The competitive edge in enterprise AI is shifting to context: which platform can give an agent the right memory, the right retrieval and the right data at the moment of decision.

Couchbase on Tuesday announced its AI Data Plane, combining persistent agent memory, real-time context retrieval and an enterprise-managed MCP server in a single operational platform. 

Couchbase’s roots are in caching and high-transaction databases — an architecture the company argues makes it better suited for agent memory than vendors that came to the problem from search or analytics. The AI Data Plane runs identically across cloud, on-premises and disconnected edge environments, extending agent memory and local vector search to devices with no network connection.

“How do you make sure that the intelligence that you get out of these models are the ones that databases specialize in?” Gopi Duddi, CTO at Couchbase, told VentureBeat. “How can you get that value out of storage systems, which are still going to be databases?”

What the AI Data Plane delivers

The AI Data Plane packages three components designed to replace the fragmented stacks most enterprises are currently running.

Agent memory: A unified persistence layer for conversational context, structured operational data and vector embeddings. Couchbase says the guardrails are what distinguish it from standalone memory services: token constraints per session, time-to-live limits on stored memories and metering controls that cap compute consumption per agent session.

Enterprise MCP server: An enterprise-supported self-managed server for standardized model-context protocol integration, shipping as part of the platform rather than requiring a separate service.

Agent catalog: A function-level catalog of discoverable agent tooling built by Couchbase. Duddi distinguished it from metadata catalogs like Databricks Unity or AWS Glue — describing it, in his words, as closer to a glorified MCP that surfaces agent functions as callable tools within the platform.

Memory-first architecture takes agent context to the disconnected edge

The lineage of Couchbase and its core architectural foundation is what Duddi says gives it an edge when it comes to context.

“We were a cache before we became a database,” Duddi said.

Writing to memory is 10x faster than writing to disk, Duddi said — a speed advantage he argues separates Couchbase from NoSQL databases that layer memory workloads on top of disk-based storage.

Couchbase isn’t the only data technology that has its roots in a caching layer. Redis similarly is rooted in cache and also recently announced an agentic AI context layer. Duddi argued that Couchbase is different in that it maintains an ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) compliant database which matters for transactional workloads. Couchbase also has a long history across multiple deployment modalities.

That architecture extends to the edge through Couchbase Lite, the platform’s on-device runtime. It runs SQL, full-text search and vector search locally without a network connection, using a proprietary sync mechanism to replicate bidirectionally back to cloud or between edge nodes when connectivity returns. The target environments are retail floor operations, field service, industrial deployments and regulated settings where agent data cannot leave the device.

Duddi cited hotel reservations as an early example: multiple agents serving customers concurrently, each pulling local context and running vector search on-device, with shared session memory synchronizing centrally. The practical benefit is token efficiency. Rather than every agent independently retrieving and processing the same data, the platform caches shared context so concurrent sessions draw on it without burning tokens repeatedly.

Agora’s view from production

Agora, a platform that helps developers embed real-time voice, video and conversational AI into enterprise applications, has run Couchbase in production since February 2024.

The initial use case was its Signaling product, managing channel setup and state synchronization for live calls. Expanding into conversational AI agents brought stricter requirements: memory-first architecture, full JSON support for storage and query, cross-datacenter replication for high availability and enterprise-grade vendor support.

“Couchbase was the best fit based on these criteria,” Patrick Ferriter, SVP of Product at Agora, told VentureBeat.

Agora is now extending that relationship to support context retrieval for conversational AI agents.

“This will simplify the architecture and deliver enterprise grade RAG with predictable lower latency required for conversational AI use cases,” Ferriter said.

For data professionals trying to figure out the best approach to context, there is no one answer. On platform selection, Ferriter was direct.

“It depends on the preference and goals of the organization, including timing,” Ferriter  said. “If they want something enterprise grade and optimal for immediate production and scale vs. having to optimize and maintain an open-source solution with community support. We wanted the former and that is why we looked at an expanded partnership with Couchbase.”

Competitive context: following the right trend

The context layer has become a crowded space in 2025.

Oracle put a memory core in its database back in March providing a context layer. Redis added a context layer in May as did vector-native database vendor Pinecone.  

“Couchbase is following this trend, not setting it, but it’s the right one to follow,” Devin Pratt, Research Director for AI, Automation, Data and Analytics at IDC, told VentureBeat. “Its real edge is reach, running the same platform from cloud to edge to mobile, which is how enterprises actually operate. The test now is to scale against bigger names.”

For teams navigating the vendor landscape, Pratt’s framing is direct. “Match the tool to the workload. Consolidate where it makes sense, use a specialized engine like a graph database where relationship-heavy reasoning earns it, and let governance drive the call rather than treating memory as plumbing,” Pratt said.

The US government has just handed scientists the largest map of human health ever assembled. It pairs more than half a million genomes with real medical records, and it arrives as the programme behind it faces deep budget cuts.

The database comes from All of Us, a research programme run by the National Institutes of Health. On June 30, 2026, the NIH released data from more than 747,000 participants. That makes All of Us the world’s largest integrated store of genomes and electronic health records. It links 535,000 whole genome sequences to nearly 482,000 medical records. No rival can match that depth and breadth.

The scale is the point. To tailor a treatment to one person, researchers first need patterns drawn from many. All of Us bundles genomes with doctors’ notes, diagnoses, and test results. It adds health surveys, wearable data from devices like Fitbits, and even local air quality. The trove now holds more than 1.3 billion genetic variants. The eventual goal is one million volunteers.

Built for the people usually left out

What sets All of Us apart is who is in it. More than 86 per cent of participants come from groups long overlooked in medical research. That includes racial and ethnic minorities, older adults, women, people with disabilities, and rural residents. Participants span all 50 states.

That matters because the current gold standard does not manage it. The UK Biobank, the field’s leading repository, holds records for about 500,000 people. Almost all are of white European ancestry. Findings from such data often fail to carry over to other groups. All of Us has already helped uncover gene variants that cut the risk of kidney disease in people of African ancestry. A narrower database would miss that kind of result.

“One of the most exciting components is its sheer diversity,” said Alicia Martin. She is a statistical geneticist at the Broad Institute who uses the data to build risk-prediction tools. It offers a way, she said, to understand not just who is at risk of disease, but who will respond to which treatment.

The data layer for AI medicine

This is also raw material for artificial intelligence. Modern drug discovery and diagnosis lean on large, clean datasets. A genomic-plus-clinical trove at this scale is exactly what the new wave of AI research tools and science-specific models are hungry for. Claims that AI can already outperform doctors run well ahead of the evidence, but better data is what would narrow the gap. The release even opens what the programme calls its multiomics era, adding protein and RNA data for thousands of participants.

The payoff is already visible. All of Us data has fed more than 1,400 peer-reviewed papers from some 23,000 researchers. It helped build a genetic test that predicts inherited risk across eight cardiovascular conditions. It backed a low-cost prostate cancer model now in a trial of 5,000 veterans, and early work on catching disease before it starts, including Alzheimer’s. The programme has returned more than 733,000 personalised DNA results to participants. Access is free, so a researcher at a rural university gets the same data as one at a top institute.

A national treasure, and a target

The timing is bittersweet. The milestone arrives just as All of Us loses ground on funding. Its budget has been cut by 72 per cent since 2023. One of its main funding streams, the 21st Century Cures Act, is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year. More than 50 medical organisations have written to Congress warning that much of what has been built could be lost.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya called the database “a national treasure” and a foundational platform for investigators at every career stage. Both things are true at once. The resource is more valuable than ever, and its future is less certain than ever. That tension is sharper still while other governments pour money into research and computing infrastructure.

The privacy question underneath

A store of half a million genomes tied to medical records is also one of the most sensitive datasets ever built. All of Us shares it only with registered researchers, through a controlled cloud workbench. It leans on the trust of the people who volunteered. That trust is the quiet foundation of the whole project, and it is worth as much as the genomes themselves. As AI makes it easier to draw conclusions from health data, guarding that trust will only get harder.

For now, the headline is simple. Scientists have never had a health map this large, or this representative of who people actually are. Whether the country keeps paying for it is the next question, and the answer will decide how much of the promise turns real.

Acer’s 1,000Hz gaming monitor has moved from announcement to Amazon listing. The XV273U F5 is priced at $699.99, giving competitive players a real number to weigh before one of the fastest displays headed to North America actually ships.

Availability is still the problem. Amazon lists the monitor as temporarily out of stock, and Acer has previously pointed to a Q4 North America launch window instead of a firm release date.

The bigger question is whether the fastest mode deserves the attention. The XV273U F5 is a 27-inch QHD monitor first, and its most extreme refresh rate requires a serious cut in resolution.

How fast can it really go

The baseline spec is already aggressive, as Acer built the XV273U F5 around a 27-inch IPS panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a native 540Hz refresh rate.

The 1,000Hz mode is more specialized. To reach that speed, the monitor drops to 1280 x 720, making it a dual-mode esports display rather than a full-time 1,000Hz QHD panel.

That split gives the XV273U F5 a clearer audience. If you’re playing ranked shooters and chasing every bit of responsiveness, the softer image may be acceptable. If you’re buying a premium 27-inch screen for sharpness, the tradeoff is harder to justify.

Why does 720p change the appeal

At 720p, Acer’s fastest mode narrows the use case. It’s built for games where motion clarity and input feel matter more than detail, not for players who want one display to make everything look its best.

There’s also a reason to wait for testing. A similar dual-mode Philips monitor was underwhelming in a hands-on coverage, so Acer’s tuning, overdrive behavior, and real response times still need proof.

Acer also lists FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync support, which should help keep gameplay smoother when frame rates fluctuate, so the safer draw is the 540Hz QHD mode.

When should buyers hold off

The XV273U F5 belongs on the shortlist for esports players who specifically want 540Hz at QHD and can justify a $699.99 monitor. That’s still a narrow group.

For anyone mainly chasing the 1,000Hz number, patience is the smarter move. You’ll want independent reviews to show whether Acer’s 720p mode feels meaningfully faster, or whether the spec sheet is moving quicker than the experience.

Every year, more than $200 billion in employer-originated wages crosses international borders. The money moves through a patchwork of local banks, regional payroll vendors, and manual compliance processes. Anyone who managed international payments in 2005 would recognise the setup. The scale has changed. The plumbing has not.

This is not a minor inefficiency. It is a structural gap in how the global economy operates. Financial markets have exchanges. Trade has clearing houses. Cross-border payroll, despite its size and growth rate, has neither.

The problem nobody talks about at the fintech conferences

Much of the conversation around global hiring focuses on the front end: finding talent, signing contracts, setting up onboarding workflows. Those are real challenges. An entire category of employer of record (EOR) platforms has emerged to address them. Business Research Insights projects the global EOR market will reach $10.45 billion by 2035, up from $5.97 billion this year.

The back end has received far less attention. Moving money across jurisdictions, with local tax withholding, statutory deductions, and regulatory reporting correct in each country, is where the real complexity sits. Most companies stitch together three or four vendors. Each handles a slice. Nobody owns the full flow.

The result is predictable. Delayed payments, compliance gaps, reconciliation headaches, and a structural advantage for large multinationals with dedicated treasury teams. Smaller companies drive most of the growth in cross-border hiring, which grew 25 per cent year-over-year since 2023. They navigate this fragmentation on their own.

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Multiplier’s bet: build the exchange, not just the product

Singapore-headquartered Multiplier has spent six years building what it calls the Global Exchange for Work. The concept is an infrastructure layer connecting companies, talent, and countries through owned legal entities, proprietary compliance engines, and integrated payments.

The “exchange” framing is deliberate. A stock exchange provides the rails, rules, and settlement mechanisms for financial transactions. Multiplier is positioning itself as the equivalent for cross-border employment: contracts generated, payroll calculated, taxes withheld, wages delivered, all within a single system.

The company operates its own legal entities across more than 160 countries, rather than outsourcing to local partners. The distinction matters for compliance accountability. When something goes wrong with a tax filing in Germany or a benefits calculation in Brazil, Multiplier is the entity on the hook. Not a third-party intermediary three layers removed from the hiring company.

The missing piece was payments

In April 2026, Multiplier launched Global Payroll Payments, powered by London-based fintech Navro. The partnership fills the final gap in the infrastructure: moving money.

What makes the integration notable goes beyond payroll disbursements. Navro’s Statutory & Tax service fulfils all mandatory tax deductions, statutory payments, and regulatory reporting alongside payroll payouts in a single payment flow. The company says it covers 95 countries.

Previously, companies using EOR platforms for hiring still needed separate payment rails for disbursement. Generate payroll in one system, initiate payments in another, reconcile manually. Multiplier argues that this separation creates the very gaps the EOR model set out to eliminate: delayed payments, mismatched deductions, compliance drift.

Sagar Khatri, Multiplier’s CEO, describes the launch as the piece that “completes the exchange.” Whether that framing holds up at scale remains to be seen. But the ambition is clear: one platform, one flow, from contract to payment.

Scale and scrutiny

The numbers suggest the infrastructure is gaining traction. Multiplier processes $2 billion in global wages annually, a figure doubling each year. More than 2,700 companies use the platform. The company earned IEC Leader status in EOR for 2026, ranking among the top three platforms globally.

The company has also invested in operational depth. In January, Multiplier appointed Kate Walsh, formerly of HubSpot and Klaviyo, as Chief Customer Officer. Amanda Frayne joined as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer. Both hires signal a focus on the operational maturity that enterprise buyers demand.

This matters because the EOR sector faces its own credibility test. Adoption has accelerated: 41 per cent of distributed teams now use an EOR, with another 49 per cent planning to start. Questions about compliance quality, hidden fees, and vendor accountability have grown louder. Operating the payment and compliance infrastructure directly, rather than reselling, is one response.

The European angle

For European companies, the infrastructure gap in cross-border payroll is particularly acute. The EU’s single market makes it straightforward to sell across borders but not to employ across them. Each member state maintains its own employment law, tax regime, and social contribution system. A company in the Netherlands hiring a developer in Portugal and a sales lead in Poland faces three entirely different compliance landscapes.

Multiplier extended its payroll offering earlier this year with Non-Resident Employer (NRE) Payroll, designed for European cross-border employment. The NRE model lets companies pay employees in other EU countries without a local legal entity. They use their existing registration and Multiplier’s compliance infrastructure for local obligations.

Regulatory complexity keeps increasing. GDPR imposes strict requirements on how companies handle employee data across borders. The EU’s Pay Transparency Directive, taking effect in 2026, adds reporting obligations for multi-state employers. For companies using a patchwork of local vendors, each new regulation multiplies the compliance burden. For a unified infrastructure, it strengthens the case for consolidation.

Infrastructure plays are boring until they are not

The “exchange” metaphor invites scepticism. Financial exchanges took decades and regulatory mandates to build. Employment is messier, more jurisdictionally fragmented, and more resistant to standardisation. Multiplier is not the only company building here, and the competitive dynamics between Deel, Remote, Papaya Global, and others will shape the category.

But the underlying thesis is hard to argue against. Cross-border employment needs purpose-built infrastructure rather than bolted-together point solutions. The $200 billion in annual cross-border wages is not shrinking. The regulatory complexity is not simplifying. And the companies doing the hiring keep getting smaller, with less capacity to manage fragmentation themselves.

Whether Multiplier’s version of the exchange wins is an open question. That some version of it is needed is increasingly not.

from the hiding-the-paper-trail dept

DOGE was always designed to provide flimsy pseudo-efficiency cover for wholesale corruption. It was designed to pretend that the government was “cutting waste and fraud” while a bunch of velour tracksuit wearing con men stripped the country for parts and sold what was left off the back loading dock.

As we’ve since explored, DOGE also burned through billions of dollars, exposed the sensitive data of untold Americans, killed untold millions of people worldwide, and generally distracted dim and misinformed Americans from the fact their government is too corrupt to function in the public interest and is no longer capable of consistently standing up to corporate power.

Enter Brendan Carr, who appears to be under fire for the FCC’s efforts to hide his agency’s correspondence with DOGE bros. Last year, journalist Nina Burleigh and advocacy group Frequency Forward sued the FCC, alleging that the agency violated the Freedom of Information Act by wrongfully withholding agency records. 

In a new filing (via Ars Technica) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Burleigh and Frequency Forward say Carr also hid his use of Signal as a communications tool, which they apparently believe he used to communicate with DOGE:

“The evidence clearly demonstrates that the FCC has acted in bad faith by withholding documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request. The FCC acted in bad faith when it redefined the search criteria without notice to Plaintiffs or this Court. Further, the FCC acted in bad faith by concealing the fact that the Chairman Carr has a Signal account on a phone he uses to conduct government business.”

While Carr’s obnoxious censorship efforts get all the policy and media attention, he’s also been at work destroying the FCC’s consumer protection authority, eliminating media consolidation limits, and dismantling what little corporate oversight we had left at the agency. This was “cleverly” dubbed Carr’s “delete, delete, delete” agenda. Telecom monopolies and robocallers love the plan.

It’s not clear what a bunch of 20-something Elon Musk cult members could have contributed to Carr’s mindless demolition of public interest governance, but it sure would be nice to take a transparent look, given the vast financial conflicts of interest between Musk’s fake government agency and the multiple Musk-owned companies looking (and getting) giant financial favors from the FCC.

Starlink has been getting a lot of favors in particular, with more likely coming given rumors that Starlink wants to launch a wireless phone provider.

“The evidence strongly suggests that Musk bought his way into the White House and to obtain his position as the de-facto head of DOGE, and that he had used his government authority and access to information to earn huge profits for himself and his companies,” the plaintiffs wrote. “Plaintiffs’ FoIA request seeks documents that shed light on the relationship between the FCC, Musk as regulator and Musk and his companies as regulated entities.”

Meanwhile, I still think it’s embarrassing that the press, and some Dem politicians, initially treated DOGE as if it was a good faith effort they could work with. As opposed to what it clearly was all along: corruption and grift under the flimsy veneer of improved government efficiency.

Filed Under: brendan carr, corruption, delete, deregulation, doge, elon musk, fcc, foia, signal, transparency

Companies: starlink

Samsung has quietly expanded its mid-range lineup with the Galaxy M47. While it shares plenty with the recently launched Galaxy A27, there’s one upgrade that immediately stands out. It has a much larger 6000mAh battery.

The new handset has officially launched in India. It pairs that bigger battery with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset and a 120Hz AMOLED display. Additionally, Samsung offers its promise of six years of Android and security updates. For buyers after a phone that prioritises longevity over flashy extras, the M47 looks like one of Samsung’s more compelling budget options.

The battery is arguably the headline feature. At 6000mAh, it’s larger than the Galaxy A27‘s cell and supports 45W wired charging. Samsung has also included bypass charging. This powers the phone directly from the charger instead of the battery when plugged in. It’s a feature that’s becoming increasingly common on gaming phones. It helps reduce heat during long gaming sessions while also limiting battery wear.

When you put yeast in a sugar solution, the results are rather straightforward. The yeast munches on the sugar in the absence of oxygen and employs enzymes to convert sucrose into basic sugars. Those are subsequently converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide. One common method is to combine table sugar and water to achieve a 20% concentration before adding around 2 grams of baker’s yeast per liter. Before you know it, bubbles appear as CO2 escapes from the airlock. After a week or two, the liquid contains approximately 10-15% ethanol. It turns out that approximately 54% of the sugar you started with is converted into ethanol, while the remainder is expelled as CO2.

However, the concentration levels are insufficient to keep an engine running reliably. To get it to separate from the water it is combined with, we must distill it. The brew is poured into an 8-liter pressure cooker, which resembles a large saucepan with a pipe coming out of it. We just heat it on an electric heating plate, but it does not boil. The main difference is that ethanol vapor rises before water because it boils at 78 degrees and water boils at 100 degrees. To condense it, we use a long copper conduit lined with mesh and allow it to run back around every now and again. Each time, the percentage of ethanol in the ascending vapor increases somewhat. The system’s final step cools the vapor into a liquid, resulting in a hydrometer reading of 93 to 95% ethanol, and a simple flame test reveals that it’s burning properly, with no residue.

We need to make a few tweaks before the engine will operate on this stuff. The engine used is a 212cc four-stroke with a carburetor, so we’ll need to increase the main jet size by around 20% to accommodate the more concentrated ethanol combination. The rubber seals and gasoline lines will need to be replaced with Teflon and metal ones that can withstand ethanol. Once everything has been replaced, the engine will start on the concentrated ethanol and happily spin the crank, however we may need to adjust the pilot circuit if it is not idling properly.

Hyperspace Pirate began by obtaining an old brushless motor that had originally come with an electric skateboard, which it then mounted onto the crankshaft using some adapters and a scrap of metal to secure it. As the crank turns, the motor starts spinning and produces a three-phase alternating current via electromagnetic induction. Next, a bridge rectifier is utilized to convert the AC to the DC required, which is 12-18 volts. Under normal load, the Hyperspace Pirates system generates 780-900 watts, which is quite astounding. If you add a capacitor to smooth out the voltage and an inverter to make it more like standard residential power, you’ll have 120 volts.
[Source]

How the tech giant’s “Rural Ecosystem” initiative is bridging the digital divide across 20+ nations with green connectivity and inclusive services

ZTE has received two prestigious Digital with Purpose (DWP) honors – the Smart Cities Award and the Global Award – for its Signal Reach Program in Africa at the DWP Global Summit Shenzhen 2026.

The awards span three core categories: Climate, Smart Cities, and Health & Wellbeing. In addition, the event presents the coveted Global Award as its supreme annual honor. Dubbed the Award of the Awards, it is the year’s sole top overall prize, selected from outstanding entries across all category divisions.

The Signal Reach Program in Africa distinguished itself among a competitive field of global submissions for its innovation, impact, and alignment with the values of purposeful digital transformation. These honors underscore ZTE’s large-scale efforts to drive digital transformation in remote regions and highlight its significant contribution to advancing global sustainable development and closing the digital divide.

Hosted by the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), the summit brought together global leaders from government, business, academia, and research to explore the pathway of digital technology for good. As one of the most influential international awards under the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the DWP Global Awards celebrate exemplary global projects that leverage digital technology innovation to promote social equity, environmental sustainability, and inclusive growth.

Chen Zhiping, Chief International Ecosystem Representative of ZTE, accepted the awards on behalf of the company, underscoring ZTE’s commitment to advancing global sustainable development and digital inclusion.

She emphasized that the Signal Reach Program in Africa is not merely a communication technology initiative, but a locally rooted social responsibility project. Winning the two awards is a strong recognition of ZTE’s long-standing commitment to the Tech for Good principle. ZTE will continue to leverage its technological strengths and collaborate with customers, NGOs, and partners across local communities to contribute to the realization of the UN SDGs.

Addressing the pain point of weak infrastructure in remote and rural areas of Africa, the program is driven by the core philosophy of “ubiquitous connectivity, green energy, and inclusive sharing”. It features the innovative “Rural Ecosystem” end-to-end solution, integrating “EcoSite + EcoEnergy + EcoDevice” to build a comprehensive digital ecosystem covering infrastructure, energy supply, and terminal access.

The Rural EcoSite solution utilizes highly integrated equipment and various backhaul options, supporting flexible evolution from 2G/3G/4G to 5G. During construction, the innovative Lego-type modular tower drastically simplifies and accelerates deployment, shortening the average construction time by over 60% and reducing overall construction costs by 70%. To overcome the bottleneck of a lack of grid power in some remote areas, the Rural EcoEnergy solution provides a 100% solar-powered system equipped with high-efficiency PV panels and smart lithium batteries, managed by the iEnergy platform to realize dynamic load adjustment and remote monitoring. In actual deployments, some sites can even provide electricity for local villagers. For operation and maintenance (O&M), the solution supports end-to-end network management, with remote O&M simplifying processes and improving maintainability. The Rural EcoDevice solution delivers cost-effective smartphones, MiFi, and CPE terminal devices tailored for the African market, significantly lowering the barrier to digital access. Coupled with customized low-tariff data packages and digital skills training provided by operators, this solution successfully bridges the “last mile” of digital services.

To date, the program has been deployed at scale in more than 20 African countries, including Liberia, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Algeria, South Africa, and Egypt. In Liberia, Orange Liberia and ZTE have delivered inclusive digital, financial, and energy services to over one million users in more than 200 low-density rural communities. In Ethiopia, Ethio Telecom and ZTE have brought stable network services to over 100 low-density areas, fostering the wide application of digital technologies in livelihood sectors such as electronic payments, remote education, and environmental protection. In the central-southern and eastern regions of Cameroon, the large-scale deployment of rural base stations and a 360-kilometer backbone microwave link has built a systematic rural communication reinforcement network, significantly enhancing mobile coverage density and quality to serve nearly 15 million people. In Egypt, high-speed broadband networks have been built for over 1,500 villages, covering nearly 10 million people. These achievements have not only realized extensive coverage of communication infrastructure but also effectively driven the inclusive development of digital technology in livelihood sectors.

During the summit, Chen Zhiping joined the roundtable forum “Digital – The Backbone for a Sustainable Future”, engaging with global leaders in digital sustainability. Drawing on ZTE’s extensive practices in global ICT infrastructure development, she shared insights on how digital technologies can provide a solid foundation for sustainable development worldwide.

Chen Zhiping highlighted, “Sustainable development is not only about carbon reduction, but more importantly about ensuring universal access to digital opportunities. Affordable, green, and inclusive digital infrastructure is the cornerstone of a sustainable future”. She also emphasized ZTE’s commitment to open collaboration, noting that the company actively shares its experiences while advancing its own digital and sustainable transformation, and expressed ZTE’s readiness to work with global enterprises and international organizations to co-create a digital-for-purpose ecosystem.

Guided by its people-centric philosophy, ZTE is dedicated to ensuring that people across different regions enjoy equal communication rights and digital opportunities. Moving forward, ZTE will continue to deepen its commitment to green communications, digital inclusion, and low–carbon operations, driving the ICT industry toward greater inclusiveness, intelligence, and sustainability, and jointly building a brighter digital future.

Contributed by ZTE.

CBC plans to raise its annual technology spending to more than $771mn, according to Bloomberg, as Singapore’s second-largest lender leans harder into AI and digital banking. The increase marks one of the first strategic signals from Tan Teck Long, who took over as group chief executive on 1 January 2026.

Tan succeeded Helen Wong, who retired at the end of 2025 after steering the bank through an earlier phase of digital investment.

The reported figure of roughly $771mn sits close to the S$1bn mark in local currency terms, a threshold OCBC has flagged in various technology commitments over recent years.

The bank has said it will use 2026 to embed AI, digital and data more deeply across customer journeys, according to its 2025 annual report.

The stated aim is to build scale, personalise services and wring out cost efficiencies, the familiar trio of justifications for a rising bank technology bill.

Around three in five of OCBC’s employees have taken part in AI, digital or data training over the past three years, the bank has said.

That workforce push matters because the spending is not only about systems. It reflects a bet that staff across the bank can put AI tools to work rather than leaving them to a central team.

OCBC has framed its ambitions around AI, digital and data as a single stack rather than three separate projects.

The bank has spent recent years modernising a digital core, an unglamorous but expensive foundation for the customer-facing features it now wants to layer on top.

Tan has struck a measured tone on the outlook. For 2026 he expects total income to be stable to growing. Against that backdrop, a higher technology budget reads as a deliberate reallocation rather than a spend fuelled by soaring revenue.

OCBC has been building the case for years. It committed about S$500mn to an innovation hub in Singapore’s Punggol Digital District, a site due for completion in 2027.

The bank has also pushed into newer plumbing, recently backing a $1bn blockchain-powered US commercial paper programme. Those moves fit a regional pattern in which Singapore’s big banks compete as much on technology stacks as on branch networks.

DBS and UOB, OCBC’s local rivals, have made their own loud commitments to AI and digital infrastructure in recent years. In that contest, standing still is not really an option, and a bigger technology bill is the price of staying in the race.

The strategy is not without friction. Rising technology costs squeeze the cost-to-income ratio precisely when margins across Asian banking are under pressure.

Tan inherits that tension alongside the scrutiny of OCBC’s influential long-term shareholders, a dynamic that will shape how freely he can spend. Any sustained rise in the technology bill will have to be squared with the bank’s reputation for cost discipline.

The broader industry logic is hard to argue with. McKinsey has estimated that generative AI could add $200bn to $340bn a year in value across banking, a prize lenders are racing to capture.

OCBC is not alone in leaning on the technology. Rival HSBC found that AI still trails human wealth managers when the money actually moves, a reminder that the returns are uneven.

Even so, the direction of travel is set, from banks probing the trust gap with big tech to Singapore’s state-level push on blockchain innovation and adoption. For OCBC, the higher budget is the clearest sign yet that its new chief intends to keep pace rather than pull back.

The test will be whether more than $771mn a year buys measurable gains in productivity and customer growth, or simply keeps the bank running to stand still.