Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said the investments signify Saudi Arabia’s “ambition to become a central hub for AI development, rivaling established tech centers in the US and China.” Other analysts weighed in on Saudi Arabia’s goals. Neil Shah, vice president research at Counterpoint Research, said the push could make it the next “oil hub” for AI, serving both local and global needs, while Amandeep Singh, practice director at QKS Group, said, “This…

AMD announced a five-year, $10 billion collaboration with Humain to deploy up to 500 megawatts of AI compute in Saudi Arabia and the US, aiming to deploy “multi-exaflop capacity by early 2026.” AWS, too, is expanding its data centers in Saudi Arabia to bolster Humain’s cloud infrastructure. Saudi Arabia has abundant oil and gas to power those data centers, and is growing its renewable energy resources with the goal of supplying 50% of the country’s…

Image: Garmin Regular readers know that I always wear a Garmin with an LED flashlight on one of my wrists, and I use it daily. It’s exciting to see, for the first time, that Garmin now has a Forerunner model with this flashlight, which serves as an important safety feature for runners. Garmin’s new Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 launch with vibrant AMOLED touchscreen displays, a triathlon coach training plan, customized multisport workouts, and a new…

One solution to this, obviously, is to merge with one of the big compute players, which Juniper hopes to do with HPE. That cedes the point of strategic influence to those vendors, but what other option does the network vendor community have? Here’s a basic truth to consider: You can’t have strategic influence if your products have no real differentiators, if you’re a commodity. The only answer is to focus on the fact that almost…

jewhyte/Getty Images I know you’ve heard of gamification, but have you ever heard of festification? That’s what Microsoft did last month and is continuing until May 28, with the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. It’s a little odd, but it also looks like it might be a heck of a lot of fun. And you still three full weeks to participate. Free AI training for everyone Microsoft’s AI Skills Fest offers courses that are open for…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET The thought of upgrading your phone can be both exciting and slightly stressful. Phones seem to be getting more expensive, and the upgrade options seem endless. But Verizon has got you covered with a new trade-in deal.  Also: Here’s how to get a free iPhone 16 Pro from T-Mobile with no trade-in required Through this offer, new and existing customers on Verizon’s Unlimited myPlans can trade in any phone and receive a free…