Dubai’s robotaxi dreams are coming for human drivers

13 August 2025 at 05:00

On the manicured roads of the United Arab Emirates, a driverless future is slowly taking shape. Robotaxis zip past palm tree-lined streets, luxury hotels, and glass towers glinting under the...

China’s vision for a driverless future is miles ahead of everyone else’s

Rest of World

By: Yi-Ling Liu

12 August 2025 at 05:00

At the glitzy Auto Shanghai show in April this year, the message was clear: China is making the cars of the future, and that future will be increasingly electrified, connected,...

These countries want to be the next big semiconductor hubs

Rest of World

By: Daniela Dib · Lam Le and Yashraj Sharma

11 August 2025 at 05:00

In February, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum unveiled Kutsari Center, a national chip design hub — the first step in an ambitious plan to develop a homegrown semiconductor industry. Dozens of scientists...

The UAE is giving away its advanced AI

Rest of World

By: Divsha Bhat

8 August 2025 at 05:00

Abu Dhabi is giving away what Silicon Valley sells. The United Arab Emirates is offering its advanced Falcon artificial intelligence programs completely free at a time when OpenAI, Google, and...

Google vs. Perplexity fight plays out in India as AI battle intensifies

Rest of World

By: Javaid Iqbal Sofi

7 August 2025 at 05:00

The push notification arrived quietly one morning in July on Airtel’s bright-red mobile app. The Indian telecom company had a tantalizing offer for its 360 million subscribers: Perplexity Pro, the...

China’s AI drug discovery companies land huge deals with Big Pharma

Rest of World

By: Leslie Liang

6 August 2025 at 05:00

Western pharmaceutical giants are striking multibillion-dollar deals with Chinese biotech firms that use artificial intelligence, signaling growing confidence in China’s ability to deliver faster and cheaper innovative drugs. In June,...

They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry

Rest of World

By: Kaya Genç

5 August 2025 at 05:00

Over 2.6 million Syrians live in Turkey as refugees, but for tech workers, it’s still a small world. In 2019, a group of refugees formed a nonprofit, Digital Istanbul, to...

Big Tech is building AI in the desert. The water may not last

Rest of World

By: Divsha Bhat

4 August 2025 at 05:00

The Gulf’s trillion-dollar race to become an artificial-intelligence superpower faces the region’s biggest challenge: water. Data centers powering AI across the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are consuming water...

VinFast speeds into India after U.S. U-turn

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

4 August 2025 at 02:40

VinFast is building factories faster than it can sell cars. The Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker opened its first Indian factory on August 4, betting on expansion even as its existing plant...

Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, CEO of VinFast Asia and Mr. Ashwin Ashok Patil, Deputy CEO of Sales & Marketing at VinFast India at the at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 where Vinfast announced its first electric vehicles for the Indian market.

What was Builder.ai and why did it shut down?

Rest of World

By: Rest of World

1 August 2025 at 07:00

This article is adapted from Rest of World’s recent feature: Inside the collapse of Builder.ai What did Builder.ai actually do? Builder.ai was founded in 2016 by Sachin Dev Duggal, a...

As China goes all in on AI, tech workers scramble to learn new skills

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

1 August 2025 at 05:00

On a recent Monday evening, several Chinese participants joined a livestream on Zhihu, a Q&A platform similar to Quora, and were greeted by an instructor who said her name was...

U.S. targets Brazil’s payments platform Pix in trade spat

Rest of World

By: Laura Martins

31 July 2025 at 05:00

Earlier this month, the Office of the United States Trade Representative launched a formal investigation into Brazil’s trade practices, targeting a particularly beloved and widely used electronic payments platform: Pix....

Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams

Rest of World

By: Laura Rodríguez Salamanca

30 July 2025 at 05:00

Chemistry teacher María Intencipa misses the good old days — last year — when her small school in rural Colombia was sheltered from the artificial intelligence revolution by its remoteness. ...

A classroom in Colombia where students have increasingly turned to AI.

Inside the collapse of Builder.ai: Was it even an AI company?

Rest of World

By: Varsha Bansal

29 July 2025 at 05:00

Karthik started working as a “productologist” for Builder.ai in 2022. In another company, the role — assisting customers in building software — might have been called a product manager. But...

The surprise winner in the U.S.-China tech war? Vietnam’s chip industry

Rest of World

By: Lam Le

28 July 2025 at 05:00

U.S. President Donald Trump’s onslaught of tariffs has given Vietnam an opportunity to stake its claim in the global semiconductor chip race. Vietnamese companies that manufacture chip components — such...

Saudi Aramco wants a Google spinoff to turn its waste into wealth

Rest of World

By: Divsha Bhat

25 July 2025 at 05:00

The world’s biggest oil company is betting on a Google spinoff to profit from pollution. Saudi Aramco, which pumps more crude than any rival, has partnered with SandboxAQ, a $5.6...

Unleashing the AI jobs revolution in Africa

Rest of World

By: Samuel Alemayehu

24 July 2025 at 05:00

The conversation about artificial intelligence in Africa is currently dominated by a single, terrifying narrative: The U.S. and China control over 90% of the world’s AI computing power, leaving Africa...

People look at a stock chart during the launch of Ethiopian Securities Exchange in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 10, 2025.

Nickel workers powered the EV battery boom. Now, layoffs have hit.

Rest of World

By: Linda Yulisman

23 July 2025 at 05:00

The residents of Sulawesi, Indonesia, once dreamed of becoming civil servants and earning a steady income. They were not wealthy, but many had land, which generated enough to live on. ...

Mine workers arrive at the PT. IWIP factory area transported by cars, motor scooters and small trucks.

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BYD distracted the world while Chinese EV peers staged a coup

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

22 July 2025 at 05:00

Everyone watched BYD overtake Tesla, and missed the quiet march of a pack of other Chinese automakers. Six of the world’s top 10 electric-vehicle sellers last year were Chinese. From...

A Geely electric vehicle at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2024.

Why the world should stop obsessing over LLMs

Rest of World

By: Mehboob Jeelani and Itika Sharma Punit

21 July 2025 at 05:00

As the debate over the U.S.-China battle for AI supremacy intensifies, Nandan Nilekani, the Indian tech billionaire and co-founder of Infosys, says the world needs to shift its focus away...

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