COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Fabricio Bloisi is new Naspers and Prosus CEO



Fabricio Bloisi will replace Bob van Dijk as group CEO of Naspers and its European-listed spinoff, Prosus, the two companies said on Friday.



Bloisi is CEO of iFood, Brazil’s leading food delivery company, which he acquired in 2013 when it was a 20-person start-up.



“Fabricio is a proven entrepreneur and innovator with deep roots in operating, building and scaling world-class technology companies within growth markets,” Naspers said in a statement to shareholders about his appointment.



Ervin Tu, who has been acting as interim CEO for the past eight months following the departure of Van Dijk, has been appointed to the new role of group president and chief investment officer of Naspers and Prosus.



In a statement, Prosus and Naspers chairman Koos Bekker said: “Backing exceptional entrepreneurs who improve people’s everyday lives through technology has brought us some success over the years. Fabricio is an entrepreneur with a proven track record. His appointment as CEO places innovation and entrepreneurship at the heart of the group.



-Techcentral



Microsoft offers cloud customers AMD alternative to Nvidia AI processors



Microsoft on Thursday it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia, with details to be given at its Build developer conference next week.

It will also launch a preview of new Cobalt 100 custom processors at the conference.

Microsoft's clusters of Advanced Micro Devices' flagship MI300X AI chips will be sold through its Azure cloud computing service. They will give its customers an alternative to Nvidia's new tab H100 family of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) which dominate the data center chip market for AI but can be hard to obtain due to high demand.



To build AI models or run applications, companies typically must string together - or cluster - multiple GPUs because the data and computation will not fit on a single processor.

AMD, which expects US$4 billion in AI chip revenue this year, has said the chips are powerful enough to train and run large AI models.

As well as Nvidia's top-shelf AI chips, Microsoft's cloud computing unit sells access to its own in-house AI chips called Maia.



-REUTERS-



Google seeks non-jury trial in US ad tech lawsuit, filing says



Alphabet's Google in a court filing on Thursday is seeking a non-jury trial in the U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit accusing the advertising and search giant of anti-competitive practices in the online advertising marketplace.

The Justice Department, which filed the advertising lawsuit in January 2023, alleged the company has abused its dominance of the digital advertising business and argued that it should be forced to sell its ad manager suite.



Google said the Justice Department's request for a jury trial breaks "with all historical precedent" and noted the department itself has said the technical nature might be difficult for a prospective juror to understand.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google’s online advertising network, which includes ad manager, brought in 12% of the company’s revenue in 2021 and also plays a vital role in the search engine and cloud company's overall sales. Google has said the Justice Department's case went "beyond the boundaries of antitrust law," saying it does not regulate the internet company's conduct at issue.



-REUTERS-



Anglo ditching De Beers is hard blow for troubled diamond market



The diamond industry has already been feeling the heat. Prices have slumped, Russian sanctions are threatening trade and the emergence of lab-grown gems is eating into some key traditional markets.



Now, the sector’s most dominant name is being cast adrift.



Anglo American Plc on Tuesday said it will spin off or sell its De Beers business, ending an almost century-long relationship with the industry’s most famous name. The move, part of a wider restructuring to fend off a US$43 billion approach from BHP Group, is a seismic shock for the diamond world.



The uncertainty over how a new-look De Beers may operate is spooking some of the industry’s biggest players. The entire supply chain knows exactly how an Anglo-backed De Beers works in a market it largely controls, and the prospect of a new owner could upend the way diamonds are sold.



The news couldn’t have come at a worse time. After becoming one of the Covid pandemic’s great winners — when stuck-at-home shoppers turned to luxury purchases like diamonds — the industry’s fortunes have soured.