New AI Investment Funds and Strategic Expansions – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar

This week’s AI investment landscape sees bold financial commitments, expanding cloud infrastructure, and the growing influence of AI across industries. Oracle is set to invest £3.9 billion in the UK, alongside an additional $5 billion cloud expansion to strengthen AI adoption, signaling the company’s deep confidence in Britain’s AI future. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is launching a $40 billion AI fund, further establishing its role as a major player in the global AI race.

Microsoft’s AI investment strategy continues to gain momentum, earning an analyst upgrade as it builds out critical infrastructure. ARK Invest has joined a $403 million funding round for robotics firm Apptronik, highlighting investor enthusiasm for AI-powered automation. At the same time, Mirakl aims to push past $200 million in revenue with increased AI investments, showing how AI is reshaping business growth strategies.

In Asia, Thailand is attracting millions in AI data center investments, while Vietnam focuses on edge AI to compete in the global market. Azerbaijan is also setting its sights on AI by creating a strategy to attract foreign investment, positioning itself as an emerging tech hub.

AI’s role in finance and investment decision-making remains a focal point. National Grid Partners is committing $100 million to AI-driven energy solutions, while GapMinder Fund II is backing Romanian AI startup VoicePatrol, targeting real-time AI solutions for gaming. However, with AI’s growing influence, investors are warned about misinformation risks, reinforcing the need for well-vetted AI strategies.

With AI investments accelerating across industries, we continue to track how these financial commitments shape the broader technology and business landscape. Stay tuned for more insights in next week’s AI Investment Radar.

Previous SwissCognitive AI Radar: Major AI Funding Shifts.

Our article does not offer financial advice and should not be considered a recommendation to engage in any securities or products. Investments carry the risk of decreasing in value, and investors may potentially lose a portion or all of their investment. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future results.

Der Beitrag New AI Investment Funds and Strategic Expansions – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

This week in AI: speed, scale, and the next generation of intelligence:

Tencent’s new model aims to outpace DeepSeek-R1
AI transforms railway bridge safety and design
Amazon unveils AI-powered Alexa Plus
UK rethinks AI policies to protect creative industries
OpenAI teases GPT-4.5 with improved accuracy
…and more!

The AI world never slows down—see you next time with fresh updates!

Warm regards,

The Team of SwissCognitive

Der Beitrag A Week of New AI models and Smarter Apps erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

EU and France Go Big on AI – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar

The AI investment landscape is taking another major leap forward this week, as governments and private investors pour billions into AI infrastructure and innovation. The European Union announced a massive €200 billion AI investment initiative, including a dedicated fund for AI gigafactories, signaling Europe’s intent to strengthen its global AI position. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed a €109 billion AI investment package, just ahead of the AI Summit in Paris, where industry leaders like OpenAI’s Sam Altman are expected to weigh in on the future of AI policy and development.

Beyond Europe, AI capital continues to flow across the world. Saudi Arabia secured $14.9 billion in AI investments at the LEAP 25 tech conference, further reinforcing its ambition to become a major AI hub. Additionally, the kingdom has committed $1.5 billion to AI chip firm Groq, boosting its semiconductor and AI infrastructure efforts. Meanwhile, in India, 76% of companies already report positive AI returns, driving a wave of long-term AI investments as businesses look to integrate AI across new applications.

Private sector players are equally active. The Iliad Group announced a $3 billion AI investment, strengthening its position as Europe’s leading AI cloud provider. At the same time, Brookfield is committing €20 billion to AI projects in France, reinforcing the country’s growing reputation as a European AI powerhouse. SoftBank, however, reported a $2.4 billion loss in its Vision Fund but remains focused on long-term AI investments despite short-term financial turbulence.

Amid this investment frenzy, AI-driven sustainability solutions are gaining traction, as companies face mounting regulatory pressures. Clarity AI’s latest platform helps fund managers streamline ESG compliance, while Standard Chartered and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) are deploying AI-powered investment tools to enhance retail investor strategies.

With Europe easing AI regulations to encourage competitiveness and Baidu’s CEO defending aggressive AI investments, the conversation is shifting from investment size to long-term returns and strategic positioning.

Next week’s developments are sure to bring more insights into where capital is flowing and how investors are adapting. Stay tuned!

Previous SwissCognitive AI Radar: AI Market Adjustments and Billion-Dollar Bets.

Our article does not offer financial advice and should not be considered a recommendation to engage in any securities or products. Investments carry the risk of decreasing in value, and investors may potentially lose a portion or all of their investment. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future results.

Der Beitrag EU and France Go Big on AI – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

Who’s Investing and Why in AI – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar

From ByteDance’s $12 billion AI chip investment in 2025, aiming to strengthen its infrastructure, to Trump’s announcement of up to $500 billion in private sector investments, the focus on AI-driven infrastructure continues to expand across industries and geographies.

The UK’s AI sector has been attracting £200 million per day in private investment, highlighting strong confidence in its long-term growth potential. Meanwhile, China’s newly established $8.2 billion AI investment fund comes as a direct response to tightened US trade controls, signaling a strategic push to build domestic AI capabilities amid geopolitical challenges. On a different note, Capgemini’s research finds that 67% of businesses in Singapore see AI as their top investment priority for 2025.

Private firms are also positioning themselves for growth, with Nvidia set to invest over $500 million in a new AI research facility in Israel, aiming to accelerate advancements in AI technologies. Similarly, DDN’s $300 million funding from Blackstone is positioning the company as a leader in AI storage solutions, building on its established presence in high-performance computing.

However, despite the influx of investments, many companies are grappling with the ROI puzzle of AI, as leaders weigh the balance between potential and profitability. Some businesses are even considering selling non-core assets to fund AI projects, underscoring the financial pressures that come with large-scale adoption.

As AI investments continue to shape the global economy, staying informed about emerging trends and strategic priorities will be critical for stakeholders looking to navigate this rapidly evolving space. Join us next week too!

Previous SwissCognitive AI Radar: AI in Corporate Budgets and National Strategies.

Our article does not offer financial advice and should not be considered a recommendation to engage in any securities or products. Investments carry the risk of decreasing in value, and investors may potentially lose a portion or all of their investment. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future results.

Der Beitrag Who’s Investing and Why in AI – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

SwissCognitive Guest Blogger: Shivi Gupta – “Who Owns the Sound? AI in Music and the Legal Landscape”

Attending a live gig, enjoying the music from your favourite artist or band? What if it can come to your couch, with the feeling that they are performing right there in front of you? But hey, who is producing the music? Is it AL or Al

The creation is revered, but more than the creation, the creators are worshipped. Recently, Sony, Universal, and Warner have sued Suno and Udio (GenAI music startups), claiming copyright infringement in training models, to protect the artists affiliated with these giants.

Major record labels are protecting their clients, the artists, the great ones who produce music that can rarely be replicated. But in the day and age of generative AI or (GPT Generative Pretrained transformer), music is also replicated by machine learning algorithms to make songs sound like the original creators.

As one of the popular web3 music websites Unchainedmusic.io wrote in their article “Deepfake vocal synthesizers, an innovation in AI technology, can make a singer’s voice sound like a famous artist. Under English and EU law, it is unlikely that a style of singing, whether generated through deep learning, AI or vocal imitation, is protectable by copyright. However, other forms of intellectual property, such as passing off, may be relevant in some jurisdictions.”

There is no common universal law against intellectual property, and most countries have their own rules, copyrights, patents. Any commercial use begets a request or a permission from the creator who owns the intellectual property of their voice.

Problem:

All music can be created eclectically with different styles, lyrics and genres. GenAI music might saturate the market with more and more music generated by machine learning algorithms.

Possibility:

Music lovers will rely on humans creating songs as it has the emotional factor, the timber, tone, pitch, stretch, diction, accent are some of the unique human characteristics which helps us being empathetic and understanding of the singer’s mindset.

Probability:

These AI created songs will be used by ad companies and video editors to feature a product or sell a service with an attractive UX.

Musicians will continue creating great records and go on tours, and fill stadiums.

Editors, marketers, sales representatives will use GenAI music in elevators, advertisements, branding, showcase of their products and services. The GenAI music will complement the product *-as-a-service.

Proposed Solution:

Follow rules created by the countries in which these AI tools are used. For classical music the law states that as mentioned by edwardslaw.ca “it covers original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works of authorship. This is during the lifetime of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, plus 70 additional years (the Canadian copyright lifespan recently increased from 50 to 70 years in June of 2022). Once this term expires, the work becomes public domain. “ So works from Beethoven, Mozart et al. can be performed in public without permission or paying a fee – royalty free. So any music which has been recorded prior to 1974 can be used since it has entered the public domain, but if you have the London symphony orchestra uploaded their recording of Beethoven’s symphony number 5, one can’t use that without the permission from the orchestra.

For example this particular youtube video can’t be reused without BBC’s permission:

More on copyright of voices: “According to Herndon, much of vocal mimicry comes down to personality rights. “You cannot copyright a voice, but an artist retains exclusive commercial rights to their name and you cannot pass off a song as coming from them without their consent,” she wrote in a recent Twitter thread, citing previous legal cases related to vocal impersonation.”

More about ethics in AI.

About the Author:

Shivi Gupta is a  passionate data scientist and full-stack developer, working in the industry for over a decade. An AI expert navigating through the world of real vs generated content. With a focus on ethics , he creates websites, mobile applications, chatbots all powered by AI.

Der Beitrag Who Owns the Sound? AI in Music and the Legal Landscape erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

AI in Corporate Budgets and National Strategies – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar

The UK government is making a $17 billion commitment to AI, setting the stage for large-scale adoption with its AI Opportunities Action Plan. Meanwhile, Microsoft has confirmed a staggering £65.1 billion AI infrastructure investment, reinforcing the tech industry’s reliance on expanding AI data centers. In the U.S., Amazon is allocating $11 billion toward cloud and AI infrastructure in Georgia, further cementing its role as a key player in AI development.

The private sector is also making significant moves. Blackstone’s $300 million investment into AI data company DDN positions the firm at the forefront of AI-driven data storage and analytics. Meanwhile, Singapore secures a $7 billion Micron investment to strengthen its role in the AI supply chain. In the automotive industry, Hyundai is investing $16.6 billion to integrate AI into electric vehicle production, signaling a shift in manufacturing strategies.

Retail and consumer brands are also embracing AI, with spending projected to rise by 52% in 2025. A Honeywell survey reveals that over 80% of U.S. retailers plan to expand AI investments to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. However, while enterprises are willing to invest up to $250 million in generative AI, questions about return on investment persist.

AI is increasingly shaping global markets, not just as a technological tool but as a key driver of economic strategy. Whether through national policies, corporate spending, or AI-driven supply chains, investments in AI are becoming a defining force for the future of business and innovation.

Stay tuned for next week’s AI investment updates.

Previous SwissCognitive AI Radar: AI Investment Opportunities Worldwide.

Our article does not offer financial advice and should not be considered a recommendation to engage in any securities or products. Investments carry the risk of decreasing in value, and investors may potentially lose a portion or all of their investment. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future results.

Der Beitrag AI in Corporate Budgets and National Strategies – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

Copyright: htworld.co.uk – “AI Could Advance Inclusivity by Interpreting Sign Language in Real Time”

The research could play a key role in breaking down communication barriers and ensuring more inclusive interactions.

The researchers developed a custom dataset of 29,820 static images of American Sign Language hand gestures.

Using MediaPipe, each image was annotated with 21 key landmarks on the hand, providing detailed spatial information about its structure and position.

These annotations played a critical role in enhancing the precision of YOLOv8, the deep learning model the researchers trained, by allowing it to better detect subtle differences in hand gestures.

Results of the study reveal that by leveraging this detailed hand pose information, the model achieved a more refined detection process, accurately capturing the complex structure of American Sign Language gestures.

Combining MediaPipe for hand movement tracking with YOLOv8 for training, resulted in a powerful system for recognising American Sign Language alphabet gestures with high accuracy.

First author Bader Alsharif is a Ph.D. candidate in the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

The researcher said: “Combining MediaPipe and YOLOv8, along with fine-tuning hyperparameters for the best accuracy, represents a groundbreaking and innovative approach.

“This method hasn’t been explored in previous research, making it a new and promising direction for future advancements.”

Findings show that the model performed with an accuracy of 98 per cent, the ability to correctly identify gestures (recall) at 98 per cent, and an overall performance score (F1 score) of 99 per cent.

It also achieved a mean Average Precision (mAP) of 98 per cent and a more detailed mAP50-95 score of 93 per cent, highlighting its strong reliability and precision in recognising American Sign Language gestures.[…]

Read more: www.htworld.co.uk

Der Beitrag AI Could Advance Inclusivity by Interpreting Sign Language in Real Time erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

Funding, Strategy, and Real-World Impact – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar

Der Beitrag Funding, Strategy, and Real-World Impact – SwissCognitive AI Investment Radar erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

Copyright: business-reporter.co.uk – “AI: Success Through Experimentation”

Without a doubt, AI has revolutionised our current work environment, promising to continue advancing it into the future. It often displays remarkable precision and a high rate of accuracy, however, there are concerns that AI may be too influential, posing risks to our socio-political and economic frameworks.

At the same time, we are seeing case studies that spotlight AI’s unexpected and sometimes humorous errors – think about Amazon Alexa automatically ordering a $170 dollhouse and four pounds of cookies after a child asked the AI assistant about these products at home.

Cases like this can diminish confidence in this technology, opening a can of worms for more safety concerns, stringent regulations and deployment delays. Despite AI’s generally reliable outcomes, occasional errors draw disproportionate scrutiny, setting an unrealistic expectation for flawlessness.

This focus on the negative partly explains why nearly 80% of AI initiatives fail within their first year. The recent buzz around AI, and GenAI specifically, has inflated expectations, leading to disappointment when these standards are left unmet.

The flawed perfection of technology

Many indispensable software tools we rely on contain glitches, which are a natural part of code development. The internet is filled with resources to assist users in navigating bugs in popular office software by Apple and Microsoft, and this has become commonplace. Given our tolerance for issues in everyday software, why do we demand perfection from AI?

Fear is a significant factor, with concerns that AI could outperform humans, potentially making us redundant. For instance, while the legal sector shows a strong inclination towards adopting AI, the education sector appears to have more reservations.

The crucial thing to remember is that technology has the potential to outperform human intelligence.[…]

Read more: www.business-reporter.co.uk

Der Beitrag AI: Success Through Experimentation erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.

---

Editors

Dalith Steiger

Co-Founder, Global AI Thought Leader
SwissCognitive, AI Ventures, Advisory & Research

Andy Fitze

Co-Founder, Digital Transformation Strategist
SwissCognitive, AI Ventures, Advisory & Research

Get in Touch

---

Contributor Experts

Alessandro Curioni

IBM Fellow, VP Europe and Africa and Director IBM Research, Zurich

Anita Puppe

Senior Consultant Strategy & Business Design, IBM iX DACH, Healthcare Shapers

Aruna Pattam

Head of Generative AI, Analytics & Data Science, Insights & Data, Capgemini

David Wood

Chair
London Futurists

Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos

CEO, Global Health & Digital Innovation Foundation, UCL Global Business School for Health, European Public Policy Committee, IEEE

Georg M. V. Olowson

AI Governance Leader
IBM

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes

Founder & CEO, Institute for Science, Entrepreneurship and Investments, Chief Executive Officer, Softhread, Advisory Partner, Virtue Consultants

Jacques Ludik

Founder & CEO, Cortex Logic & Cortex Group, Founder & President, Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa, Author of „Democratizing AI to Benefit Everyone“

Jair Ribeiro

Analytics and Insights Leader,
Volvo Group

Jarrod Anderson

Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer
SYRV.AI

Jeff Winter

Senior Director of Industry Strategy,
Manufacturing, Hitachi

Jim Harris

Global AI Thought Leader,
Author & Keynoter

Jose Pedro Almeida

Advisory Board Member, Intelligence Ventures, Chief AI Strategist, World‘s Top 70 Health AI Brains

Markus Danhel

Principal Sales Leader – Data & AI, Switzerland
IBM

Pascal Bornet

Keynote Speaker, Best-selling Author, AI & Automation Expert and Social Media Influencer, Author of „Irreplaceable“

Patrick Bangert

SVP of Data, Analytics and AI,
Searce Inc

Semih Kumluk

Head of AI and Digital, PwC,
United Arab Emirates

Valeria Sadovykh

Technology Strategist,
Microsoft

Der Beitrag The AI Navigator: Practical Leadership Guide To Navigate The AI Era erschien zuerst auf SwissCognitive | AI Ventures, Advisory & Research.