Author: Anita Bosman

Abu Dhabi: TECHz – News Desk The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), has announced Falcon-H1 Arabic, a newly developed large language model built on a hybrid Mamba-Transformer architecture. Representing a complete departure from previous transformer-based versions, this new model establishes itself as the highest-performing system on the Open Arabic LLM Leaderboard (OALL). This milestone sets Falcon-H1 Arabic as the leading Arabic AI model currently available, outperforming models several times larger while delivering state-of-the-art accuracy, context handling, and linguistic representation. His Excellency Faisal al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President…

California: TECHz – News Desk VAST Data, the AI Operating System company, has announced a breakthrough inference architecture that powers the NVIDIA Inference Context Memory Storage Platform, marking a new era for long-lived, agentic AI. The platform introduces a class of AI-native storage infrastructure designed for gigascale inference, built on NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPUs and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. It accelerates access to AI-native key-value (KV) caches, enables high-speed context sharing across nodes, and significantly improves power efficiency. As AI inference evolves from single-prompt tasks to persistent, multi-turn reasoning across agents, the assumption that context remains local is no longer valid. Performance…

Manama: TECHz – News Desk The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain has announced the launch of Satellite Direct-to-Device (D2D) services, making the Kingdom the first country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to implement this advanced technology. The new service enables standard mobile phones to connect directly to satellites in areas where terrestrial network coverage is unavailable, including maritime zones. This innovation is expected to significantly enhance public safety, ensuring reliable connectivity even in remote or hard-to-reach locations. By extending mobile access beyond conventional networks, Bahrain is taking a major step toward ensuring uninterrupted communication in all circumstances. The…

California: TECHz – News Desk NVIDIA announced the launch of its Rubin platform, marking a major leap forward in AI infrastructure. Named in honor of pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, the platform integrates six new chips – the NVIDIA Vera CPU, Rubin GPU, NVLink 6 Switch, ConnectX-9 SuperNIC, BlueField-4 DPU, and Spectrum-6 Ethernet Switch – to deliver one of the world’s most advanced AI supercomputers. Rubin aims to accelerate mainstream AI adoption while drastically reducing training and inference costs. The Rubin platform leverages extreme codesign across hardware and software, providing up to 10x reduction in inference token cost and enabling the…

Amman: TECHz – News Desk Valu, Egypt’s leading universal fintech platform, has received final approval from the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) to operate in the country under a Specialized Finance license, marking a key milestone in its regional expansion. The company plans to commence full-scale operations in Jordan in the first quarter of 2026, offering consumers accessible and responsible financing solutions across sectors including retail, electronics, healthcare, and education. To lead its Jordanian operations, Valu has appointed H.E. Eng. Mothanna Gharaibeh, former Minister of Investment and Digital Economy in Jordan, as Chairman, and Mohammad Al Yousef, an experienced fintech…

Dubai: TECHz – News Desk Lenovo has announced the appointment of Tareq Alangari as Senior Vice President and President of its Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META) business. He will officially join Lenovo on January 5, 2026, leading the META operations from the company’s Regional Headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The appointment aligns with Lenovo’s strategy to strengthen its presence in META and support national digital transformation initiatives, including Saudi Vision 2030, the UAE National Digital Strategy, Dubai Smart City, Qatar National Vision 2030, and the African Union Digital Transformation Strategy. Lenovo aims to leverage AI-driven solutions, cloud infrastructure, and advanced…

Riyadh: TECHz – News Desk Construction has officially begun on the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority’s flagship “Hexagon” Data Center, set to become the largest government-owned data center in the world by power capacity. The facility, which will be developed in Riyadh, is designed as a Tier IV data center and has earned the highest classification from the global Uptime Institute. Once completed, it will deliver a total capacity of 480 megawatts and span more than 30 million square feet. Built to meet the most stringent international standards, the Hexagon Data Center will provide ultra-high availability, advanced security, and…

Cairo: TECHz – News Desk Bank NXT, a leading provider of integrated retail and corporate banking solutions in Egypt, announced that it has selected IBM Instana®, IBM Turbonomic®, and IBM Cloud Pak® solutions, in collaboration with Inspire for Solutions Development, to accelerate its digital banking transformation. By implementing these technologies, the bank is building a strong foundation for real-time observability, automated resource optimization, and advanced integration. This integrated approach is designed to improve resilience, minimize downtime, optimize IT resources, and deliver faster, more reliable digital banking experiences for its customers. As Egypt’s financial sector rapidly shifts toward more innovative, more…

’Johannesburg: TECHz – News Desk Airtel Africa plc has announced the purchase of additional ordinary shares as part of its ongoing share buy-back programme, reinforcing its commitment to enhancing shareholder value. The transaction was executed on 2 January 2026, following the authority granted by shareholders and in line with the buy-back programme disclosed on 22 September 2025. According to the company, a total of 40,000 ordinary shares, each valued at USD 0.50, were acquired from Barclays Capital Securities Limited. The shares were purchased at prices ranging between 356.40 pence and 363.80 pence, with a volume-weighted average price of 361.09 pence.…

Kuwait City: TECHz – News Desk In support of digital innovation and entrepreneurship in Kuwait, Ooredoo Kuwait participated in Nexus 2025, the country’s leading technology event, held earlier this month at The Arena. The event brought together technology leaders, major companies, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and investors from Kuwait and across the region to explore the future of innovation, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship. Spanning several days, Nexus 2025 served as a key platform for showcasing innovation and digital transformation through startup challenges, exhibitions, workshops, and expert-led panel discussions. The event highlighted cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and…