI Business
Bank of America says China's drive for technology self-reliance is creating opportunities across artificial intelligence stocks, as domestic companies narrow the gap with overseas rivals. But elevated valuations, crowded investor positioning and exposure to US technology restrictions could make parts of the market vulnerable.
AI Business
Publicis Sapient CEO Nigel Vaz says the company chose a focused artificial intelligence strategy rather than the low-cost, headcount-led model associated with India's IT industry. His work involves helping major global companies embed AI into their operations, and he has been named to TIME's 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in AI.
AI Business
Ant Group has combined 3 business units into a new Alipay group and appointed Wu Minzhi to lead it, as the Chinese fintech company expands its focus on AI wallets, AI payments and agentic commerce. CEO Cyril Han Xinyi said the market was entering a phase of explosive, large-scale growth.
AI Business
Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 is now available through Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock platform, putting its open-weight licensing strategy before a major cloud provider. The arrangement comes as Chinese AI companies seek more commercial income from overseas platforms while keeping their models broadly available to users.
AI Business
China’s AI developers have used overseas cloud data centres to access advanced Nvidia processors despite chip restrictions. Planned US measures targeting remote access could close that route, disrupt Southeast Asia’s fast-growing data-centre market, pressure Nvidia’s international revenue and accelerate Beijing’s drive to build a domestic alternative.
AI Business
OpenAI is discussing a lease covering about 100,000 sq ft across 5 floors at the newly completed Shaw Tower on Beach Road. The proposed expansion would significantly increase its Singapore footprint as the company prepares to establish its first Applied AI Lab outside the United States and hire more than 200 specialised artificial intelligence professionals.
AI Business
A CBRE survey of 651 corporate real estate executives across 9 Asia-Pacific markets found that 56 per cent remain neutral on AI’s effect on office demand. While nearly one-fifth expect smaller real estate needs, 25 per cent anticipate expanding their office footprint.
AI Business
HCLTech has introduced HCLTech Pulse, a dedicated business unit for enterprises with annual revenues of $500 million to $5 billion. It will combine AI, data, cloud, cybersecurity, engineering and business-process transformation services to help these organisations modernise technology foundations and expand AI initiatives safely and responsibly.
AI Business
Global spending on artificial intelligence is projected to reach $2.7 trillion in 2026, as demand for AI infrastructure, customised applications and cost-efficient models accelerates. Gartner has also raised its growth outlook for application development platforms and generative AI models, while identifying a potential $1.2 trillion AI services opportunity by 2030.
