Are you a client?
Sign in to view the full news archive.
UKHotViews
Google consultancy, Qodea, has acquired Beyond from Next 15 Group.
The acquisition gives Qodea an immediate presence in North America (Beyond has clients including Google, Snap and Paramount Pictures), complementing its presence in Europe. Beyond is a consultancy that builds, modernises, and scales cloud and AI solutions.
Alan Paton, CEO of Qodea, said: “By combining [Beyond’s] front-end design and data science expertise with our deep cloud engineering capabilities, we are creating a transatlantic powerhouse equipped to deliver intelligent, impactful products for our clients. The opportunity ahead is vast, and this is just the beginning.”
Formed from the merger of Appsbroker and CTS in 2023, Qodea says it is the largest dedicated Google consultancy in Europe. It has c.400 staff (not including Beyond) in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania. Clients are in sectors including banking, automotive manufacturing, and retail and it is backed by Marlin Equity Partners. Bringing Beyond into the family is both highly complementary and offers notable scope for accelerated growth.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:55
Tags:
acquisition
google
OneAdvanced has announced the successful completion of a £1.2bn private credit refinancing of existing debt. The package was backed by major lenders Ares Management Direct Lending funds, Carlyle, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Existing investors BC Partners and Vista Equity Partners provided support through the transaction, both reinforcing their commitment to the UK software and services business.
The new arrangement will support the company’s growth plans following its recent business transformation efforts. Since joining OneAdvanced in 2023, CEO Simon Walsh has led the strategic shift to verticalise its SaaS portfolio. This has seen the company move away from a product-led approach to a sector-focused approach that is better aligned to the requirements of key market segments.
The company has also refreshed its product strategy, taking a considered approach to the use of embedded AI in its software. This includes the launch of OneAdvanced AI–a secure, compliant and UK sovereign service that can enable access to a Large Language Model (LLM) operating in a private, closed, and fully encrypted environment. Earlier this month, it also launched OneAdvanced Agent Marketplace, which currently provides 14 AI agents aimed at streamlining processes and improving efficiency across vital business functions.
The strategy appears to be paying off. As we discussed in our recent UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025 report, OneAdvanced achieved double-digit ARR growth in its last financial year, with subscription revenues now accounting for over 88% of total revenues. In May 2025, the company completed the first quarter of its new financial year, achieving 12% annualised ARR growth with incremental sales made to over 340 organisations.
The refinancing is a vote of confidence in the company’s direction of travel. It will support its growth aspirations, providing the surety to invest in further product development and the ability to pursue strategic and complementary acquisitions.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:50
Tags:
saas
strategy
software
refinancing
London-based InsurTech Laka has raise £7.7m in a Series B funding round co-led by Shift4Good and MS&AD Ventures, and backed by investors including 1818 Ventures, Achmea Innovation Fund, Autotech Ventures, Creandum, LocalGlobe, Motive Partners, Ponooc, and Republic (formerly Seedrs) – some of whom participated in its €7.6m round back in October 2023 (see Laka focuses on France for next leg of its journey).
Founded in 2017, the company has since branched out from its high-end bicycle insurance beginnings to cover e-bikes and cargo bikes too, and has also expanded across Europe (partly organically, but also through acquisitions – such as of French bike insurance provider Cylantro last October).
The company operates a collective-based insurance model for cyclists (with no fixed sum charged upfront, instead premiums vary – up to a capped limit – based on the actual cost of claims each month).
Laka is aiming to use its Series B backing to further expand its offering and “build towards profitability”, planning a “significant debt financing agreement” (to fund an acquisition pipeline) and possibly additional funding later in the year.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:25
Tags:
acquisition
funding
mobility
insurance
bike
cycle
bicycle
e-bike
collective
Shares plummeted 35% this morning at AIM-listed Corero Network Security as its H1 2025 trading update revealed a company navigating the classic SaaS transition challenge—strong underlying metrics overshadowed by revenue recognition timing effects.
The 25% ARR growth to $21.6m demonstrates healthy demand for Corero's Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection services, particularly their DDoS Protection-as-a-Service (DDPaaS) offering. However, the shift from upfront license sales to recurring revenue models has created a near-term revenue headwind, with H1 2025 revenue declining to $10.9m from $12.2m previously.
Management's FY 2025 revenue guidance of $24.0-25.5m (versus $24.6m in FY 2024) reflects continued pressure from this business model evolution and broader macroeconomic uncertainty affecting enterprise purchasing decisions. The $1.5m EBITDA loss guidance marks a significant swing from 2024's $2.5m profit.
While order intake of $12.5m fell short of the prior year's $14.2m, Q2's 13% year-over-year growth and initial CORE platform wins totalling $1.8m signal improving momentum. The company's debt-free balance sheet provides flexibility, though declining cash reserves ($3.1m versus $7.9m) and discussions for overdraft facilities highlight working capital pressures inherent in a SaaS transition.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:38
Tags:
saas
security
DDoS
trading update
RM plc’s interim results (six months ended 31 May 2025) reveal the company has made good progress on margin improvement and cost control, maintained strong momentum in its Assessment division, but is still facing challenging market conditions due to school budgetary pressures.
Based on continuing operations (largely reflecting the closure of Consortium), revenue declined by 6.5% year-on-year to £73.2m (H1 2024: £78.3m). Adjusted operating profit improved by £1.5m to £0.9m (H1 2024: loss of £0.6m), resulting in a loss before tax of £4.3m (H1 2024: loss of £6.6m). Adjusted EBITDA excluding share-based payments increased to £3.5m (H1 2024: £2.4m).
At the divisional level, the star of the show remains RM Assessment. Revenues increased by 4.1% to £20.5m (H1 2024: £19.7m). This included strong growth in platform revenues (+18.6%) and third-party scanning revenues (+24.0%), which resulted in recurring revenue increasing 19.5% to £17.1m (H1 2024: £14.3m). Growth was partially offset by legacy contract runoff and non-core contracts, which dropped to £2.1m (H1 2024: £4.8m). Adjusted operating profit increased by 56.5% to £3.6m (H1 2024: £2.3m).
This division has been the focus of investment for the business. In June 2025, it announced the launch of RM Ava, its adaptive virtual accreditation platform (formerly known as the ‘Global Accreditation Platform’). Its development will result in a cash outflow of £6.5m in FY25 (£4.2m in FY24). It has also announced that Trinity College London, an awarding body specialising in the assessment of communicative and performance skills, has chosen to provide assessment solutions using this platform. This follows recent contract renewals, including SEAB in Singapore, and SACE in Australia.
The situation was not as positive for RM TTS (curriculum resources) and RM Technology (school IT). RM TTS revenues decreased by 8.6% to £30.7m (H1 2024: £33.6m). In the UK, it was impacted by challenging school budgets and internationally it was hit by the US tariff situation. Despite the downturn, adjusted operating profit was flat at £0.1m (H1 2024: £0.1m). RM Technology was also a victim of the UK school budget situation, resulting in revenues falling by 12.0% to £22.0m (H1 2024: £25.0m); however, adjusted operating profit increased to £0.9m (H1 2024: £0.8m).
The company has also announced that it plans to operationally separate the three divisions to create simpler structures, provide greater strategic flexibility, and help to unlock further cost saving opportunities. Although we do not believe there is any pressure to break up the business, it would also make it much easier to dispose of one or more divisions if the right opportunity did arise.
Since the period end, the Group has secured an extension to its £70.0m bank facility for a further 12 months to July 2027. Additionally, after several years in deficit, its pension schemes now show a surplus of £10.5m. RM Assessment’s pipeline is strong and further wins are expected in H2, plus there are some positive signs in RM Technology (multi-academy trust contracts and the government’s Connect the Classroom initiative) and RM TTS (opportunities in the Middle East), both of which typically have a stronger H2. There is still work to be done, but it has been an encouraging start to FY25.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:19
Tags:
results
education
H1
assessment
edtech
school
Data migration and orchestration specialists, Cirata (formerly known as WANdisco) has delivered another mixed bag with its trading update for Q2 and the first half of FY25 – strong year-over-year (YoY) bookings growth for the six months overall, tempered by patchy quarterly performance and ongoing execution challenges.
After kicking off the year with its strongest Q1 in six years (see Cirata posts strongest Q1 bookings for six years), Cirata has followed up with a subdued Q2. Bookings fell 53% YoY to $0.8m (though Q1’s 330% rise helped it close out the six-month period with bookings up 58% – to $3.8m – compared with H1 2024). Data Integration (DI) bookings were up 17% to $0.7m in Q2 – nothing like the increase seen in Q1, but still the core engine of growth for the company.
Cirata cited ongoing difficulties in North America, with execution issues first flagged in Q1 persisting into Q2. In response, company has appointed a new Chief Revenue Officer (Dominic Arcari, previously VP Sales & Marketing at Telefónica Tech), to sharpen sales execution globally and bolster pipeline conversion.
More positively, the company has made meaningful strides in cash control. Q2 cash burn was down 47% YoY to $2.2m, and overheads are being realigned towards a $12m–$13m run rate exiting Q3 (which would represent a dramatic drop from the $45m peak seen in early FY23). The announcement of an agreement to divest its DevOps assets to UK-based IT development insights platform provider BlueOptima for $3.5m will add further balance sheet resilience and also help Cirata focus more on its core DI business. A new partnership with Microsoft under the Azure Storage Migration Program will help broaden use cases for its Live Data Migrator product too.
Cirata’s FY25 outlook remains unchanged since March, with bookings expected to be weighted towards the early part of the year (and DI supplying the bulk of the growth throughout). Having declared FY24 the “recovery year” (see Cirata’s groundhog days continue), the business now needs to prove it can deliver sustained growth and build predictability into what remains a lumpy sales cycle.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:03
Tags:
results
divestment
update
bookings
The use of AI for video generation is a hot area of GenAI fuelled innovation at present. If you have not seen or tried out some of the latest tools like Google’s Veo 3, Runway or OpenAI’s Sora then definitely take a look. Whilst some of the biggest use cases are going to be for marketing, advertising and just general content creation, another big potential market that will be disrupted is the film and TV industry. If you live anywhere near Reading or happen to drive along the M4, you will have seen the huge Shinfield studios that were built several years ago, and which have already been used to film series such as Star Wars series ‘The Acolyte’ and Netflix series ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’.
The film industry is a significant area of growth for the UK economy. Official figures from the BFI’s show that film and high-end TV production spend in the UK was £5.6bn in 2024, a 31% increase on 2023. Yet this is an industry that over the next decade faces huge potential disruption from AI. The creative capabilities of GenAI models have I think already surpassed what in the early day of GenAI development many expected. In fact, if you cast your minds back, the ‘creativity’ of AI was often touted as its main weakness and where humans would add the most value, yet creativity has turned out be a core strength of GenAI models.
So why the focus on video generation you might be wondering. Well US HQ’ed GenAI startup Moonvalley, announced it has raised $84m in additional funding for its AI solutions targeted at professional filmmakers and brand designers, bringing its total funding to $154m. Investors include General Catalyst, CoreWeave, Comcast Ventures, and YCombinator.
The AI startup recently released its flagship model to the public, dubbed Marey, which is designed to be a production-grade AI videography platform built on purely licensed content, making it an “ethical” model, for professional filmmakers and brand designers. The platform can generate videos from not only text prompts but also from sketches, photos, and other video clips, it also enables users to control camera angles, motion transfer and trajectory, just like traditional filming, but all on AI generated content. The real differentiator is the ‘ethical’ component though. Marey is trained only on licensed, high-resolution footage, no scraped content or user submissions, meaning there should be no legal challenges on its commercial use.
Generative AI’s entry into film and media has the potential to be transformative, bringing down the cost of film production and speeding up content creation through use of automation and GenAI. Thorny questions about copyright, creative credits, and jobs remain, and those in the industry have a right to be concerned for their futures and retaining control of intellectual property. Whilst right now most AI tools can only generate short video clips, the potential for creating longer movies and shows is clearly there, what this means for the long-term future of film and TV studios remains to be seen, but it is an area to watch closely.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:01
London-HQ’d digital promotions and loyalty specialist, Eagle Eye saw its FY25 revenue increase by just 1% yoy to £48.2m (FY24: 11%). The slowdown in top line growth, which started during the second half of the prior year (see here), continued through latest fiscal with hoh sales remaining largely flat. Tight cost discipline during the twelve months ended 30th June, however, lifted the company’s adjusted EBITDA by 9% yoy to £12.2m generating a margin of 25% (FY24: 24%).
The placid surface of the results belies the extent of changes afoot at Eagle Eye as it transitions to a platform-centric business. The company’s strategic shift to a Systems Integrator model led to 27% fall in its professional services turnover to c.£8m in FY25. This was, however, fully offset by an 11% increase in SaaS and transaction revenues to £40.2m with six new blue-chip customers won in H2 including Galeries Lafayette in France, Viva Energy Australia and Metro Singapore.
Eagle Eye’s prospects were, however, dealt a significant blow in the final month of the financial year when it received notification by Neptune Retail Solutions (NRS) of the termination of a contract with an annual value of between £9m and £10m in revenue with effect from 2 August 2025. Cost reduction initiatives in response to the lost contract have been launched and the company is confident in maintaining a double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin for FY26.
The impact of the NRS loss will be further softened by the company’s acquisition at the end of June of Promotional Payments Solutions Limited. The Dublin-based SaaS provider specialises in digital promotions and loyalty solutions for enterprise retailers and consumer packaged goods companies. In 2024 it generated turnover of €3.96m and EBITA of €0.9m. Eagle Eye also believes that the OEM agreement signed in January with one of the world's largest enterprise software vendors (see here) will both begin to bear fruit in H126 and drive substantial revenue generation expected from FY27.
The company’s optimism in its outlook is yet to be shared by investors. Over the last twelve months, Eagle’s stock price has more than halved. This divergence in views has led the company to announce the commencement of a share buyback programme to repurchase ordinary shares for up to a maximum amount of £1.0 million. As we have noted before, the company has a clear set of focus areas to scale the business. What is now needed is more tangible evidence of Eagle Eye’s ability to execute successfully its strategy at pace.
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 09:41
Tags:
results
saas
software
ecommerce
acquistion
customer+experience
London based Adarga, a supplier of AI-driven information intelligence, has been awarded a significantly expanded AI contract by Defence Support, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). This includes a multi-year renewal for use of Adarga's Vantage software, alongside substantial investment in applied AI services to accelerate intelligence capabilities that identify threats to UK military supply chains.
The contract forms part of the Enterprise Agreement Lite awarded to Adarga by the UK MOD in January. Worth up to £12m, it is one of the first agreements of its kind offered to an SME (See - Adarga wins £12m R&D deal with MOD). The renewed commitment follows demonstrable success in leveraging Adarga's Vantage software to enhance information analysis, drive operational efficiency, and improve strategic decision-making.
Rob Bassett Cross MC, CEO of Adarga, said: "We are proud to be a trusted, sovereign AI partner - allowing analysts and planners to leverage the powerful capabilities of AI and to respond to emerging threats with unmatched speed, precision, and insight."
This deal is a significant one for Adarga, validating the value of its AI platform and putting it on a strong footing to compete with heavy hitters like Palantir as it seeks to expand its presence across the MOD. One of the key differentiators for Adarga’s AI-led services and solutions is its composable AI platform - a proprietary ecosystem of 35+ AI models designed for information intelligence use-cases in defence and global security. The company has also built one of the largest curated datasets of its kind, offering unique, quantifiable insights into geopolitical risks. Search, discovery, and GenAI capabilities provide the ability for defence users to interrogate and contextualise both proprietary and publicly available data in a single secure environment.
The MOD’s expanded commitment with Adarga underscores the importance of new technologies, especially AI, at the core of defence transformation. AI technologies are already being exploited by the MOD and armed forces, enabling the military to take leaps forward in how it fights and improves decision-making quality and speed. It is also one of the key UK industries where sovereign capabilities are growing significantly in their importance amidst geopolitical turbulence and US relations, creating opportunities for UK HQ’ed and hosted suppliers.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:06
UK hospitality tech startup Inntelo AI has raised over £500k in Pre-Seed funding to grow its AI-powered hotel communications platform. The company's product integrates guest and staff communications through WhatsApp and phone, using conversational AI to automate inquiries and coordinate tasks across departments.
Co-founded by CEO Asif Alidina, who brings a decade of hotel operations experience, Inntelo addresses the industry's tech adoption challenges with domain-specific expertise. The platform has already secured traction with Radisson and Wyndham-branded properties across the UK, UAE, and Europe.
Haatch and British Business Bank led the round, with participation from Look AI Ventures and hospitality industry angel investors. This follows an earlier £120k investment from Antler.
The funding helps validate the market opportunity for hospitality-focused AI solutions that bridge guest expectations with operational efficiency. With hotels increasingly seeking technology that enhances both guest experience and staff productivity, Inntelo's industry-insider approach positions it well against generic AI solutions lacking sector-specific insights and context.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:37
Tags:
funding
hospitality
Top 30 SITS provider Experian updated the market this morning on robust first-quarter results, posting 12% total revenue growth at constant currency with 8% organic growth, demonstrating resilient underlying performance across its global operations.
The data and technology giant's diversified geographic footprint proved advantageous, with North America (67% of revenue) leading organic growth at 9%, driven by strong B2B performance of 12%. The region benefited from new product launches, particularly Clarity and Ascend analytics solutions, alongside improved mortgage activity and strategic acquisitions NeuroID and Audigent.
The UK and Ireland region remains a drag however, delivering modest 1% organic growth amid continued economic uncertainty, while EMEA and Asia Pacific showed promising 7% organic expansion, supported by the illion acquisition's integration.
Experian's balanced portfolio between B2B (73% of revenue) and Consumer Services (27%) provides stability, with B2B growing 8% organically and Consumer Services maintaining 6% growth despite data breach services normalisation.
Management's unchanged full-year outlook signals confidence in a sustainable growth trajectory, reinforcing Experian's position as a resilient operator in the ever changing data services landscape.
Posted by: Marc Hardwick at 08:12
Tags:
data
trading update
Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 07:00
CGI has extended its relationship with Market Operator Services Ltd (MOSL) with a deal to develop a Smart Meter Read Hub for the business water retail market in England and Wales.
This latest engagement builds on CGI's existing relationship with MOSL, where it has managed the Central Market Operating System (CMOS) since 2015, most recently through an £11.5m contract extension secured in April 2024.
The Smart Meter Read Hub represents a critical infrastructure upgrade for the water market, designed to handle the expected surge in data volumes as water companies roll out smart metering to nearly 800,000 businesses over the next five years. The cloud platform will centralise the currently fragmented data exchange processes between wholesalers and retailers, creating a standardised approach that should reduce market barriers for smaller players while improving overall efficiency.
Defra is targeting a 9% reduction in water consumption by 2038 and smart meters clearly play a role in that. The Hub will need to process over one million meter reads monthly, which represents a substantial increase from current volumes. This reflects both the scale of the smart meter rollout and the shift towards more frequent data collection.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:50
Tags:
utilities
water
CGI has been appointed as strategic partner to support the delivery of NHS England’s Enabling Products Portfolio. Awarded to BJSS (now part of CGI) via the Digital Capability for Health (DCFH) framework, the contract to provide digital delivery services is valued at £16.6m over its two-year duration.
The Enabling Products Portfolio is responsible for delivering integrated architecture and digital interoperability across the health and care system, including core national products to enable bookings, referrals, and medicines management. As such, it plays a key role in NHS digital transformation plans that were recently detailed in the 10 Year Plan for Health (see 10 Year Plan for Health for England).
The contract reinforces CGI’s position of strength in the health sector. It follows several recent wins for the business, including a £27.8m three-year deal to be the 'Digital Front Door' Delivery Partner for NHS Education for Scotland and a £37.5m three-year contract with NHS England to support the development of NHS.UK.
Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:47
Tags:
nhs
contract
health
digital
The UK government has unveiled a new programme to recruit the nation's top AI experts into public service, backed by a $1m (approximately £750k) grant from Meta to the Alan Turing Institute. The 12-month AI Fellowship aims to help make the state more agile so it can deliver the Plan for Change, leveraging open-source tools to keep down costs.
Fellows will join DSIT’s Incubator for AI, with a focus on building tools using Meta's Llama 3.5 and other open-source models. Potential applications range from building AI tools for high-security use cases across the public sector such as language translation in a national security context, or making use of construction planning data to speed up the approvals process. They could also help expand “Humphrey”, a bundle of AI tools that help civil servants more effectively deliver on the requests of ministers – taking away the admin burdens involved in summarising documents, taking notes and summarising consultation responses (See - Plans and progress of UK government AI adoption).
The fellowship comes alongside the news that ‘Caddy’, an AI assistant that helps call centre workers by providing key information from guidance documents, has been open sourced. Having been tested in Citizen’s Advice to date, who built the technology in partnership with government, it is also now for the first time being used by central government, with a Cabinet Office team using it to quickly access expert guidance on grant decisions, improving speed, consistency, and value for money. Early tests across 1,000 calls showed that it could halve response times, with 80% of Caddy-generated responses ready to use with no revisions.
The government also announced it is launching the next phase of the AI Knowledge Hub – a platform that shares real examples, tools, and tips to help teams use AI. The Hub is designed to help departments learn from each other, avoid duplication, and move from small pilots to real results. As part of its next phase, new features will be added including a Prompt Library to help teams use AI to boost everyday productivity and deliver faster, better services.
At Google Cloud’s London event last week (See - Interoperability a key focus of Google Cloud’s AI strategy), Technology Secretary Peter Kyle made no attempt to hide his ambition to get closer to big tech, announcing a new partnership with Google Cloud aimed at ridding the taxpayer of the ‘ball and chain’ of legacy tech contracts. Google itself is also focused on being the platform of choice for those building any AI models, which includes open-source models like those from Meta.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:35
At TechMarketView, we speak to a LOT of people. Our analysts are incredibly well networked into the sector (in fact, we consider many of you to be friends!) at the most senior levels.
Those relationships are at the heart of what helps TechMarketView to thrive, and they help us to create and validate what we consider to be the best view there is of the UK software and IT services sector.
'An evening with TechMarketView 25' is your chance to not only connect with our team but also tap into our deep network within the UK tech sector. And, as a wonderful bonus, we’ll do it in the special setting at Mall Galleries, London, with the perfect ‘backdrop’ of Hannah Shergold's exceptional artwork.
Plus, we’re working on some top-notch content from both our analysts and some special guests.
Get your tickets HERE. Bring your clients, your team, your partners; we look forward to meeting you all.
Drop an email to Belinda if you have questions or need support.
Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 09:22
Tags:
TechMarketViewLive25
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI released Grok 4 late on Wednesday evening, its latest large language model (LLM), alongside a "heavy" version that employs multiple AI agents working in parallel. The company demonstrated the system during a live presentation, though as ever we have to take any performance metrics with a grain of salt. Alongside the two model releases xAI also announced a new $300-per-month AI subscription plan, the most expensive of any LLM supplier to date.
Despite all the hype in the release presentation about the capabilities of Musk’s new AI model, just days before xAI faced widespread criticism when its Grok chatbot posted antisemitic content and praised Adolf Hitler on X. The AI referred to itself as "MechaHitler" and made inflammatory comments about Jewish people. Musk commented on X, saying "Grok was too compliant to user prompts, too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed."
According to xAI, Grok 4 has increased training compute by 100 times compared to Grok 2, though the company provided limited technical details about the underlying architecture. The model was tested on academic benchmarks including the "Humanities Last Exam,” a challenging test measuring AI’s ability to answer thousands of crowdsourced questions on subjects like math, humanities, and natural science. According to xAI, Grok 4 scored 25.4% on Humanity’s Last Exam without “tools,” outperforming Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, which scored 21.6%, and OpenAI’s o3 (high), which scored 21%.
During the demonstration, Grok 4 appeared to handle various tasks including mathematical problems, sports prediction, and basic physics simulations. However, xAI representatives acknowledged current limitations, particularly in visual understanding capabilities, with one describing the model as "effectively just looking at the world squinting through glass." Musk also said that with respect to academic questions, Grok is better than PhD level in every subject, with no exceptions. Though he admitted at times it may lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics, but that is just a matter of time according to Musk. The company also announced plans for specialised coding models and enhanced multimodal capabilities, with training for video generation models expected to begin within weeks using what they describe as over 100,000 advanced GPUs.
The competitive landscape for LLM’s continues to evolve rapidly, with OpenAI’s GPT-5 expected to also be released any day now. From an enterprise perspective however, leveraging these LLM’s is about more than just compute processing and intelligence levels. Successful AI projects must identify the right use cases, and have a wraparound of tools that can monitor and manage cost, performance, security, ethics, safety, governance and integration with company data. For this reason, I think Google Cloud, Microsoft (through Azure AI studio), Open AI and Amazon (through Bedrock) are going to remain the GenAI and Agentic AI platforms of choice. xAI is going to have to demonstrate a significant leap in ability to outweigh all the potential negative aspects of running a model controlled by Musk and his world views.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:22
German AI-led defence technology company Helsing is set to establish a cutting-edge drone submarine factory in Plymouth, as part of a substantial £350m investment in the UK, promising to deliver high-quality employment opportunities to the region.
The Munich HQ’ed firm will construct its "Resilience Factory" at the Langage freeport site in Plympton this year, with the Government announcing the facility as a cornerstone of Britain's strategy to unlock the economic potential of its defence industry. Helsing added the so-called Resilience Factory was due to start production of the SG-1 Fathom "autonomous underwater gliders" by the end of 2025. The AI-powered miniature submarines are designed to protect critical underwater infrastructure for allied navies.
The development forms part of Helsing's accelerated UK investment through its Trinity House initiative, which aims to double the size of the company's British operations. The investment is expected to create specialist, high-value jobs across Plymouth, the South Hams, and the wider region, supporting the growth of sovereign UK defence technology and supply chains. It aligns with the Government's broader ambition of delivering 14,000 additional jobs in the defence sector, as well as a commitment to increase defence spending to 2.6% of GDP by April 2027.
Helsing has emerged as one of Europe's most valuable defence start-ups. Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s investment company led a €600mn funding round in June that valued the tech group at €12bn, amid a surge in interest in the defence sector among investors. Helsing started out focused purely on producing AI software for current and future weapons but has since expanded into producing its own drones and unmanned underwater vessels. Though founded by three Germans, it has offices in London and Paris as well as Munich and Berlin and is eager to present itself as a pan-European company at a time when the continent is seeking to boost its defence capabilities and foster local production.
Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:12
Tags:
defence
AI
This week we witnessed a landmark moment when NVIDIA became the first publicly traded company to hit a market valuation of $4tn.
For context, Microsoft’s valuation is around $3.7tn and Apple around $3.1tn. NVIDIA hit $1tn about two years ago and has seen its shares continue their stratospheric rise ever since.
Of course, back in April the firm’s share price slumped to c.$96. If you are a shareholder, what did you do as you saw your gains slide? Did you panic and take profit? Or did you “buy the dip”? If the latter, you’ll be laughing now as shares are back at all-time highs, hitting $164 yesterday.
In its Q1 results, we learned that NVIDIA would be liable for a $4.5bn charge for exports to China of its H20 products. This week, the firm said it is looking at a September timeframe for the launch of a new chip specifically designed for the Chinese market.
NVIDIA sits at the heart of many AI ecosystems, working with the global systems integrators and hyperscalers, and playing an important role in funding innovative startups.
Speaking at London Tech Week in June alongside the Prime Minister, CEO Jensen Huang said the UK was in a “Goldilock’s circumstance” with “one of the richest AI communities anywhere on the planet” and the “third-largest AI venture capital investment [area]”. He said the ecosystem is “perfect for take-off, it’s just missing one thing”, which is having its own AI infrastructure.
Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:52
Tags:
shares
AI
marketvaluation
Having successfully navigated a challenging macroeconomic environment in FY25 to both deliver yoy top line growth of 4.2% and cross the $30bn annual revenue mark (see here), TCS found the going in Q126 considerably tougher. Turnover for the three months ended 30th June declined by 3.1% yoy at constant currency to $7.42bn with slowdowns evident across most aspects of the firm’s vertical industry and geographic portfolio. The weaker sales performance did not, however, adversely affect TCS’s profitability as operating margin for the period improved qoq by 30 bps to 24.5%.
All of TCS’s geographic units experienced a sequential softening in their expansion rates during the recently completed quarter. The company’s North American business, which accounts for around a half of firm-wide turnover and had struggled to grow in FY25, saw its Q1 revenues contract by 2.7% (Q425: -1.9%). The UK&I, which had seen its sales rise by 4% in the prior fiscal, also took a turn south during the first quarter. The top line in the region dipped by 1.3% yoy to c.£928m.
In terms of the offshore major’s industry sector focuses, only TCS’s Technology & Services vertical gained any momentum during Q126 as its revenues improved by 1.8% yoy to c.$600m (Q425: 1.1%). The company’s Life Sciences & Healthcare, Communications & Media and Regional Markets units, conversely, all suffered significant declines. Turnover in the latter, which had jumped by nearly two fifths in FY25, receded by almost 9% yoy in during the first three months of new fiscal.
There was more encouraging news to be found on the bookings front. Q126 total contract value rose by 15% yoy to $9.6bn with sales of all TCS’s new service offerings reported to have grown well. In the UK this included securing another seven-year extension of its long running Virgin Atlantic partnership with an AI-focused deal (see here).
TCS is always quick off the blocks in posting its quarterly results. It will be interesting to see whether the company’s softer start to FY26 is echoed in the numbers of its rivals as their first quarter figures are reported over the next couple of weeks. It is very unlikely, however, that TCS is alone in feeling the effects of continuing global macro-economic and geo-political uncertainties (see our latest Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 report for more details).
Posted by: Duncan Aitchison at 22:30
Tags:
results
offshore
IT+services
« Back to previous page
© TechMarketView LLP 2007-2025: Unauthorised reproduction prohibited see full Terms and conditions.