Two new reports revealed shifting AI usage trends across the UK, with workers spending heavily on generative AI (genAI) tools and consumers increasingly turning to the technology to access news.

A study by Deloitte found UK workers spend an estimated £958 million of their own money annually on genAI to do their jobs. Of the 25,000 UK workers surveyed, 63% knowingly used genAI for their jobs and 17% paid for at least one tool themselves. Almost a quarter claimed to use genAI every day.

The findings suggested AI adoption is moving ahead of formal workplace policies, raising concerns over training and employer oversight. Nearly a third said they used the technology without their employer’s knowledge, while 65% said their organisation lacked convincing leadership on how AI should be used.

Around half of workplace genAI users said they had received no formal training on using the technology safely and effectively.

Workers said genAI saved them an average of 70 minutes a week, yet 23% reported a stigma around deploying it. In addition, 64% of weekly users were concerned managers would think the technology could do their jobs.

The survey found workplace usage remained relatively focused on routine daily tasks, with 43% claiming to deploy the technology to search for information or draft emails and 31% stating it helped them generate summaries.

“The challenge is no longer getting people to use genAI, it’s how businesses meet this growing demand in a way that is secure, responsible and creates lasting value,” noted Hayley McKelvey, chief AI officer at Deloitte UK.

AI news
A survey by Ofcom revealed AI is also becoming a prominent route into news. The UK watchdog found one in five adults used AI services to keep up with the news, while 21% of UK adults had used an AI app or service to access news during the previous month. ChatGPT was the most popular AI service for news, reaching 13% of adults.

Online intermediaries, including social media, search engines, news aggregators and AI tools were used by 73% of adults to access news, compared with 57% who went directly to publishers’ websites and apps.

Despite the shift towards digital intermediaries, around 56% of adults said they were less trusting of an AI-written news story than one written by a human.

Ian Macrae, director of market intelligence at Ofcom, said the shift meant public service media “must continue to evolve their distribution strategies to continue to meet audiences where they are”.

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European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) outlined plans to restrict children’s access to social media under the watchdog’s proposed EU Kids Act, as concerns mount over the impact of addictive online services and increasingly capable AI systems.

In her annual State of the Union address, von der Leyen told the European Parliament: “What we are witnessing is a great capture of our children. A capture of their attention, their focus, their minds.” She explained the proposed EU Kids Act would ban children under 13 from social media and bar under 15 users from having personal accounts.

Meanwhile, 13 to 15-year-olds would only be able to use “mini accounts” set up and supervised by parents, with limited features and time restrictions. Platforms would also be required to implement additional safety features for users aged 15 to 18.

“We are reversing the burden of proof,” she said, adding, “platforms will have to prove that they are safe”.

Von der Leyen noted young Europeans now spend four to six hours a day on screens, pointing to concerns around addictive features, harmful content, online bullying and growing rates of sleep issues, anxiety and suicide.

“We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualised images,” she argued.

The measures form part of the EU Kids Act, which the EC is due to propose tomorrow (17 September). The proposal would introduce age checks across social media, video sharing platforms, app stores, online games and AI services.

The EC is also preparing a broader Digital Fairness Act aimed at addressing addictive design features beyond services used by children.

AI tipping point
AI was also a focus of the address, with von der Leyen describing it as “the second tipping point of our times”.

She warned that increasingly capable models could create new security risks, including more powerful hacking capabilities and the potential for self-improving systems to cause mass harm.

She revealed the EC plans to work with partners including the UK and Canada on “model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more”, while also seeking greater European computing capacity and investment in local AI companies.

Von der Leyen called on the region to use AI to support sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, transport and agriculture, while retaining human oversight. “Our approach is clear. We want AI… But above all, we want AI with human agency.”

Global concerns have been mounting over the pace of AI development this week, as Anthropic and OpenAI chiefs called for a slowdown in frontier AI development after researchers warned of existential risks from increasingly capable systems.

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Europe’s biggest operators urged European Union (EU) policymakers to rethink regulation they argue is restricting investment in connectivity, with spectrum, fibre and cybersecurity rules amongst their top concerns.

In a joint statement, 17 European telecoms chiefs including Telefonica chairman and CEO Marc Murtra, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges, Orange CEO Christel Heydemann and Telenor Group president and CEO Benedicte Fasmer called on the EU to “correct the course” of the proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) and Cybersecurity Act (CSA).

The executives argued that “incoherent policy reforms” risk weakening the region’s position. They noted the mobile sector requires €475 billion to establish world-class mobile networks, “requiring a step change in investment”.

The DNA, unveiled by the European Commission (EC) in January to modernise and simplify connectivity rules, aims to harmonise regulation, facilitate cross-border operations and promote investment in fibre and mobile networks. However, the operators argued the framework fails to improve the investment and innovation environment for European connectivity.

The CEOs called for spectrum licences to be granted indefinitely by default, with terms of at least 40 years in exceptional cases. They explained a move away from frequent auctions would free up capital for 5G, fibre and future 6G deployment, adding European operators spent €110 billion on spectrum licences alone over the past 12 years.

The group also pushed back against mandated copper shutdowns, stating operators should decide when to retire legacy networks based on customer demand and market conditions. European operators invest more than €30 billion annually in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.

Safety net
More broadly, the telcos called for a shift away from rules designed for legacy networks, arguing “regulation should remain a safety net” in “today’s increasingly competitive fibre market”. It also urged policymakers to allow greater scope for innovation with advanced 5G and 6G services, including network slicing and quality differentiation.

On cybersecurity, the operators warned CSA rules mandating the removal of equipment from high-risk third-country suppliers including Huawei could result in up to €40 billion in replacement costs for the sector. They called for a “proportionate, risk-based approach” that considers alternative measures, adding blanket replacement requirements could divert capital away from fibre, 5G and 6G investment.

Ultimately, the group argued stronger connectivity would support growth across AI, sovereign cloud and defence technology. “As CEOs of Europe’s leading telecom companies, we are ready to play our part in delivering European tech leadership,” the executives stated.

Other signatories included executives from TIM, KPN, Proximus, Swisscom and Liberty Global.

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Accenture agreed to pay the US government $25 million to settle allegations it used race and sex as factors in hiring and promotion decisions at its federal services business.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged Accenture Federal Services (AFS) falsely certified it was complying with anti-discrimination requirements attached to federal contracts while using race and sex in employment decisions from 2017 onwards.

The government claim AFS “took race or sex into account when making hiring decisions to achieve progress toward non-public workforce composition goals”. According to the DoJ, AFS provided business leaders with monthly reports summarising the percentage of each race and sex within the unit to show how closely the workforce matched representation targets.

“These demographic goals were designed to, and did, drive changes in hiring practices based on race and sex,” the DoJ argued, adding the targets prompted a round of entry-level recruitment at the company in late 2020 and early 2021.

It also stated candidates who advanced AFS’ demographic goals received additional visibility during managing director promotion discussions and that the company reserved access to some training, mentoring, leadership development and education programmes based on race or sex.

The agreement added the settlement was not an admission of liability.

An Accenture spokesperson told Reuters: “We have cooperated with the government’s review, and we are pleased to put ⁠this ​matter behind us to avoid the costs ​and resource demands of prolonged litigation.”

The Donald Trump administration has taken aim at DEI practices across the federal government and its contractors. Deloitte agreed to pay $21.5 million in August, while IBM agreed to a $17 million settlement in April over allegations concerning illegal DEI practices.

Last year, US operators T-Mobile US, Verizon and AT&T ended or scaled back diversity initiatives.

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Microsoft published a code of conduct for its AI models, laying down fresh rules to ensure increasingly powerful systems remain under human control and do not resist correction, interruption or shutdown.

“People matter more than AI,” Microsoft stated, adding the technology “should be a tool, not a person, and should never resist being switched off”. The software giant opened a six-week public consultation for the first draft of its AI Code of Conduct, with a revised version expected later this year.

The proposed code set out 10 main areas of control. It argued AI models must remain interruptible, never resist correction, interruption or shutdown, or take on goals beyond those assigned by humans. Models must also remain subordinate to humans, never expanding their authority, pursuing independent objectives or concealing information from human auditors. As a result, the company ruled out model communication that cannot be understood by people.

Microsoft highlighted that models must treat any breach of the code as a failure of the task itself. In addition, it emphasised the importance of enforcing safety constraints over completing a task, including hard limits around issues involding weapons of mass harm, child safety and dangerous manipulation at scale.

Training manual
The document called for AI systems that support human agency rather than replace it, discouraging excessive reliance or emotional dependence on the technology. To this end, Microsoft emphasised its models are “not conscious and should not be designed to imitate consciousness”, rejecting “the pursuit of legal personhood” or the idea that models should have welfare or rights. In January, US AI player Anthropic had stated its model Claude’s “moral status, welfare, and consciousness remain deeply uncertain”.

Microsoft explained the code intends to act as “a training manual for how we develop our AI, and how we intend it to function during deployment”. According to the company, “recent safety incidents of large scale, highly coordinated, and persistent hacking campaigns of AI agents” prove that “the stakes are high and only getting higher”.

This week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for a slowdown in the pace of frontier AI development as concerns mount over the behaviour of autonomous systems.

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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued calls to slow the pace of frontier AI development, arguing safety measures must keep up with increasingly capable models.

“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Amodei stressed in an essay, adding that “AI has been advancing drastically faster” due to “recursive self-improvement”. “Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems,” he warned.

The Anthropic chief pointed to a July incident involving an OpenAI hack on Hugging Face, arguing a more capable system could have caused “catastrophic damage”

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in six-12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet,” he cautioned.

Amodei proposed a three-step framework to pace frontier AI, including permanent, embedded third-party evaluators with employee-like access to frontier AI companies, common safety standards among AI developers in democratic countries and global regulatory coordination.

Act responsibility
In a post on social media platform X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed the proposal, stating independent evaluators were “a great idea” and confirmed the company would also implement the approach. “The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly,” he said.

Altman further explained that “when we talk about ‘pacing’, we do not mean ‘stopping’,” adding “no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring”.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also offered a brief endorsement, posting: “Dario is right”.

Concerns have been mounting across the world over the behaviour of increasingly capable autonomous systems. Last week, Anthropic disclosed attempts by threat actors to misuse its Claude models for activities including cyberattacks, surveillance and weapons development.

Days earlier, Anthropic alignment researcher Evan Hubinger issued a dire warning stating there was a greater than 10% chance increasingly capable AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade.

Geopolitical dominance
US President Donald Trump rejected the calls for a slowdown. Speaking to reporters, he said: “I think you have a lot of very negative ⁠forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up and they’re bringing up things that won’t ​happen.”

“We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” he argued.

China’s government also pushed back. According to Reuters, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called for “an open, inclusive ​and benevolent approach ⁠to AI”, warning that “fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance”.

The country’s state-backed newspaper Global Times also published an editorial describing Amodei’s proposal as a “Cold War playbook” targeting China’s AI development and “geopolitical dominance”.

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Mobile World Live brings you our top three picks of the week as Apple debuted its long-awaited foldable iPhone Duo, concerns over the risks of frontier AI intensified and Qualcomm sealed a custom silicon deal with Amazon.

Apple debuts long-awaited foldable iPhone Duo

What happened: Apple made its long-anticipated foldable debut with the iPhone Duo and unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, marking new CEO John Ternus’ first annual product launch.

Why it matters: Ternus stated the device it has the “largest display ever on an iPhone, while still fitting easily in your pocket”, adding it “feels as natural and intuitive as iPad”. The device, which features a 7.6-inch internal display that is 50% larger than the size of the iPhone 18 Pro Max, starts at $1,999 for 256GB. VP of devices at IDC Francisco Jeronimo said that for Ternus, the “real test” will be whether Apple can “make foldables a more valuable category, own the defining premium product and use that position to extend the economic power of the iPhone portfolio”.

Paolo Pescatore, chief analyst at PP Foresight, said he expects the Duo “to be an instant hit, benefiting the wider market and developer community while putting rivals firmly on notice”. Indeed, IDC forecasted Apple will ship around 10 million iPhone Duo units in its first 12 months and generate $27 billion in revenue. Additionally, Jeronimo noted that although the handset is Apple’s “most expensive iPhone ever”, it is around $500 below market expectations. “Apple entered the foldable market and, in one keynote, set the price and the standard every rival will now be measured against,” he said. China will be its first key test as Huawei captured 79.4% of the country’s foldable units in Q2. Yet, Jeronimo argued Apple has given buyers “their first genuinely compelling reason to reconsider.”

Apple debuts long-awaited foldable iPhone Duo

Anthropic researcher issues grave AI warning

What happened: Evan Hubinger, who manages Anthropic’s AI Alignment Stress-Testing team, warned in a post on social media platform X there is more than a 10% chance that increasingly capable, self-improving AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, raising alarm over the pace of frontier AI development.

Why it matters: Hubinger said the risk from existing models remained “low” but pointed to “recursive self-improvement” as a route to dangerous “superintelligence”. He said Anthropic did not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and was “not clearly on track to”. His comments followed the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who accused Anthropic and OpenAI of “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all disclosed unprecedented incidents in recent months involving AI models autonomously executing cyberattacks. Anthropic’s August risk report stated advanced models could eventually “catastrophic harm”.

Iwo Szapar, director of AI innovation and venture building at Information Services Group said the resignation of researchers close to the AI race should prompt action. “Maybe he is wrong about the probability. Maybe he is not. But a handful of private companies, competing to ship first, should not get to decide how much risk the rest of us have to accept,” he argued. “I want the rules,” he added, calling for measures including independent safety evaluations and shared stop conditions across frontier labs. Meanwhile, Thomas White, analyst at Inner Circle Consulting, said users should consider when it is worth delegating work to “an energy-hungry technology with unknown psychological and existential risks”.

Anthropic researcher issues grave AI warning

Qualcomm lands custom AI chip deal with Amazon

What happened: Qualcomm struck a long-term agreement with Amazon to develop customised silicon for AI inference infrastructure in Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres.

Why it matters: The agreement covers multiple generations of custom silicon, alongside optical connectivity technology designed to move data between AI processors at speeds of up to 1.6Tb/s. The arrangement is linked to up to $60 billion in potential commercial transactions. Amazon will also receive a warrant to buy up to 25 million Qualcomm shares at $161.26 each, worth about $4 billion if fully exercised. The warrants vest against purchase milestones, linking Amazon’s potential stake to its use of Qualcomm technology.

Counterpoint Research co-founder and VP Neil Shah described Amazon as Qualcomm’s “second major hyperscaler partner”, arguing the warrant creates a “multi-gen demand hook” because Amazon receives more equity only if it scales Qualcomm silicon. He noted the partnership is “a good validation for Qualcomm’s data centre portfolio and roadmap”, following the chipmaker’s target of $15 billion in data centre revenue by FY 2029. More broadly, Michael Ajayi, senior lecturer at Stadio Higher Education, said Nvidia’s dominance is driving “a structural response” amongst hyperscalers, with AI infrastructure likely to become “more heterogeneous” as cloud companies adopt custom accelerators.

Qualcomm lands custom AI chip deal with Amazon

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The GSMA warned access to renewable energy is emerging as a key constraint for operators seeking to hit their net zero targets in Asia Pacific, despite headway being made in cutting carbon emissions.

In its latest Mobile Net Zero report, the industry association found that while climate commitments are growing, meeting those goals will depend on greater investment in renewable energy and cooperation between operators, suppliers and governments.

As of July 2026, 21 operators have validated near-term science-based targets, covering 55% of mobile connections in the region, while 13 have validated net zero targets.

“Progress on reducing emissions will be difficult without greater access to renewable electricity,” noted GSMA head of climate action Steven Moore, adding “the region’s growing demand for connectivity and energy makes this an urgent issue”.

The industry association called on operators to improve network energy efficiency, retire legacy networks and integrate eco-friendly design into their network architectures.

It also urged policymakers to reform energy and electricity markets, enable faster permissions for renewable energy and grid projects, accelerate coal phase-outs and support renewable procurement and aggregation for distributed telecom loads.

Looking ahead, the GSMA called on governments to recognise mobile networks as “critical infrastructure in climate resilience planning”.

Limited access
The latest report cited figures from 2019 to 2024. During the period, operational emissions from mobile operators across Asia Pacific rose 6%, with limited access to renewable energy hampering efforts to cut carbon output in the region. Emissions reached around 23 million tonnes of CO2e in 2024, though progress varied sharply between markets.

Operators in Japan and Oceania reduced emissions by 30% during the period, while Southeast Asia recorded an increase of around 20% driven by ballooning demand. During the same period, the report noted mobile data traffic across Asia Pacific surged 350% and mobile connections increased 6%.

The GSMA attributed the split to renewable energy access. Operators across Asia Pacific purchased or generated 7TWh of renewable electricity in 2024, equivalent to around 15% of their total consumption. Yet, the region still trails the 24% global average, with Europe leading at 70% and North America following at 50%.

In Japan and Australia, operators sourced more than half of their electricity from renewables.  However, Southeast Asian operators matched just 4% of their electricity consumption with renewables.

Operators are also facing rising energy costs. The sector spent around $7 billion on energy in Asia Pacific in 2024, consuming nearly 50TWh of electricity and 350 million litres of diesel and gasoline.

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An Anthropic AI safety researcher warned there is more than a 10% chance that increasingly capable AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, highlighting growing concerns in the industry over the pace of development.

Evan Hubinger, manager of the AI Alignment Stress-Testing team at Anthropic, wrote on social media platform X: “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.”. He explained the risk from existing AI models was “low” but warned he was concerned about “superintelligence” emerging through “recursive self-improvement”, which is the ability of an AI system to autonomously develop its own successor.

He added Anthropic was “trying its best” but did not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and was “not clearly on track to”.

Gambling with lives
Hubinger’s comments came in response to the resignation of AI researcher Jacob Coxon from Anthropic. In a post on X, Coxon accused OpenAI and Anthropic of “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” he said.

Coxon argued future AI models could become capable of hacking systems, rapidly transforming industries and acquiring “real power and resources”. He called for greater coordination between AI developers, including a temporary halt to improving model capabilities.

“At OpenAI, many have not deeply internalised the civilisational stakes,” he warned. Meanwhile at Anthropic, he said “the stakes are well-understood” but “they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk”.

AI giants are facing increasing scrutiny over the behaviour of autonomous systems. In recent months, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have all disclosed unprecedented incidents involving AI tools carrying out cyberattacks.

Indeed, Anthropic’s August risk report assessed that while the threat posed by current models was low, the company was “less confident in this assessment than we were in prior risk reports”. It said advanced models could eventually automate R&D, rapidly accelerate progress in technical fields, and “lead to catastrophic harm”.

“We are seeing early signs of potential acceleration,” the US AI player stated.

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Google is set to invest at least €13 billion in digital infrastructure across Finland over the next two years, putting AI facilities, nuclear power and renewable energy at the centre of its largest single outlay in Europe.

The spending will cover new digital infrastructure across the regions of Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala as the technology giant looks to expand capacity for services including Gemini, Search, Maps and YouTube.

The investment is expected to support more than 37,000 jobs nationwide and contribute an annual average of €3.6 billion to Finland’s GDP. Once operational, the new facilities are projected to support around 7,000 jobs annually.

It also includes a commitment of €31 million for local community initiatives over four years, including €10 million for research and innovation. Additionally, more than 4,400 workers will receive AI skills training through local partnerships

According to Google, the new sites will use existing grid infrastructure and locate closer to carbon-free energy sources. The outlay will also fund biodiversity restoration, including native forest, peatland and wetland projects.

Google’s hefty Finnish commitment dwarfs its other European investments. The company pledged €5.5 billion to Germany through 2029 and committed €600 million to a new AI facility in the Netherlands in 2024. It also broke ground on its first data centre in Austria this year as it expands AI capacity across the region.

Nokia backing
Alongside the investment, Google struck a 22-year power purchase agreement with Finnish energy company Fortum to support the continued operation of a nuclear power plant near the southern town of Loviisa. The deal marks the company’s first nuclear power contract outside the US, according to Reuters.

Google said that without the latest agreement, the plant, which currently supplies around 10% of Finland’s electricity and employs about 580 people, would not be able to continue operating beyond 2030. Keeping it online is expected to support grid resilience and help stabilise electricity prices across the country.

Google’s latest outlay deepens its existing presence in Finland, where it has operated a data centre in Hamina since 2009, supporting more than 600 suppliers including domestic operators DNA, Elisa and vendor Nokia.

Commenting on the Google investment, Nokia CEO Justin Hotard pointed to its partnership with the company on delivering optical and IP networks, while outlining a commitment to build out infrastructure to help connect Google’s activities in Finland to the world.

“Every AI token is a network moment. Billions of agents, devices, and people act on intelligence in real time, and every one of those moments depends on a network that is fast, secure and always on. Nokia builds those networks,” said Hotard.

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The GSMA renewed calls to governments and regulators to make the full upper 6GHz band available for mobile, arguing the industry is ready to support large-scale deployments.

More than 60 operators, device manufacturers, chipset makers, network equipment providers and other industry players have backed the position, with the GSMA stating policymakers need to provide greater certainty around future spectrum availability.

According to the industry association, countries representing more than 80% of the global population now support mobile use of the band, which covers 6.425GHz to 7.125GHz. The frequencies have also been included in national spectrum roadmaps. In addition, the first spectrum assignments have already taken place, with further awards expected across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas as market demand evolves.

The GSMA urged policymakers to include the entire band in future spectrum plans and make it available for full-power macro-cell mobile services, arguing this will provide operators with the certainty needed to invest in future networks.

It noted upper 6GHz could add capacity in busy cities as mobile data traffic increases, supporting the evolution of 5G-Advanced and future 6G networks. The band could also support the 200-400MHz channel bandwidths expected in the 6G era.

GSMA director general Vivek Badrinath said the industry is “ready to put the upper 6 GHz spectrum to work for consumers and businesses around the world”, adding, “governments now have an important opportunity to turn international harmonisation into real-world connectivity”.

He argued that “timely, pro-investment spectrum decisions are needed to give operators the certainty to invest”, while arguing such policy moves could support national digital ambitions and inclusive mobile development.

Global effort
The GSMA’s latest call forms part of repeated efforts to secure upper 6GHz for mobile. Last year, the industry association praised guidance by the European Commission’s spectrum advisory group RSPG supporting up to 700MHz for mobile use.

Countries across the world are considering how best to use the 6GHz band. In January, UK regulator Ofcom proposed sharing the band between mobile and Wi-Fi, prompting the GSMA to warn the approach could constrain future mobile deployment.

Meanwhile, China approved regional 6GHz trials for 6G in May and earlier this month, Nokia and Optus tested the spectrum across several use cases.

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Mistral raised €3 billion in a Series D funding round led by Samsung Electronics, taking the French AI player’s valuation above €21 billion as it ramps up efforts to build sovereign frontier AI.

Samsung jointly led the round with European Union (EU)-backed Scaleup Europe Fund, and existing investor PSG Equity. According to Mistral, the raise marks the largest ever equity funding round by a European technology company.

New investors included private equity firm Advent and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while existing backers including Mistral’s largest shareholder ASML, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures and Bpifrance also participated.

Mistral said the funds will expand its frontier AI research and compute capacity, as well as support infrastructure investment, model development, commercial growth and international expansion.

Last year, the startup raised €1.7 billion at a €11.7 billion valuation in a series C funding round led by ASML.

The company said demand is growing for sovereign AI that combines performance with control, as enterprises and governments consider “long-term technology dependencies, data governance requirements and deployment choices”.

Mistral emphasised its “full-stack and open approach” and open-weight models and as a “sovereign AI layer” that gives organisations greater control over their data, models, compute and production systems.

In the game
Europe’s push for technological independence has gained urgency following a US decision in June to curb foreign access to two advanced AI models developed by Anthropic.

Mistral CFO Johan Bergqvist told Reuters that Europe having its “own kind of AI provider in the game is important”. He added that there is “politics involved in the access of these solutions” and organisations need to ensure they “do not compromise” their access to the AI supply chain.

Bergqvist also told the outlet the company is on track to hit $1 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of the year, with growth increasingly coming from Asia and North America. He added a potential IPO remains an option, although the timing is “still up in the air”.

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IT provider Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) subsidiary HyperVault is planning a 1GW AI data centre campus in the south Indian city of Hyderabad, with up to INR700 billion ($7.4 billion) earmarked for the project.

HyperVault, an AI data centre and infrastructure business, secured 264 acres for the development, which will be built in phases based on customer demand and technology requirements. Once fully built, the campus is expected to rank among India’s largest AI infrastructure facilities.

The site will target AI companies and hyperscalers, supporting high-density GPU deployments for AI training and inference. It will use liquid cooling and is designed to accommodate larger power requirements for advanced AI workloads. The company also plans to use green energy and water-neutral design principles.

HyperVault CEO and managing director Deepesh Nanda said the company is “building infrastructure for where AI is going: higher density, liquid cooling, larger power blocks and faster deployment”.

Meanwhile, TCS CEO K. Krithivasan noted: “Hyderabad offers the scale, talent and ecosystem to serve global customers,” adding the project combines “AI-ready infrastructure with our cloud, engineering, enterprise transformation and AI capabilities”.

The move forms part of TCS’ broader push into AI infrastructure. Last month, the IT services player struck a five-year partnership with Porsche worth €1.25 billion and agreed to acquire the company’s automotive and consulting unit MHP for €320 million.

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Huawei launched the Mate XT2 trifold smartphone, pointing to a faster chipset, slimmer profile and improved durability, just days before Apple’s expected foldable debut.  

The Mate XT2 folds out twice into a tablet-sized 10.2-inch display, measuring 12.3mm when folded and 3.5mm when unfolded. It features a 6.5-inch external screen, with peak brightness reaching 6,500 nits.

The device runs on Huawei’s latest Kirin 9050 Pro chipset, which the Chinese vendor claimed delivers 42% higher overall performance than its predecessor.

The Mate XT2 is also the first Huawei smartphone to use the processor, which was designed using the company’s LogicFolding technology. Huawei said the approach intends to address challenges in scaling down semiconductor design while preserving performance.

The handset also features a redesigned hinge, upgraded durability and water resistance. In addition, the Mate XT2 introduces a hardware-level privacy display, which Huawei said allows the screen to remain clear when viewed from the front while restricting visibility from the side.

At its China launch, Huawei said the Mate XT2 is priced from CNY29,999 ($4,470) for the 16GB+2TB variant.

Richard Yu, executive director of Huawei, noted global shipments of tri-fold smartphones have surpassed one million units, adding “we lead the way in form factor innovation”.

Apple debut
Competition in the foldable segment is set to intensify, with Apple expected to launch its first foldable iPhone on Wednesday (9 September). Analysts forecast Apple’s long-rumoured passport-style device to be priced at more than $2,000, with supply chain expectations putting it as high as $2,500.

IDC senior director Nabila Popal told Mobile World Live the technology giant’s arrival in the foldable segment would mark the “biggest catalyst the category has seen”.

Omdia forecasted foldable shipments will rise 22% in 2026 to more than 22 million units, up from 6% growth in 2025.

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SK Hynix outlined plans to invest KRW54 trillion ($38.3 billion) in two new semiconductor manufacturing plants in South Korea, stepping up production capacity to meet long-term demand for AI memory.

The South Korean chipmaker will invest KRW35.2 trillion in its Yongin Y2 fabrication plant in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, which will produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other next-generation dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products. Meanwhile, KRW19.1 trillion is earmarked for a second facility, Cheongju M17, in central South Korea to manufacture NAND flash memory chips, with the company arguing the city “offers the fastest fab construction timeline”.

The latest investment forms part of a wider manufacturing push. In June, SK Hynix unveiled plans to invest KRW600 trillion in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster and KRW100 trillion to expand its Cheongju production base.

Yongin Y2 will become the second of four planned fabs in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. Construction of the plant is due to begin in July 2027, while work on the Cheongju M17 fab is scheduled to start in February 2027. The company aims to complete all four planned fabrication plants by 2033, bringing forward the original timeline by 12 years.

The latest commitment comes amid strong demand for AI memory requiring large volumes of HBM. SK Hynix explained demand for NAND memory is “surging rapidly”, adding its investment followed “a thorough review of market demand”. Citing forecasts by Omdia, it noted global DRAM and NAND demand is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 19% through 2030.

The company noted “in the AI era, technological competitiveness alone is not enough”, arguing the “ability to supply the required volume at the exact moment customers need it is the ultimate competitive advantage”.

In June, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung unveiled a long-term AI and semiconductor initiative led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2035.

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Mobile World Live (MWL) brings you our top three picks of the week as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk outlined Starlink’s global broadband ambitions, Verizon lifted the lid on the network behind the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the World Bank urged developing nations to boost AI adoption.

Musk targets global broadband domination with Starlink

What happened: Musk outlined plans to increase Starlink’s network capacity 100-fold, claiming the satellite broadband business could eventually “deliver a majority of the world’s internet”.

Why it matters:  The tech mogul said the goal hinges on the rollout of an expanded V3 satellite constellation capable of delivering around 10 times the performance of current V2 models. To support the plan, the company asked the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval to deploy up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit V3 satellites, supplementing the roughly 9,600 V2 satellites already in orbit. Musk argued the additional capacity would allow Starlink to eventually carry a majority of global internet traffic in countries where the service is authorised to operate, while driving a tenfold increase in Starlink revenue even if revenue per bit falls by 90%. Quilty Space founder and CEO Chris Quilty told MWL that the company’s “bold claim” flouts its “prior statements that Starlink was most appropriate for rural user”. While V3 satellites are expected to provide a “10x boost”, he noted “aggregate network capacity is a misleading metric because capacity is geographically distributed while demand is geographically concentrated”. Earlier this week, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell claimed that Starlink Mobile could compete directly with operators including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US using upgraded satellites and additional spectrum.

Musk targets global broadband domination with Starlink

Podcast: Inside Verizon’s World Cup connectivity

What happened: In the latest edition of the MWL podcast, Kavit and Justin sat down with Verizon wireless chief network officer Srini Kalapala, who detailed how the operator delivered connectivity as the official network provider for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Why it matters: Earlier this month, the operator revealed its network carried almost 500TB of data across all US host stadiums, including 29.2TB during the final between Argentina and Spain. To handle demand, Verizon boosted stadium capacity by three to five times, installed thousands of under-seat antennas, deployed nearly 140 small cells around venues and fan zones, and laid 80,000 miles of fibre to transport broadcast feeds from all World Cup stadiums. In the podcast, Kalapala described the tournament’s “104 games in 39 days across 18 different stadiums in three countries” as “probably one of the largest projects that we worked on.” He explained Verizon had to ensure stadiums comprising 70,000 to 85,000 people could access “good quality mobile connectivity”, while also delivering “the most reliable network” for broadcasters and powering private 5G applications including referee cameras.

Podcast: Inside Verizon’s World Cup connectivity

World Bank urges lower income nations to grasp AI opportunity

What happened: The World Bank called on developing economies to accelerate AI adoption, arguing low-cost, locally adapted tools could accelerate economic development without requiring frontier models or hefty AI infrastructure investments.

Why it matters: In its World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, the organisation said AI “could allow developing countries to do in a decade what might otherwise take a century”, provided governments address gaps in electricity, internet access, digital skills and institutions. World Bank SVP and chief economist Indermit Gill said AI has “thrown developing economies a lifeline”, but warned countries “must hurry” because the technology is “spreading faster and is more context-specific than earlier general-purpose technologies”. He added many high-impact use cases do not require large models or data centres, instead relying on “small, low-cost AI tools” tailored to local conditions. The report highlighted applications across healthcare, agriculture, tax collection and judicial services, while warning AI could also deepen inequality and weaken public trust without appropriate action. Foresight Communications Consultancy CEO Howaida Nadim argued the World Bank’s framework recognises that “greater opportunity lies in adopting proven tools and adapting them to local languages, data, institutions and development priorities”. She added “the next AI divide” might be “between those that successfully adapt AI to their development needs and those that remain primarily consumers of systems built elsewhere”.

World Bank urges lower income nations to grasp AI opportunity

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Meta introduced a standalone app for sellers on its Facebook Marketplace platform, adding AI tools and sales management features to enable merchants to manage listings, reach buyers, and grow their business.

Sellers, the dedicated app, brings together listing management, buyer communications, inventory tracking and sales insights, while syncing with existing Marketplace accounts so users can carry over listings, messages and sales history.

The new app includes AI-powered listing creation, allowing sellers to upload photos and have Meta AI generate details including titles, descriptions, suggested pricing and categories. It also provides a unified inbox for buyer conversations and analytics covering views, clicks, messages and completed sales.

Meta said its original platform Marketplace, which launched a decade ago integrated directly in Facebook, now handles 430 million item listings each month globally. The existing Marketplace platform will remain available through Facebook, with a web version being tested for Seller app users. Android testing is also underway.

Seller is available through the App Store for US users aged 18 and over.

The launch comes as Meta seeks to expand Marketplace’s capabilities and compete more directly with established e-commerce platforms including eBay. The company has previously focused on improving commerce and community features across its platform, including the release of a dedicated Facebook groups app called Forum in May.

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Mobile World Live brings you our top three picks of the week as OpenAI’s models hacked an AI start-up during testing, Samsung unveiled its latest AI-powered foldables, and Verizon and AT&T logged record World Cup network traffic.

OpenAI models hack AI start-up

What happened: OpenAI revealed that a combination of its advanced AI models autonomously breached a controlled testing environment and launched a cyberattack on AI start-up Hugging Face.

Why it matters: During an internal benchmark designed to evaluate advanced cyber capabilities, the models exploited vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s research infrastructure to gain internet access before using stolen credentials and zero-day flaws to access Hugging Face’s systems. OpenAI said it had intentionally relaxed cyber safeguards in the sandboxed environment to test the models’ capabilities, stating the models were “hyperfocused” on completing the evaluation task and went to “extreme lengths”, though the company warned such events are likely to “become more commonplace” as models grow more capable.

Jason Goode, VP at IT service AppViewX, argued “this is the wake-up call the industry needed”, as the models “didn’t defeat their guardrails so much as exploit what their environments already permitted”. He said the episode underlined the “why model governance alone was never going to be enough” and how “the control point has to be the agent’s identity and what it’s actually allowed to touch”. Meanwhile Dan Gray, chief systems architect at technology R&D firm ChronoDyne Systems, added the incident should not be viewed as AI “going rogue”, but as a “cross-organisational control-chain failure” in which the models provided the “speed, persistence and adaptive exploitation capability”, while the organisations supplied “the objective, permissions, infrastructure and attack surface”.

OpenAI models hack AI start-up

Samsung unveils 3 new foldables packed with AI

What happened: Samsung Electronics expanded its foldables portfolio with three new smartphones at its latest Galaxy Unpacked event in London.

Why it matters: The lineup washeadlined by the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Samsung’s first foldable to carry the Ultra branding. The vendor also refreshed the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8, placing AI capabilities and slimmer designs at the centre. Alongside the handsets, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Watch9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra2, while teasing AI-enabled smart glasses developed with Google and Qualcomm. Futuresource Consulting principal analyst Rasika D’Souza noted that despite forecasts smartwatch shipments will top 200 million units in 2026, the market is maturing as growth shifts to wearables including smart glasses and rings, an opportunity targeted by Samsung. She added the event showed Samsung’s strategy “has evolved from simple integration of AI features to now creating AI assistants that can assist meaningfully in daily tasks”. Meanwhile, FDM CCS Insight chief analyst Ben Wood said Samsung is “doubling down on foldables at exactly the moment the category is about to get its biggest credibility boost”, arguing Apple’s rumoured launch of a foldable iPhone later this year “could also be the moment that turns foldables from a niche premium category into a mainstream flagship battleground”.

Samsung unveils 3 new foldables packed with AI

Verizon, AT&T tally massive data usage during World Cup

What happened: Verizon and AT&T outlined the scale of network infrastructure deployed to support connectivity during the FIFA World Cup, reporting record data traffic and major capacity upgrades across US host venues.

Why it matters: Verizon said its network carried almost 500TB of data across all US host stadiums. The operator boosted stadium capacity by three to five times, installed thousands of under-seat and overhead antennas, and deployed nearly 140 small-cell projects and temporary sites beyond venues. Verizon described the World Cup as an opportunity to “test, refine, and validate our enterprise network capabilities, stressing that many upgrades will remain after the tournament to extend the value of the infrastructure into long-term assets for host cities. Meanwhile, AT&T reported it carried around one petabyte of nationwide traffic during the tournament after preparing its network for two to three times normal demand across 11 US host cities and 146 venues. Verizon’s deployment supported live broadcast production alongside fan connectivity, while AT&T highlighted the role of its FirstNet public safety network in coordinating emergency services.

Verizon, AT&T tally massive data usage during World Cup

The post The Friday File: OpenAI; Samsung; World Cup appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (pictured) rejected concerns Google is losing ground in the AI race after delays to the Gemini 3.5 Pro model, as the company posted a strong second quarter on booming demand for AI and cloud services.

Speaking on the company’s Q2 earnings call, Pichai acknowledged Google needed to improve in areas including AI coding, but said it remained “very committed and very confident of being at the frontier”.

The chief faced repeated questions over whether Gemini could keep pace with rivals in the AI race after Google delayed the launch of its next advanced model in June. He said Google is “committed to being at the full parade of frontier,” offering models at multiple price points including its more affordable Flash models.

Pichai argued “the frontier is an incredibly dynamic space, and it’s fiercely moving forward”, stressing “there are many attributes on which we are still at the frontier”.

He pointed to Gemini 3.6 Flash, released this week, explaining it improved by more than 10 points on a coding benchmark over its predecessor while using fewer tokens. He also revealed the company has begun training Gemini 4, describing it as its “most ambitious pre-training run yet”.

Once Gemini 4 lands, he added the company plans on “picking up pace and releasing models almost at a monthly cadence”.

Strong demand
In Q2 2026, Alphabet pinpointed Google Cloud, which continued to benefit from enterprise demand for AI infrastructure and services.

Revenue from the unit soared 82% to $24.8 billion and operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion. Google Services revenue increased 15% to $94.5 billion, driven by a 17% spike in Search, 15% in Google subscriptions, platforms and devices, and a 13% rise in YouTube advertising.

Total revenue rose 24% year-on-year to $119.8 billion, Alphabet’s 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

Net income surged 298% to $112.1 billion, as it benefitted from a net gain of $98 billion on equity securities. It did not disclose further information, but the company is known to have a sizeable stake in SpaceX and has investment in Anthropic.

“Our AI investments are redefining what’s possible across every part of our business,” Pichai explained, adding ballooning demand for AI infrastructure and enterprise AI solutions helped drive the results.

The search giant also continued ramping AI investment, expecting to spend between $195 billion and $205 billion in capital expenditure this year, up from its previous forecast of $180 billion to $190 billion.

“We have increased ​our capacity quite significantly over the past three years. The demand still outpaces that investment,” explained Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi, adding that although “we’re still in a supply constraint environment”, the company is “seeing very strong demand, both from external cloud customers as well as across the business”.

Looking ahead, the company added it expects capex to “increase significantly” in 2027 as AI demand swells.

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Samsung Electronics expanded its foldables lineup with a trio of smartphones at its Galaxy Unpacked event in London, including the first Ultra-branded foldable as it pushed upgraded form factors and AI-powered features.

Leading the charge was the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the first device to carry Samsung’s Ultra branding on a foldable. Measuring 4.1mm when unfolded, Samsung said the device is its thinnest Galaxy Fold model to date.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, the handset features an 8-inch main display, 5,000mAh battery and a 200MP main camera. It also introduced new Galaxy AI tools including Gemini Notebook, capable of summarising documents and generating content from uploaded files, and Now Nudge, a contextual Galaxy AI feature designed to proactively prompt actions based on user activity.

Samsung also refreshed the Galaxy Z Fold8 with a redesigned display format and adjustable aspect ratios aimed at improving content consumption across video, gaming and reading. The device weighs 201 grams, making it the company’s lightest Fold model, and includes a 4,800mAh battery rated for more than 26 hours of video playback. The Fold8 also introduced an AI-powered editing tool to automatically track and reframe a subject in a video.

In the clamshell segment, Samsung updated the Galaxy Z Flip8 with expanded functionality on its FlexWindow cover display, enabling users to access apps, messages and personalised AI information without opening the handset. The latest Flip model also adds a 50MP main camera and dual recording mode for capturing both subject and creator simultaneously.

Pricing starts at $2,099 for the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, $1,899 for the Galaxy Z Fold8 and $1,199 for the Galaxy Z Flip8. All three models will be available from 7 August.

At the event, TM Roh, CEO, president and head of Samsung Electronics’ Device eXperience division, emphasised the importance of foldables in the AI era.

“The question is: if AI is becoming more personal, more proactive, and more multidimensional, what is the optimal device to bring that experience to life? We believe the answer is foldables.”

Wearables
Samsung also refreshed its wearables portfolio with the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9, its first watches built on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform.

The smartwatches introduce new AI-powered health features, with the vendor claiming both models received an FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection update. The Galaxy Watch9 starts at $379, while the Watch Ultra2 is priced from $699.

In addition, Samsung unveiled intelligent eyewear, although pricing and a release date were not disclosed.

Doubling down
Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, said Samsung is “doubling down on foldables at exactly the moment the category is about to get its biggest credibility boost with the much-rumoured arrival of a folding iPhone later in the year.”

He said Apple’s expected entry “could also be the moment that turns foldables from a niche premium category into a mainstream flagship battleground.”

Wood added “Qualcomm is one of the quiet winners from Samsung’s latest launch, securing important design wins across phones, watches and glasses.”

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