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Akamai Sharpens Its AI Edge with Launch of Akamai Cloud Inference

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New service gives companies the ability to realize a 3x improvement in throughput, 60% less latency, and 86% lower cost than traditional hyperscale infrastructure

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online, today unveiled Akamai Cloud Inference, to usher in a faster, more efficient wave of innovation for organizations looking to turn predictive and large language models (LLMs) into real-world action. Akamai Cloud Inference runs on Akamai Cloud, the world’s most distributed platform, to address escalating limitations of centralized cloud models.

“Getting AI data closer to users and devices is hard, and it’s where legacy clouds struggle,” said Adam Karon, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Cloud Technology Group at Akamai. “While the heavy lifting of training LLMs will continue to happen in big hyperscale data centers, the actionable work of inferencing will take place at the edge where the platform Akamai has built over the past two and a half decades becomes vital for the future of AI and sets us apart from every other cloud provider in the market.”

AI inference on Akamai Cloud
Akamai’s new solution provides tools for platform engineers and developers to build and run AI applications and data-intensive workloads closer to end users, delivering 3x better throughput while reducing latency up to 2.5x. Using Akamai’s solution, businesses can save up to 86% on AI inference and agentic AI workloads compared to traditional hyperscaler infrastructure. Akamai Cloud Inference includes:

Compute: Akamai Cloud offers a versatile compute arsenal, from classic CPUs for fine-tuned inference, to powerful accelerated-compute options in GPUs, and tailored ASIC VPUs to provide the right horsepower for a spectrum of AI inference challenges. Akamai integrates with Nvidia’s AI Enterprise ecosystem, leveraging Triton, TAO Toolkit, TensorRT, and NVFlare to optimize performance of AI inference on NVIDIA GPUs.Data management: Akamai enables customers to unlock the full potential of AI inference with a cutting-edge data fabric purpose-built for modern AI workloads. Akamai has partnered with VAST Data to provide streamlined access to real-time data to accelerate inference-related tasks, essential to delivering relevant results and a responsive experience. This is complemented by highly scalable object storage to manage the volume and variety of datasets critical to AI applications, and integration with leading vector database vendors, including Aiven and Milvus, to enable retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). With this data management stack, Akamai securely stores fine-tuned model data and training artifacts to deliver low-latency AI inference at global scale.Containerization: Containerizing AI workloads enables demand-based autoscaling, improved application resilience, and hybrid/multicloud portability, while optimizing both performance and cost. With Kubernetes, Akamai delivers faster, cheaper, and more secure AI inference at petabyte-scale performance. Underpinned by Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE)-Enterprise, a new enterprise edition of Akamai Cloud’s Kubernetes orchestration platform designed specifically for large-scale enterprise workloads, and the recently announced Akamai App Platform, Akamai Cloud Inference is able to quickly deploy an AI-ready platform of open source Kubernetes projects, including KServe, Kubeflow, and SpinKube, seamlessly integrated to streamline the deployment of AI models for inference.Edge compute: To simplify how developers build AI-powered applications, Akamai AI Inference includes WebAssembly (Wasm) capabilities. Working with Wasm providers like Fermyon, Akamai enables developers to execute inferencing for LLMs directly from serverless apps, allowing customers to execute lightweight code at the edge to enable latency-sensitive applications.

Together, these tools create a powerful platform for low-latency, AI-powered applications that allows companies to deliver the experience their users demand. Akamai Cloud Inference runs on the company’s massively distributed platform capable of consistently delivering over one petabyte per second of throughput for data-intensive workloads. Comprising more than 4,200 points of presence across greater than 1,200 networks in over 130 countries worldwide, Akamai Cloud makes compute resources available from cloud to edge while accelerating application performance and increasing scalability.

The shift from training to inference
As AI adoption matures, enterprises are recognizing that the hype around LLMs has created a distraction, drawing focus away from practical AI solutions better suited to solve specific business problems. LLMs excel at general-purpose tasks like summarization, translation, and customer service. These are very large models that are expensive and time-consuming to train. Many enterprises have found themselves constrained by architectural and cost requirements, including data center and computational power; well-structured, secure, and scalable data systems; and the challenges that location and security requirements place on decision latency. Lightweight AI models, — designed to address specific business problems — can be optimized for individual industries, can use proprietary data to create measurable outcomes, and represent a better return on investment for enterprises today.

AI inference needs a more distributed cloud
Increasingly, data will be generated outside of centralized data centers or cloud regions. This shift is driving demand for AI solutions that leverage data generation closer to the point of origin. This fundamentally reshapes infrastructure needs as enterprises move beyond building and training LLMs, toward using data for faster, smarter decisions and investing in more personalized experiences. Enterprises recognize that they can generate more value by leveraging AI to manage and improve their business operations and processes. Distributed cloud and edge architectures are emerging as preferable for operational intelligence use cases because they can provide real-time, actionable insights across distributed assets even in remote environments. Early customer examples on Akamai Cloud include in-car voice assistance, AI-powered crop management, image optimization for consumer product marketplaces, virtual garment visualization shopping experiences, automated product description generators, and customer feedback sentiment analyzers.

“Training an LLM is like creating a map, requiring you to gather data, analyze terrain, and plot routes. It’s slow and resource-intensive, but once built, it’s highly useful. AI inference is like using a GPS, instantly applying that knowledge, recalculating in real time, and adapting to changes to get you where you need to go,” explained Karon. “Inference is the next frontier for AI.”

About Akamai
Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.

Contacts
Akamai Media Relations
akamaipr@akamai.com 

Akamai Investor Relations
invrel@akamai.com 

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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.

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Infosys and Formula E Launch AI-Powered Stats Center to Boost Fan Engagement

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Leveraging Infosys Topaz, the Stats Center offers interactive and immersive stories based on driver and team stats across seasons

BENGALURU, India, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced the launch of the Formula E Stats Center, developed in partnership with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the world’s first all-electric FIA World Championship. The Stats Center is powered by Infosys Topaz, an AI-first offering using generative AI technologies, and is set to redefine fan engagement by delivering advanced, data-driven insights and immersive experiences.

This initiative marks a significant step forward in Infosys’ three-year partnership with Formula E. The Stats Center will provide fans with interactive access to stellar performances of drivers and teams, their key milestones, and compelling narratives through its Key Stats and Insights platform. It engages users by showcasing stats of drivers and teams across current and past seasons, using a trending bubble chat format that prompts engaging curated questions. This feature makes complex data easily digestible and fosters a deeper connection between fans and the sport.

Key features of the Stats Center include:

Key Stat Cards – These are dynamic key stat cards which adapt based on the season’s timeline – whether during a live race, offseason, or in-season. The cards not only highlight race stats but also provide fans with an in-depth understanding of past and upcoming racetracks, inspiring them to follow and look forward to those track locations.Key Insights – Using grounded knowledge bases containing information about all past seasons, races, drivers etc., to train the AI, it ensures that fans are given accurate, relevant and engaging content – delivering a richer experience for Formula E enthusiasts worldwide. The Stats Center generates AI-powered human-like text summarizations, a shift from the earlier process of manual editing of race summaries and driver and team performances. Stats can offer powerful insightful narratives across past 10 seasons.AI Companion – A simple interface that engages users and educates them about various milestones and stats across Formula E season., This new tool enables fans to prompt unique questions and access key summaries or insights.

Infosys spearheaded the migration of Formula E’s central datalake to Google Cloud, establishing a secure and scalable architecture that supports marketing, business intelligence, and sporting operations for Formula E.

Season 11 also marks a revolutionary chapter for Formula E with the debut of the GEN3 Evo, a leap in electric racing technology that combines blistering performance, cutting-edge sustainability, and unparalleled efficiency. The GEN3 Evo sets a new benchmark as the fastest-accelerating FIA single-seater, rocketing from 0-60 mph in an astonishing 1.82 seconds—30% quicker than current Formula 1 cars—underscoring Formula E’s unwavering commitment to driving innovation while prioritizing environmental responsibility.

Jeff Dodds, Chief Executive Officer, Formula E, said, “Fans are at the heart of what we do, and we’re thrilled to offer them a new and engaging way to connect with the sport. As our first technical partnership with Infosys, we’re showcasing how innovation and technology can elevate the experience for everyone who loves Formula E, by making race data more accessible and easier to understand. Fans will be able to follow their favorite driver and team with in-depth insights and track their performance over the seasons ahead.”

Sumit Virmani, EVP & Global Chief Marketing Officer, Infosys, said “Our partnership with Formula E proves how technology can revolutionize fan engagement. The AI-powered Stats Center, fueled by Infosys Topaz, transforms raw data into compelling narratives, offering fans an immersive journey through driver and team performance, celebrating key milestones and unlocking compelling stories. From dynamic stat cards that adapt to the race timeline to an AI companion that prompts engaging questions, we’re supercharging the Formula E fan experience, making its rich history, and exciting present more accessible and engaging, ultimately raising the bar for digital fan engagement.”

For more about the Formula E Stats Center click here.

About Formula E and the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship

As the world’s first all-electric FIA World Championship and the only sport-certified net zero carbon since inception, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship brings dramatic racing to the heart of some of the world’s most iconic cities providing an elite motorsport platform for the world’s leading automotive manufacturers to accelerate electric vehicle innovation.

The Formula E network of teams, manufacturers, partners, broadcasters, and host cities is united by a passion for the sport and belief in its potential to accelerate sustainable human progress and create a better future for people and the planet. www.FIAFormulaE.com

For Formula E media enquiries, please contact – media@fiaformulae.com

About ABB

ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. By connecting its engineering and digitalization expertise, ABB helps industries run at high performance, while becoming more efficient, productive and sustainable so they outperform. At ABB, we call this ‘Engineered to Outrun’. The company has over 140 years of history and more than 110,000 employees worldwide. ABB’s shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ABBN) and Nasdaq Stockholm (ABB). www.abb.com

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 300,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses and communities. We enable clients in more than 56 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, or our future financial or operating performance, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the execution of our business strategy, increased competition for talent, our ability to attract and retain personnel, increase in wages, investments to reskill our employees, our ability to effectively implement a hybrid work model, economic uncertainties and geo-political situations, technological disruptions and innovations such as Generative AI, the complex and evolving regulatory landscape including immigration regulation changes, our ESG vision, our capital allocation policy and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, liquidity, capital resources, our corporate actions including acquisitions, and cybersecurity matters. Important factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our US Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

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EU-UK BORDER COSTS SURGE, CLEARBORDER REPORT WARNS

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LONDON, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — British businesses are facing soaring border costs and mounting delays, with some abandoning UK-EU supply chains altogether, according to a new report published today by the international trade consultants, clearBorder. 

The State of the Border report, based on the experiences of 900 businesses across the UK, France, and Germany, warns that the post-Brexit border has become significantly worse over the last twelve months, with 64% of firms reporting increases in fees and delays. 

As the UK and EU negotiate a supposed ‘reset’ in relations, the report’s authors found consistently poor experience for businesses from the UK, France and Germany, with many bearing higher costs and enduring delays.

The report found that: 

Almost 3 in 5 businesses have experienced significant delaysBorder costs have risen adding to costs for UK, French and German businessesGerman businesses remain most optimistic about trade recovery, despite reporting some of the worst border experienceFrench businesses are the most pessimistic, and are particularly concerned about increased domestic instabilityAll three countries anticipate improvements in EU/UK trade. UK businesses were more optimistic about trade with the US than French and German counterparts

The report builds on more than three years of research conducted in the UK. Today’s report includes businesses in Germany and France, to offer valuable insights into how businesses are navigating the complexities of cross border trade.

As countries ready themselves for US tariffs, the research highlights how businesses respond as trade becomes more complex. Many are adapting, with investment in software, staff and automation. 

“The numbers speak for themselves,” says Christopher Salmon, CEO and Founder of clearBorder. “Over four years of research we have seen no improvement in the performance of the border. What has improved about businesses’ experience is down to them investing, adapting and growing in confidence.

“This year we can see that French and German businesses’ experience is similar – sometimes worse. As the UK government and EU negotiate, they should recognise that a better border benefits both sides.

“That means investment: investment in automation, trade facilitation and cooperation over data. That would bring huge gains – without the need to challenge any negotiating red lines.”

Nevertheless, organisations across the three countries surveyed remain optimistic that they can adapt to border difficulties, and most have reported that they have made at least one change to their operations in the past year.

Note to journalists

The State of the Border report is published by clearBorder.

Data comes from more than 900 respondents surveyed in January – February 2025, from organisations across 22 sectors in the UK, Germany and France.

In-depth interviews were also conducted with 11 decision-makers at 10 businesses with direct experience of using the UK border. Interviews were conducted online and lasted 30-45 minutes.

You can access the full report here

About clearBorder

clearBorder provides advice, consultancy and insights for long-term strategic and robust planning to assist seamless trade across international borders. This is underpinned by practical and real-world expertise and experience from our independent team of international trade specialists.

From problem identification to solution implementation, specific and immediate challenges to longer-term futureproofing, we help clients maximise efficiency and to continue competing and growing in international markets.

clearBorder is the trusted partner needed to help navigate an increasingly complex world. With highly tuned supply chains, heightened security risks, political uncertainty, and global turbulence having an ever-greater impact on imports and export controls, being reactive is not enough. We not only deliver the ‘so what?’ but proactively help answer the ‘what next?’ and ‘what if?’

www.clearborder.co.uk

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WePlay App 4th Anniversary Carnival: A Grand Social Gathering Where Play Brings Friends Together!

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TAIPEI, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — As a renowned app blending casual tabletop games and voice-based interactions, WePlay App has consistently innovated to reward its players. This year, it launched exciting new titles, including the adrenaline-pumping competitive battle game Smash GO! (where players choose hero characters for epic showdowns), the liar’s Party (testing players’ acting skills and logic), and the immersive 2D puzzle-adventure Ghost Tag (offering stunning visuals and atmospheric sound design).

To celebrate its 4th anniversary in March, WePlay app themed the event “Carnival of Joy,” creating a lively atmosphere filled with birthday cheer. A standout feature was the collaboration with the popular IP “Peach Cat”, releasing anniversary-themed cosmetic items featuring the adorable mascot. The celebration extended beyond the digital realm with a physical anniversary party in Taipei’s Xinyi District, bridging online and offline interactions.

On March 29th, a high-profile flagship party event was grandly held in Taipei’s Xinyi District, featuring brand-exclusive signature cocktails, an interactive birthday message wall, and other elements that strengthened the bond between the brand and its community members. This year, the event also highlighted talented player-singers voted by WePlay’s community, who delivered electrifying live performances on stage. Their extraordinary acts left attendees in awe and admiration, propelling the party atmosphere to its peak and creating unforgettable moments for all participants.

Now entering its fifth year, WePlay App remains Taiwan’s leading social gaming platform. It continues to deepen its roots in Taiwan’s market, expanding its game ecosystem and fostering a vibrant community to meet players’ evolving needs.

With a mission to redefine digital entertainment through play, WePlay App stands as a beacon for gamers seeking both challenge and camaraderie.

 

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