Companies
Local
• MTN Group ranks second globally in the 2026 Ranking Digital Rights Index – becoming the first telecommunications company headquartered in an emerging market to place among the top three performers worldwide. This achievement marks a significant milestone in the Group’s efforts to strengthen transparency, governance and the protection of digital rights for citizens across its markets. MTN climbed from sixth place in the previous ranking to second place.
• Envision Energy, a global leader in green technology, officially inaugurated its South Africa office in Cape Town, marking a significant milestone in the company’s long-term commitment to supporting South Africa’s energy transition. The Cape Town office will serve as Envision Energy’s regional hub for southern Africa, supporting the company’s growing activities in wind power, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and integrated renewable energy solutions.
Global
• The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is collaborating with Articul8 AI, an enterprise domain-specific generative AI company, to announce a first-of-its-kind domain-specific GenAI model for engineering standards. This announcement represents a major milestone in the modernisation of engineering knowledge and demonstrates how AI can be responsibly deployed in high-stakes industrial environments where accuracy, repeatability, auditability, and trust are essential. The new model transforms how engineers, designers, and technicians interact with ASME’s vast library of engineering codes and standards, documents that underpin the safe design and efficient operation of critical infrastructure across aerospace, energy and power, manufacturing, nuclear, petrochemical, oil and gas, and utilities industries worldwide. The GenAI model and collaboration have already drawn strong industry interest and early validation from leading industrial and manufacturing organisations, including several Fortune 500 companies. The response reflects growing demand for AI systems purpose-built for the precision and accuracy that engineering standards require.
• Gülermak Renewables has signed a multi-site power purchase agreement with Hekla Energy for two of its solar assets in Poland. The agreement covers the 5MW Powidz solar project and the 40MW Brodnica solar project, both located in the Greater Poland region. The PV-only agreement is linked to Poland’s Contract for Difference mechanism and provides route-to-market support through to 2030.
• Intel’s foundry business appears to be gaining momentum amid soaring AI processor demand, with the chipmaker expanding manufacturing investment beyond the United States. The company has announced a €5 billion (US$5,7 billion) upgrade of its Ireland campus. The advanced manufacturing equipment being installed at the site will support production of Intel Xeon 6 processors as well as next-generation Intel Xeon chips built on its Intel 3.
• Meta has announced plans to invest approximately USD 10 billion in a new data center in Sturgeon County, Alberta, marking the company’s largest data center investment outside the United States. Covering roughly 270 000 square meters – equivalent to about 33 football fields – the hyperscale facility will become Meta’s 33rd global data center. With a planned power capacity of 1 GW, it will also be the company’s largest international computing hub, consuming enough electricity to supply approximately 750 000 households. The project places Canada among the world’s key AI infrastructure markets and underscores the rapidly growing demand for computing power in the AI era.
• NEC Africa and PowerX have announced a strategic partnership to deliver intelligent remote management system (RMS) and energy efficiency solutions for large, distributed telecommunications networks across Africa. The partnership combines NEC’s proven track record of large-scale ICT delivery across Africa with PowerX’s market-leading machine learning and AI analytics platform. The result is a single, accountable technology partner able to proactively manage the full cell site infrastructure lifecycle - from design and deployment through to ongoing operations and optimisation.
Technologies
• The installed base of active telematics systems in the car rental and leasing market in Europe and North America reached 8,6 million at the end of 2025, according to a new market research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13,1%, the total active installed base is forecasted to reach 15,8 million by 2030 across the car rental and leasing fleets in the two regions. The telematics penetration rate across the car rental fleets in Europe and North America is expected to grow from 56% at the end of 2025 to 87% in 2030. The telematics penetration rate in the leasing market in the two regions reached 49% at year-end 2025 and is expected to reach 81% by 2030.
• Omdia’s new research highlights continued growth in the cellular Internet of Things (IoT) market, with connectivity projected to reach 5,9 billion connections by 2035. Key innovations including NB-IoT, mMTC and eRedCap are expected to support this growth, together accounting for 65% of cellular IoT connections by 2035.
• TrendForce’s recent report on EV traction inverters shows that in the first quarter of 2026 – usually the industry’s slowest season – global installations hit around 6,82 million units, a 1,9% increase from 6,69 million units in the same period of 2025. These figures suggest that the electrification push continues strongly despite lower seasonal demand, highlighting the EV market’s resilience. Global traction inverter installations reached approximately 32,35 million units in 2025, representing 18,9% growth from 27,21 million units in 2024. TrendForce forecasts installations to rise further to 36,4 million units in 2026, reflecting annual growth of 12,5%.
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