14/06/2025

BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | JUNE 14, 2025

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‘We’re done with Teams’ – German state hits uninstall on Microsoft FRANKFURT: At a time of growing concern over the power of the world’s mighty tech companies, one German state is turning its back on US giant Microsoft. In less than three months’time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft’s ubiquitous programs at work. Instead, the northern state will turn to open-source software to “take back control” over data storage and ensure “digital sovereignty”, its digitalisation minister Dirk Schroedter told AFP. “We’re done with Teams!” he said, referring to Microsoft’s messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call – via an open-source German program, of course. The radical switch-over affects half of Schleswig-Holstein’s 60,000 public servants, with 30,000 or so teachers due to follow suit in coming years. The state’s shift towards open-source software began last year. The current first phase involves ending the use of Word and Excel software, which are being replaced by LibreOffice, while Open-Xchange is taking the place of Outlook for emails and calendars. Over the next few years, there will also be a switch to the Linux operating system in order to complete the move away from Windows. The principle of open-source software is to allow users to read the source code and modify it according to their own needs. The issue of the power wielded by American tech titans has been thrown into sharper relief by Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the subsequent rise in US-EU tensions. In the case of Microsoft, there have long been worries about the dominant position it enjoys thanks to it owning both the Windows operating system and a suite of programs found in offices the world over. In 2023, the European Union (EU) launched an antitrust investigation against Microsoft over the way it tied Teams to its other programs for businesses. “The geopolitical developments of the past few months have strengthened interest in the path that we’ve taken,“ said Schroedter, adding that he had received requests for advice from across the world. “The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies,“ he said. The government in Schleswig-Holstein is also planning to shift the storage of its data to a cloud system not under the control of Microsoft, said Schroedter. He explained that the state wants to rely on publicly owned German digital infrastructure rather than that of an American company. Experts point to economic incentives for the sort of shift Schleswig-Holstein is making, as investing in open-source alternatives and training staff to use them often costs less than the licences for Microsoft’s programs. This is particularly the case when businesses and public bodies find themselves taken “by the throat” when hit by unexpected extra costs for mandatory updates, said Benjamin Jean from consulting firm Inno3. Schleswig-Holstein hopes that its move away from Microsoft will eventually save it tens of millions of euros. – AFP

Meta invests in Scale AI, values startup at US$29b

SAN FRANCISCO: Scale AI said a major new investment by Meta late Thursday values the startup at more than US$29 billion (RM122 billion) and puts its founder to work for the tech titan. Company founder and CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta to help with the tech giant’s own artificial intelligence (AI) efforts as part of the deal, according to the startup. Meta was reportedly pouring more than US$10 billion into San Francisco-based Scale AI, and acquires its 28-year-old CEO amid fierce competition in the AI race with rivals such as OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. “Meta has finalised our strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI,” a Meta spokesman said in response to an AFP inquiry. “As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts.” Meta promised more details about the move in coming weeks.

and effective asset for US military and intelligence operations,” Wang said at the time. Scale AI will use the infusion of capital to accelerate innovation and strengthen partnerships, along with distributing proceeds to equity holders, according to the startup. Meta will hold a minority stake in Scale AI after the investment deal closes, but an exact figure was not revealed. Tech industry veteran and investor Jason Droege, a co-founder of Uber Eats food delivery platform, will take over as chief of Scale AI, according to the company. “Scale has led the charge in accelerating AI development,” Droege said in a release. “We have built the strongest foundation to tackle AI’s data challenges and push the boundaries of what’s possible.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently touted his tech firm’s generative artificial intelligence assistant, telling shareholders it is used by a billion people each month across its platforms. – AFP AMD’s Su reiterated the firm’s product plans for the next year, which will roughly match the annual release schedule that Nvidia began with its Blackwell chips. AMD shares ended 2.2% lower after the company’s announcement. Kinngai Chan, an analyst at Summit Insights, said the chips announced on Thursday were not likely to immediately change AMD’s competitive position. AMD has struggled to siphon off a portion of the quickly growing market for AI chips from the dominant Nvidia. But the company has made a concerted effort to improve its software and produce a line of chips that rival Nvidia’s performance. AMD completed the acquisition of server builder ZT Systems in March. As a result, AMD is expected to launch new complete AI systems, similar to several of the server-rack-sized products Nvidia produces. Santa Clara, California-based AMD has made a series of small acquisitions in recent weeks and has added talent to its chip design and AI software teams. At the event, Su said the company has made 25 strategic investments in the past year that were related to the company’s AI plans. Last week, AMD hired the team from chip startup Untether AI. On Wednesday, AMD said it had hired several employees from generative AI startup Lamini, including the co founder and CEO. – Reuters

o Founder and CEO Alexandr Wang will join Facebook owner to help with AI efforts as part of deal

Scale AI works with business, governments and labs to exploit the benefits of artificial intelligence, according to the startup. “Meta‘s investment recognizes Scale’s accomplishments to date and reaffirms that our path forward – like that of AI – is limitless,” Wang said in a release. “Scale bridges the gap between human values and technology to help our customers realize AI’s full potential.” Since Wang founded Scale AI in 2016, it has grown to more than 1,500 people, he wrote in a post on X. He said a few other employees, whom he referred to as “Scaliens,” will go with him to work on Meta’s AI initiative. Wang described his departure as “bittersweet,“ adding he will remain

a member of the Scale AI board of directors. Along with work that includes AI data, agents, and optimizing systems, Scale AI late last year announced an AI model built on Meta’s Llama 3 model that is customized for US national security missions including planning military or intelligence operations and understanding adversary vulnerabilities. Listed capabilities of “Defense Llama” include assessing scenarios and answering tactical questions such as how enemies might attack and how to effectively counter, according to Scale AI. “Scale AI is committed to ongoing collaboration with the defense community to ensure Defense Llama remains a trusted

AMD unveils AI server, powers OpenAI with latest chips SAN JOSE: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su on Thursday unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) server for 2026 that aims to challenge Nvidia’s flagship offerings as OpenAI’s CEO said the ChatGPT creator would adopt AMD’s latest chips. other AI chip firms has shifted away from selling individual chips to selling servers packed with scores or even hundreds of processors, woven together with networking chips from the same company. together its chips but has recently started to license that technology as pressure mounts from rivals. “The future of AI is not going to be built by any one company or in a closed ecosystem. It’s going to be shaped by open collaboration across the industry,“ Su said. stage to discuss their respective uses of AMD processors. Crusoe, a cloud provider that specializes in AI, told Reuters it is planning to buy US$400 million (RM1.7 billion) of AMD’s new chips.

The AMD Helios servers will have 72 of AMD’s MI400 series chips, making them comparable to Nvidia’s current NVL72 servers, AMD executives said. During its keynote presentation, AMD said that many aspects of the Helios servers – such as the networking standards – would be made openly available and shared with competitors such as Intel. The move was a direct swipe at market leader Nvidia, which uses proprietary technology called NVLink to string

Su was joined onstage by OpenAI’s Sam Altman. The ChatGPT creator is working with AMD on the firm’s MI450 chips to improve their design for AI work. “Our infrastructure ramp-up over the last year, and what we’re looking at over the next year, have just been a crazy, crazy thing to watch,“ Altman said. During her speech, executives from Elon Musk-owned xAI, Meta Platforms and Oracle took to the

Su took the stage at a developer conference in San Jose, California, called “Advancing AI” to discuss the MI350 series and MI400 series AI chips that she said would compete with Nvidia’s Blackwell line of processors. The MI400 series of chips will be the basis of a new server called “Helios” that AMD plans to release next year. The move comes as the competition between Nvidia and

Backed by OpenAI and other tech partners, AMD’s Helios server marks a turning point in the high-stakes AI chip race. – UNSPLASH PIX