Oracle announced on Monday plans to invest USD 5 billion in the UK over the next five years to expand its data centre infrastructure to meet the demand for its cloud services in the country. The investment will expand Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's (OCI) footprint in the UK and help the UK government deliver on its vision for AI innovation and adoption, Oracle said in a statement on March 17.
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1. Oracle to Invest in UK AI Cloud Infrastructure
This will enable more organisations in the UK to leverage Oracle's AI and cloud computing services, including sovereign AI, multicloud capabilities, and state-of-the-art generative AI innovations, the company said.
"The UK Government's vision is clear: use AI to help power the UK's future," said Siobhan Wilson, senior vice president and country leader, Oracle UK. "Today's announcement cements Oracle's commitment to supporting this vision. Oracle provides the world's best cloud infrastructure for AI learning and inferencing. Our cloud investment will help ensure that customers can use AI to achieve new levels of productivity, unlock growth, and benefit from superior performance and security, all with improved cost savings."
Oracle said it is committed to expanding its OCI footprint in the UK to help public and private sector organisations in industries such as healthcare, financial services, defence, retail, and manufacturing migrate any type of workload to the cloud, modernise their applications, and innovate with AI.
Oracle recently introduced over 50 AI agents within the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to help customers execute frequent, repetitive tasks across finance, supply chain, HR, sales, marketing, and service, allowing employees and managers to focus their time on more strategic tasks and initiatives.
With this investment, Oracle said it will be able to help more organisations across the UK take advantage of the latest AI innovations such as AI agents.
Oracle and Adarga Partnership
Earlier this year, Oracle and Adarga, an AI-driven information intelligence company, announced their partnership to bring Adarga's Vantage software to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Oracle's distributed cloud. "Together, Adarga and Oracle will help defence and security organisations deliver mission-critical data and insights to the UK and its allies," Oracle said on January 15.
According to the official release, Adarga Vantage provides analysts, planners, and commanders with the ability to extract, contextualise, and connect information drawn from millions of internal and external sources, in over 75 languages, to enhance defence and security operations. This includes providing search, discovery, and Generative AI capabilities to augment enterprise knowledge and open-source intelligence gathering, and boost decision-making in multi-domain environments.
2. ServiceNow Releases New AI Agents
ServiceNow has announced the launch of its Yokohama platform release, introducing new AI-powered agents across various sectors such as CRM, HR, IT, and security operations. The Yokohama release includes preconfigured AI agents designed to optimise operations from day one, alongside a comprehensive AI agent management framework. The company has also enhanced its Knowledge Graph and Common Service Data Model (CSDM) to improve AI integration across enterprise data sources.
"Agentic AI is the new frontier. Enterprise leaders are no longer just experimenting with AI agents; they're demanding AI solutions that can help them achieve productivity at scale," said Amit Zavery, president, chief product officer, and chief operating officer at ServiceNow. "ServiceNow's industry-leading agentic AI framework meets this need by delivering predictability and efficiency from the start. With the combination of agentic AI, data fabric, and workflow automation all on one platform, we're making it easier for organizations to embed connected AI where work happens and both measure and drive business outcomes faster, smarter, and at scale."
"ServiceNow continues to redefine what's possible with AI-powered automation. By embedding intelligence into end-to-end workflows, we enable businesses to break down siloes, accelerate decision-making, and drive seamless operations at scale," said Jon Sigler, executive vice president of Platform and AI at ServiceNow. "With the Yokohama platform release, ServiceNow helps our customers take action—giving businesses the ability to move faster, innovate smarter, and scale seamlessly. The ServiceNow Platform unites people, processes, and data in a single system of action, transforming complexity into clarity and making business transformation readily achievable."
New ServiceNow AI agents are available starting March 12. The company says they will help businesses accelerate productivity, streamline operations, and drive real outcomes for enterprise-wide use cases.
- Security Operations (SecOps) expert AI agents transform security operations by streamlining the entire incident lifecycle, eliminating repetitive tasks and empowering SecOps teams to focus on quickly stopping real threats.
- Autonomous change management AI agents act like seasoned change managers, instantly generating custom implementation, test, and backout plans by analysing impact, historical data, and similar changes—ensuring seamless execution with minimal risk.
- Proactive network test and repair AI agents operate as AI-powered troubleshooters that automatically detect, diagnose, and resolve network issues before they impact performance.
Industry leaders including CANCOM, Cognizant, Davies, and Sentara have already deployed ServiceNow's AI solutions to improve efficiency, cost savings and decision-making.
3. Google to Partner with MediaTek on Next AI Chip - Report
Google is reportedly preparing to partner with Taiwan's MediaTek on the next version of its AI chips, Tensor Processing Units, which will be produced next year, The Information reported on Monday, citing people involved in the project.
However, Google has not severed its partnership with Broadcom, the chip designer it has exclusively collaborated with on AI chips for several years, the report said, citing an employee at the San Jose-based company.
Google designs its own AI server chips, which it uses for internal research and development and also rents out to cloud customers. Google chose MediaTek partly because the Taiwanese firm has a strong relationship with TSMC and charges Google less per chip compared to Broadcom, the report added.
Britain Must Lead in AI Deployment, Says DeepMind Founder
Britain must leverage its strengths to influence global AI deployment, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis reportedly said on Monday, as Google announced AI advancements in the country, Reuters reported.
Hassabis, who founded DeepMind in London in 2010 before selling it to Google in 2014, highlighted Britain's top universities and talent pool as key advantages. "It's more important than ever that we are at the forefront of these technologies as a country, both economically but also geopolitically to influence how these technologies end up getting deployed and used around the world," he reportedly said at a Google AI event.
Hassabis also called for global standards on using copyrighted material in AI training, noting the challenge of regulating globally deployed models. "The complication is that these models are kind of global, they're used everywhere," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Google announced expanded UK data residency for its productivity tool, Google Agentspace, and said its Chirp 3 audio generation model would be available on Vertex AI next week.
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4. Tech Mahindra Expands Partnership with Google Cloud to Boost Enterprise AI Adoption
Indian IT and consulting firm Tech Mahindra on Tuesday expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among enterprises and drive digital transformation initiatives globally. "The partnership will enable Tech Mahindra to help enterprises worldwide achieve agility, scalability, and sustainable growth through cutting-edge technologies," the company said on March 18.
The partnership will combine Tech Mahindra's deep domain expertise with Google Cloud's powerful AI capabilities, including Google's Gemini models, AI development platform, and agentic AI technology to develop industry-specific solutions for sectors such as communications, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, automotive, retail, and financial services.
Through this expanded partnership, both organisations will help enterprises modernise their infrastructure and data architecture while optimising the return on investment from their AI-powered cloud solutions.
"AI's promise is undeniable, yet enterprises face significant challenges in its adoption, from ensuring compliance to driving tangible outcomes. Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud reinforces our commitment to scaling AI adoption responsibly by co-creating tailored solutions powered by Agentic AI. These solutions will empower businesses to navigate operational complexities, enhance efficiency, and unlock new growth opportunities while adhering to evolving regulatory standards," said Atul Soneja, Chief Operating Officer, Tech Mahindra.
Through the expanded partnership, both organisations will help enterprises realise the full potential of AI for business transformation and growth. The partnership will accelerate the time-to-market for new AI-driven solutions, providing customers with early access to emerging technologies, the companies said.
Kevin Ichhpurani, President of global Partner Ecosystem and Channels at Google Cloud, added, "Maximising value from AI investments requires two things: advanced agent-building technology and deep industry expertise. Our partnership with Tech Mahindra will provide customers with the managed services needed to successfully build and deploy AI agents with Google Cloud’s leading AI development platform."
Additionally, Tech Mahindra said it has made substantial investments in talent upskilling and advanced delivery capabilities to enhance its partnership with Google Cloud.
