London
CNN
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Microsoft will make investments $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi’s G42, a synthetic intelligence group that has confronted questions over its ties to China.
The businesses will collaborate on AI and digital infrastructure, in a transfer that sees Microsoft’s AI empire develop into the Center East for the primary time.
The transfer may appeal to sizeable scrutiny from regulators.
G42 — led by Peng Xiao, a Chinese language businessman and former CEO of Pegasus, a cybersecurity agency — has reportedly confronted questions over its hyperlinks to Beijing.
In November, the New York Instances reported that US officers had been involved G42 could possibly be used to share American expertise and information with the Chinese language authorities. Xiao denied these claims, calling them “misinformation” in an interview with CNN in January.
G42 and Microsoft say they’ve dedicated to adjust to US and worldwide commerce guidelines as a part of their partnership.
Microsoft President Brad Smith will be part of the G42 board as a part of the deal. “Our two firms will work collectively not solely within the UAE, however to deliver AI and digital infrastructure and providers to underserved nations,” he stated.
Final 12 months, G42 unveiled an Arabic-language AI mannequin named “Jais,” which is offered on Microsoft’s Azure platform.
Microsoft has cast high-profile partnerships with a number of AI firms, in an try and place itself as a pacesetter within the expertise.
Its partnership with OpenAI is credited as being one of many important drivers of Microsoft’s progress prior to now 12 months, but it surely has attracted curiosity from regulators within the United States and Europe who concern Microsoft is turning into too dominant.
Microsoft has additionally made a host of high-profile AI investments abroad in current months. In February, it introduced a partnership with Mistral, the main French AI startup. The identical month, it additionally pledged billions of {dollars} in funding for AI tasks in Spain and Germany.
“It’s all about this new AI period,” Smith advised CNN in February. “Basically, a brand new sector of the financial system is being born.”