Microsoft (MSFT), G42 Set to Boost Cloud Infrastructure in UAE
Microsoft MSFT recently expanded its collaboration with G42 in the UAE. This initiative is aimed at leveraging Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, G42's understanding of UAE sovereignty requirements and its shared expertise to drive innovation, economic growth and societal resilience in the region.
Microsoft and G42 are working together to provide sovereign cloud offerings, which are designed for public sector and regulated industries in the UAE. These offerings will allow organizations to leverage the latest cloud and AI capabilities available on Azure, while ensuring compliance with local privacy and regulatory requirements.
The partnership includes plans to co-innovate and deliver advanced AI capabilities. This involves leveraging Microsoft's AI technologies to develop industry-specific solutions in areas like health and life sciences, energy, sustainability and national projects, such as the COP28 conference, which is taking place in the UAE.
In addition to enhancing public sector cloud computing security and innovation, the collaboration aims to empower the broader technology ecosystem. This includes delivering new in-country services, creating go-to-market opportunities for partners and enabling Microsoft's partner ecosystem to offer industry-specific solutions to local entities.
MSFT will expand its data center infrastructure in the UAE through Khazna Data Centers, a joint venture between G42 and e&, to support the growing demand for cloud services in the region.
This announcement represents the first major outcome of the partnership between G42 and Microsoft. Both companies plan to continue strengthening the collaboration in the future.
Microsoft Corporation Price and Consensus
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Microsoft Faces Intensive Competition in Generative AI Space
Microsoft’s recent AI efforts are expected to counter competitors like Perficient PRFT, Appian APPN and Snap Inc. SNAP, which have made recent developments in the generative AI space.
Perficient announced new and expanded generative AI initiatives to help clients accelerate their business and outpace the competition. These initiatives include a range of capabilities and service offerings that will enable clients to use AI effectively. PRFT's long-standing strategic collaboration with Microsoft and International Business Machines aims to deliver exceptional digital solutions across various industries and domains for clients.
Appian launched its latest version of the AI-powered process platform featuring Appian AI Copilot, an AI assistant that boosts developer’s productivity. AI Copilot uses generative AI to create digital interfaces from PDF forms. It also uses Appian's private AI strategy for fast and secure process automation solutions.
Appian partnered with companies like Guidewire Software, Alphabet and Microsoft to offer built-in and integrated AI capabilities for its customers, thereby boosting its product portfolio. APPN’s platform is available in Microsoft Azure's cloud infrastructure and leverages Azure's cognitive services for AI-powered document extraction, sentiment analysis and face detection.
Following the release of the AI-driven chatbot My AI, which can now provide visual responses via Snaps rather than just text, Snapchat is introducing a generative AI feature called Dreams. With this feature, Snap aims to explore AI-generated images, possibly incorporating users and their friends in creative backgrounds.
Microsoft intends to introduce a fresh iteration of Databricks software to aid customers in creating AI applications for their enterprises. This platform assists businesses in developing AI models either from the ground up or by repurposing open-source models, delivering an alternative to acquire licenses for proprietary models from OpenAI. This is likely to disrupt the AI market and fend off competitors.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 39.1% year to date compared with the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s rise of 41.3% in the same period. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 revenues is pegged at $54.41 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.56%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $2.65 per share, indicating a year-over-year increase of 12.77%.
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