Tech giants and AI innovators continue to expand their influence, with major developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industries. Meta is rolling out its AI chat tool across Europe, while SoftBank is acquiring Ampere to strengthen its AI computing capabilities. Additionally, xAI has partnered with Vercel, and Inait has teamed up with Microsoft to advance AI technology. Check out the developments in detail.
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1. Meta AI Expands into Europe
US technology company Meta announced on Thursday that it will roll out its AI chat function tool across the EU. Meta, in a statement on March 19, said, "Starting this week, Meta AI will begin rolling out across 41 European Countries, including those in the European Union, as well as 21 Overseas Territories – marking our largest global expansion of Meta AI to date."
MetaAI rolled out in the US in September 2023, followed by India in June 2024, and the UK in October. Its plan to continue expansion in Europe was halted last summer due to "regulatory unpredictability."
"It's taken longer than we would have liked to get our AI technology into the hands of people in Europe as we continue to navigate its complex regulatory system – but we're glad we're finally here," Meta said in a blog post published Thursday.
Meta now says that over the coming weeks, it will "take the first step in making Meta AI’s chat function available in six European languages - English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German - with a view to find parity with the US and expand our offering over time."
Meta will roll out Meta AI for free across Europe through its messaging apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Meta AI will allow users, for example, to ask a question in WhatsApp group chats, or to "discover content that is relevant to their interests."
Users can also now use Meta AI to generate results across a range of content – from reels or posts from friends and followers. For example, people can say, "show me Vancouver Island content" and explore the results.
Used by over 700 Million active users, Meta said Meta AI continues to be the leading assistant for people around the world.
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2. SoftBank to Acquire Chip Designer Ampere
Japan's SoftBank Group (SBG) announced on March 20 that the company has agreed to acquire Ampere Computing Holdings (Ampere) in an all-cash transaction valued at USD 6.5 billion through its subsidiary Silver Bands 6 (US) Corp. (SB6). Ampere is a US-based semiconductor design company specialising in high-performance, energy-efficient AI computing based on the ARM architecture.
According to the official release, this acquisition aligns with SoftBank's ongoing strategy to expand its AI infrastructure investments, following its previous acquisition of Arm Holdings, its partnership with OpenAI, and investments in ventures such as Cristal intelligence and Stargate. Ampere's cloud-optimised AI processors are expected to strengthen SoftBank's AI computing capabilities, particularly as AI demands continue to rise.
SBG expects the closing of the transaction to occur in the latter half of 2025. Under the terms of the agreement, Ampere will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group and retain its name. Founded in 2018, Ampere's headquarters will remain in Santa Clara, California.
"The future of Artificial Super Intelligence requires breakthrough computing power," said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. "Ampere's expertise in semiconductors and high-performance computing will help accelerate this vision, and deepens our commitment to AI innovation in the United States."
"With a shared vision for advancing AI, we are excited to join SoftBank Group and partner with its portfolio of leading technology companies," said Renee James, Founder and CEO of Ampere. "This is a fantastic outcome for our team, and we are excited to drive forward our AmpereOne roadmap for high-performance Arm processors and AI."
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3. xAI and Vercel partner to bring zero-friction AI to developers
Elon Musk's AI company xAI and Vercel announced a partnership on Thursday, March 20, to bring zero-friction AI to developers. Vercel provides the tools and infrastructure to build AI-native web applications. As part of the partnership, xAI's Grok models are now available in the Vercel Marketplace, making it easy to integrate conversational AI into Vercel projects.
"We're partnering with xAI to bring their powerful Grok models directly to Vercel projects through the Vercel Marketplace—and soon v0—with no additional signup required," Vercel said in a blog post.
With Grok models now available from the Vercel Marketplace, developers can build with xAI's conversational models quickly.
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4. Inait Partners with Microsoft to Advance AI with Digital Brain Technology
Swiss AI startup Inait has announced a collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate the development and commercialisation of its neuroscience-inspired AI technology. The partnership will leverage Microsoft Azure to scale Inait's "digital brain" AI platform, which mimics human cognition and reasoning.
The partnership will leverage Inait's digital brain AI platform, focusing on joint product development, go-to-market strategies, and co-selling initiatives, the companies said in a joint statement on March 18.
Initially targeting the finance and robotics sectors, the collaboration will focus on:
- Finance: Enhancing trading algorithms, risk management tools, and personalised financial advice.
- Robotics: Developing more intelligent and adaptable robots for industrial manufacturing, capable of navigating complex and dynamic environments?
"Its [inait] 'brain programming language' and ability to learn from experience and understand cause and effect delivers cognitive abilities for real-world interactions towards adaptive general intelligence, overcoming the limitations of current AI systems," Microsoft said in a blog post.
Henry Markram, Founder and Chairman of inait, said, "After two decades of R&D we now have digital brain replicas and the know-how to teach them to perform AI. Microsoft's global ecosystem is ideal to globally scale our disruptive digital brain-based AI."
"Together with Microsoft, we aim to deploy our existing AI solutions and co-develop transformative industry solutions going forward," stated Richard Frey, CEO of inait.
"inait is pioneering a new AI paradigm—moving beyond traditional data-based models to digital brains capable of true cognition. Their AI models mirror biological intelligence in a highly efficient manner, becoming a leading contender in the new Reasoning-driven AI era," said Adir Ron, EMEA Cloud and AI Director for Startups and Digital Natives Microsoft.
"We believe that inait's approach to AI has the potential to bring significant value to the industry," said Catrin Hinkel, CEO of Microsoft Switzerland. "Their neuroscience-inspired technology is truly innovative, and we are pleased to collaborate with them to bring these advancements to market, starting with the fintech and robotics sectors where we see opportunities for immediate transformation."
