The outage began around 9:00 a.m. ET, peaking at over 25,000 issues being reported in the U.S. before cooling to about 620 reports, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.

In Canada, reports fell to roughly 30 from a high of more than 3,400, while the UK saw issues decline after topping 9,000 earlier in the day, according to the website.

PTCL warns of internet slowdown during submarine cable maintenance

The actual number of affected users may differ from what is shown, as the reports are submitted by users.

SpaceX, which owns X, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on what caused the outage.

The announcement comes after CRED announced it will raise about $900 million from Meta.

EU says WhatsApp to face stricter content rules

The company, now the dominant supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI systems for customers such as Nvidia and Google has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the global AI boom, helping propel its shares up more than 340% this year and lifting its market value above both Samsung Electronics and Micron.

Shares of SK Hynix, now the world’s most valuable memory chipmaker, traded up 5.7% to bring the company’s market capitalisation to 2,082.5 trillion won ($1.35 trillion) as of 0347 GMT, compared with gains of 0.4% in Samsung Electronics to 2081.3 trillion won, excluding preferred shares.

The stock hit the milestone as AI reshapes the global semiconductor industry, elevating specialised memory chips from commonly traded commoditiesinto critical components of the infrastructure powering applications such as ChatGPT and advanced AI models.

SK Hynix focuses primarily on memory chips, versus Samsung Electronics whose business also involves manufacturing logic chips as well as electronics. Samsung Electronics had held the top spot since 2000.

“The emergence of customised AI memory fundamentally changed the industry’s economics and allowed SK Hynix to establish itself as the market leader,” said Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities.

For SK Hynix, the achievement marks the culmination of one of the biggest turnarounds in South Korea’s corporate history.

In 2002, then-Hynix Semiconductor was on the verge of being sold to Micron, having been crippled by debt accumulated during an aggressive expansion drive.

The deal eventually fell through, leaving the company under creditor control for nearly a decade.

Its shares plunged as low as 135 won in 2003, leaving it viewed as a penny stock, or “Dongjeon-ju” in Korean, among investors.

Its fortunes in the years since tracked the global memory industry’s traditional boom-and-bust cycle. In 2023, a severe downturn battered memory prices, pushing SK Hynix to report an annual operating loss of 7.73 trillion won.

It started recovering a year later as the AI boom gained momentum and the likes of Microsoft, Google and Meta invested heavily, pushing it to report an annual operating profit of 23.5 trillion won in 2024, a record at the time.

Speaking to Business Recorder, Liaquat Ali, Founder of LA Consulting Corporation, said promoting the IT industry required moving up the five-layer AI stack.

“Pakistan competes only at the applications layer today, the most exposed to automation. Target verticals are Islamic finance technology, South Asian agricultural technology, and Urdu-language AI. Export targets must be USD-denominated and tracked quarterly,” he said.

Pakistan’s IT sector export earnings crossed $4 billion mark for the first time during the first eleven months of FY2025-26. Moreover, Pakistani freelancers’ earnings hit $1 billion in foreign exchange during 11MFY26, underscoring their growing contribution to the national economy and strengthening Pakistan’s position in the global freelancing market.

Ali was of the view that labour arbitrage, an economic practice of shifting work or business operations to lower-cost regions to reduce overall labour costs, had finished.

“The protective strategy is a stack upgrade across all five layers. At the energy layer, technology parks need guaranteed power uptime in supply contracts. At the chips and infrastructure layers, Pakistan cannot buy its way in alone. Bilateral compute-access agreements with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Project Transcendence commits $100 billion to artificial intelligence infrastructure, are the realistic path.

“At the models layer, Pakistan must own Urdu-Arabic language models, not license them. Special Technology Zones Authority amendments allowing USD-denominated foreign currency retention must pass within 12 months.”

Regarding India’s IT sector, Ali said the neighbouring country built a labour delivery industry on top of other people’s infrastructure, chips, and models.

“When artificial intelligence automated that delivery, no proprietary layer existed underneath to survive on. Pakistan avoids that ending only by owning the models layer: foundation models trained on Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Pashto that no American or Chinese vendor will prioritise.

“The Islamabad Artificial Intelligence Declaration of February 2026 frames sovereign AI as the national objective. Sovereign means model weights, training data, and inference infrastructure are Pakistani assets generating USD export revenue.”

Stressing the need for forming a five-year sustainable policy with incentives for data centers and software houses in Pakistan, he said: “Yes, but layer sequence is everything. The five-layer stack runs in order: energy first, then chips and infrastructure, then models, then applications”.

According to Ali, a data center incentive package issued before the energy layer is resolved will produce empty facilities.

“Pakistan’s grid cannot deliver the contractual uptime data centers require. Solve power for technology parks first, by act of Parliament, not ministerial notification. Then issue infrastructure incentives denominated in USD returns to attract foreign operators. The National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 allocates 30% of the Ignite research and development fund to AI. Parliament must lock that for five years.”

Ali emphasised that Pakistan should target 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in technology research and development within five years.

“At $452 billion, that is $4.5 billion annually. Year one is achievable at $300 million by reallocating Ignite and Special Technology Zones Authority budgets with Gulf co-investment. Spending must cover all five layers, not just applications-layer coding bootcamps. Half of all disbursements must be industry-matched. The Pakistan AI Centers of Excellence framework targets 100,000 to 150,000 artificial intelligence-skilled graduates annually. Add USD-denominated retention incentives: stock options, foreign currency accounts, and tax relief, or the training budget funds a brain drain,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tahir Mahmood Chaudhry, Chief Executive, Falcon Engineering and President, Computer Society of Pakistan, said with IT exports surging past $4 billion and 600,000 professionals in the pipeline, “Pakistan stands at a pivotal inflection point — but only bold policy, structural reform, and relentless innovation will determine whether the nation seizes its moment or squanders it”.

“Pakistan’s information technology sector is no longer a footnote in the national economic narrative — it is rapidly becoming the headline. Broadband connectivity, the essential artery of a digital economy, has exploded from under two million connections to over five million — a transformation achieved in a compressed timeframe that even the severest critics cannot dismiss.

“Yet statistics, however impressive, are merely a launchpad. Behind those figures lies a deeper strategic imperative: Pakistan commands a talent pool of 600,000 technology professionals — a human resource dividend that, if intelligently leveraged, can propel us toward our national milestone of $10 billion in annual IT exports. The question before policymakers, industry leaders, and academia is not whether Pakistan possesses the raw material for digital leadership — it manifestly does. The question is whether we have the institutional will to transform potential into permanence,” he said.

Chaudhry said Pakistan’s digital identity on the global stage has been synonymous with freelancing — “a proud achievement, but an insufficient ambition”.

“The next chapter demands a fundamental pivot from task-based work toward high-value software engineering, AI, and cloud-native architecture. These are not aspirational abstractions; they are the commercial realities already reshaping the $6 trillion global technology market.”

He said promotion without infrastructure, however, is rhetoric.

“Three interventions are non-negotiable. First, seamless international payment gateways must be treated as critical national infrastructure — because a developer who cannot receive payment across borders is effectively locked out of the global economy. Second, domestic internet penetration must accelerate beyond urban centres, unlocking the immense untapped talent residing in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Third, Pakistan’s technology diplomacy must intensify: government trade missions, bilateral digital trade agreements, and internationally positioned marketing of our engineering workforce must become standard instruments of statecraft — not afterthoughts.”

Chaudhry said a circulating narrative that India’s IT industry was in terminal decline was factually incorrect.

“What India is experiencing — and what Pakistan must urgently study — is a structural evolution, not a collapse. The legacy business process outsourcing and low-cost data entry models that once defined the sub-continental IT identity are being automated away. That is not failure; that is disruption. The companies and nations that survive disruption are those that have already moved upstream.“

“Pakistan’s 19% year-on-year growth in technology exports is compelling evidence that global appetite for advanced engineering remains voracious. However, if our sector remains anchored to staff augmentation and commodity coding — if we are still selling developer hours rather than intellectual property — then automation will arrive at our doorstep just as surely as it did elsewhere.

“The antidote is deliberate: Pakistan must engineer a pivot toward proprietary software-as-a-service products, owned IP, and advanced automation solutions. Our survival and prosperity depend not on the size of our workforce, but on the sophistication of what that workforce creates,” he said.

Chaudhry further said local universities graduate tens of thousands of computer science students annually.

“That is the promising headline. The disconcerting subtext is that a substantial proportion of these graduates arrive at the labour market equipped for a technology landscape that no longer exists — trained for yesterday’s syntax, not tomorrow’s architecture. Closing this gap is not merely an educational reform priority; it is a national economic emergency.”

According to the tech expert, the path forward does not require an impossible blanket budget in a constrained fiscal environment — it requires surgical, strategic allocation.

“Public investment must be channelled into three specific domains where global demand is both proven and growing: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and blockchain technology. University curricula, under the oversight of a strengthened National Technology Council, must be redesigned in genuine partnership with industry — not in isolation from it,” Chaudhry maintained.

The ban of the app from June 16 to June 22 has stirred an intense debate in the world’s most populous nation. Free speech rights activists say it has set a worrying precedent that cements government powers to curb the use of any messaging platform whenever it sees fit.

The government put the block in place after the results of the country’s exam for students hoping to get into medical schools were scrapped last month amid allegations that the question paper had been leaked. The government is “empowered … to issue directions for blocking the public access to Telegram,” Delhi High Court Justice Tejas Karia said in his ruling.

Telegram, which has more than 150 million users in India and counts the country as its biggest market, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the verdict. The Indian government also did not respond to a request for comment.

“It sets a concerning precedent with consequences for the open internet that extend well beyond this case,” digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation said on X after the verdict.

The block only affected Telegram, with the government arguing that the app represented a unique case, citing features such as the easy recreation of blocked channels and the way phone numbers and username-based interactions can be concealed, which create “a persistent enforcement challenge”.

The share listing aims to unlock value in a business that includes Reliance Infocomm, the world’s second-largest telecom operator by subscribers after China Mobile, with about 500 million users, and also houses AI, cloud and enterprise network businesses.

The IPO is targeting a fundraising of around 360 billion Indian rupees ($3.81 billion), three sources familiar with the matter said, equal to about 2.9% of its post-issue equity.

Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries. The final details could change closer to the listing process.

A company statement did not provide more details on the IPO, but the prospectus was due to be filed later on Friday, Ambani said in a shareholder address.

Also read: Ambani’s Jio Platforms IPO pivots to pure fundraising, no investor exits, sources say

“The Jio IPO is described as the most important value creation milestone this year,” Ambani said.

The company said it would issue up to 270 million new shares.

In 2020, Jio raised funds from marquee global investors including Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Vista Equity Partners, diluting 33% of its stake. Jefferies has in the past valued the business at $180 billion.

Those investors were betting on India’s rapidly expanding digital economy of 1.4 billion people where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the lowest in the world, and a young, mobile-first population is moving online at scale.

Jio says it currently has a roughly 60% share of India’s data traffic.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange was informed in a notice by the company today.

“These projects will play a critical role in supporting the long-term national visions of regional economies, including the State of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the listed company shared.

Projects in Qatar

The company said that Avanceon has been awarded multiple infrastructure modernisation projects in Qatar, valued at USD 3.9 million.

“The scope includes the complete upgrade and integration of SCADA and Building Management Systems (BMS), encompassing procurement, installation, system integration, testing, commissioning, documentation, training, and final handover,” the notice said.

It added that Avanceon will deliver state-of-the-art operations, maintenance, and support services for a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution for a major utilities organisation.

READ MORE: Avanceon Limited secures $9mn projects in Pakistan

“These projects are designed to enhance operational resilience, digital capabilities, and infrastructure reliability, contributing directly to the country’s long-term development roadmap.”

Energy Sector Projects in the United Arab Emirates

In the UAE, Avanceon has secured projects worth USD 6.3 million with leading oil and gas operators.

“The scope involves the delivery and integration of advanced control and safety solutions to support safe, reliable, and efficient well operations.”

Utility Modernisation in Saudi Arabia

Furthermore, Avanceon said it had secured a USD 1.4 million SCADA modernisation project in Saudi Arabia, reflecting the company’s strong technical expertise and competitive execution capabilities.

READ MORE: Pakistani tech firm Avanceon announces expansion in Australia

“The project includes the complete upgrade of legacy hardware, software, and control systems to deliver enhanced operational visibility, improved system performance, and reduced lifecycle and obsolescence risks,” the statement said.

The upgraded platform will provide a scalable and future-ready automation foundation aligned with the Kingdom’s digital transformation and infrastructure development goals, it added.

Avanceon Limited was incorporated in Pakistan on 26 March 2003 as a private limited company, which was converted to a public company on 31 March 2008 under the repealed Companies Ordinance, 1984.

The principal activity of the company is to trade in automation and control equipment and to provide related technical services.

Hyundai Motor is expected to convene ⁠a board meeting on June 22 ​to approve the purchase, the newspaper ​said, citing unnamed industry sources.

The report said SoftBank had told Hyundai that it would ​like to exercise its rights to ​sell its remaining stake in Boston Dynamics under ‌a ⁠put option agreed when it sold Boston Dynamics to Hyundai.

Hyundai Motor and SoftBank did not immediately respond ​to requests ​for comment.

Hyundai ⁠Motor Group, including Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and ​affiliates Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai ​Mobis ⁠and Hyundai Glovis, already own just over 90% of the robot maker, ⁠the ​report said.

The concept of data center satellites — designed to bypass Earth’s power constraints — has drawn growing attention since Musk described them as the future of artificial intelligence development ahead of SpaceX’s record-breaking public listing this month.

Securing insurance is critical for companies trying to move orbital data centers from concept to reality. Without coverage for the costly hardware and risks involved, attracting the debt financing needed to scale such ventures would be difficult.

Blue Origin and a host of space startups, including Orbital, Starcloud, Lonestar Data Holdings and Cowboy Space, have also signaled their intention to launch space-based data centers.

Reuters spoke to four brokers and underwriters and three space firms who said talks had taken place about orbital data center coverage, although they remain preliminary.

Insurance broker Marsh said several companies have approached insurers to understand what future coverage for orbital data centers might entail, without naming the firms.

“We’re already starting to see companies that are focused on data centers and companies that are focused on digital infrastructure looking to the insurance community for support,” said Patton Kline, U.S. aviation and space practice leader at Marsh.

Lonestar said it recently held a briefing at Marsh’s offices for insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London, attended by about 25 insurers.

SpaceX and Blue Origin did not respond to requests for comment.

Orbital AI new for insurers

Insurers already cover launch failures, satellite malfunctions, orbital debris and space weather in a global space market that collects roughly $500 million in annual premiums, according to industry executives and insurance firm Axa XL.

But while insurers have decades of experience covering satellites, they have little data on orbital AI infrastructure.

“The conversations in the market are focused on whether the risk can be modeled, rather than what the premium should be,” said Kasey Roh, U.S. head of Upstage AI, which develops AI tools for insurance companies.

Part of the challenge is valuing rapidly advancing AI chips, which could be vulnerable to harsh conditions in space, said Orbital CEO Euwyn Poon.

David Wade, space underwriter at Atrium, said venture-capital-backed startups would have to expand before there would be a major insurance market for orbital data centers.

“Until we get past that early round of financing and start seeing some of these companies expand by raising debt, I think the insurance needs are very limited at the moment.”

The country’s top securities regulator in a statement said this initiative will expand financial inclusion, and attract a new generation of investors through a convenient and user-friendly digital experience.

The SECP said Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu was briefed about the upcoming application in a meeting of the Board of Directors and senior management of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDCPL) in Karachi.

According to the CDC, Asaan Connect is a centralised onboarding portal launched by the CDC with the objective of making the investment process easier and more accessible for investors in multiple types of assets.

“Asaan Connect is a centralised platform wherein investors can maintain a standardised profile with KYC/AML procedures performed one-time, and can leverage the platform to proceed for onboarding in diverse investment avenues (such as stocks, mutual funds, insurance products, etc.) without having to undergo repetitive processes with each financial institution,” it said.

The SECP chairman on Wednesday said that the effective use of financial technology will make capital market investing simpler, safer, and more accessible for all Pakistanis, enabling ordinary citizens to participate in the country’s economic growth and wealth creation.

The meeting, chaired by Dr. Sidhu, also discussed CDCPL’s strategic restructuring plans, including the separation of core depository functions from non-core businesses such as trustee services. The initiative is intended to strengthen governance arrangements and facilitate the potential future listing of non-core operations on the Pakistan Stock Exchange while preserving the systemic importance of core depository functions.

The SECP chairman appreciated CDCPL’s contribution to Pakistan’s capital market infrastructure and commended its technological capabilities, governance standards, and close collaboration with SECP. He assured SECP’s full support for technological innovation, digital transformation, and initiatives aimed at making investing easier, safer, and more accessible for all Pakistanis.

CEO of CDC Badiuddin Akber briefed the forum on recent technology-driven initiatives designed to improve market accessibility, strengthen investor protection, and simplify investment processes.

He reaffirmed CDC’s commitment to working closely with SECP to support the development and modernisation of Pakistan’s capital markets.

According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), foreign exchange receipts generated by freelancers in the IT and related sectors surpassed $1 billion mark during the period under review, compared to $708 million recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, showing 41% year-on-year growth.

Dr Imran Batada, President of Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA), noted that the budgetary decision to retain Final Tax Regime (FTR) at 0.25% was a good decision by the government to support the freelancing community as they receive earnings after the deduction of commissions and service charges ranging from 25% to 30%.

He also lauded the government for reducing the taxes on foreign transactions through payment cards to facilitate freelancers for making investments in their projects on social media and freelancing platforms.

“PAFLA will continue to stand beside every freelancer in Pakistan - advocating for better policies, more opportunities, and a stronger digital ecosystem, hand in hand with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of IT,” he added.

According to estimates, Pakistan is home to nearly three million freelancers, including both full-time and part-time professionals.

PAFLA chairman Ibrahim Amin demanded that the government abolish newly imposed 5% tax on content creators. “They are contributing handsomely to bringing in foreign exchange, particularly YouTubers with informative and knowledge-based channels.”

He urged the government to ensure the availability of high-speed internet and uninterrupted electricity to further enhance the contribution of freelancers to Pakistan’s economy.

According to the SBP, the country also received $533 million through non-IT freelancers during the same period, which enhanced the overall contribution of freelancers to $1.6 billion.

“This round accelerates respond.io’s global expansion as the customer conversation management platform for mid-market B2C businesses that generate revenue from customer chats and calls,” the company said in a statement.

In 2017, Hassan Ahmed (CTO), Gerardo Salandra (CEO) and Laroslav Kudritskiy (COO) co-founded Respond.io. After beginning as an AI chatbot startup called Rocketbots in Hong Kong, the company moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and changed its name to Respond.io in 2019 to concentrate on omnichannel customer conversations.

After securing the fresh funding, the AI company said while Series B raises tend to fund operations for SaaS companies, it stands at $35 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 169% year-over-year growth as adoption increases steadily.

After building a strong portfolio of customers in APAC, LATAM and EMEA, we’re using this funding to accelerate local acquisitions and build a stronger regional presence for businesses in North America and Europe, it added.

The startup assists companies in handling customer chats on many platforms, including WeChat, Telegram, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Respond.io serves over 10,000 enterprises in over 180 countries, and processes over 2 billion messages every quarter.

However, becoming F1’s first Chinese outfit would be expensive and linking up with an existing team poses challenges, ‌so a sponsorship-based approach might provide an easier pathway into the sport.

“Everyone wants to be involved with F1,” said Ian Moore, a research analyst from Bernstein. “It’s because it’s the greatest marketing vehicle for OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) that’s out there”.

Liberty Media-owned F1 already contains European and US auto manufacturers like Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Ford Motor and General Motors’ Cadillac, who develop race engines or car bodies ​for teams.

Full F1 entry costs hundreds of millions of dollars

International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 are open to the idea of having ​a Chinese team, providing it brings commercial and sporting benefits for all.

BYD declined to comment on its goals in F1.

If it ⁠does decide to enter, there is space for one more team on the grid and BYD would have a strong commercial case to be F1’s 12th competitor: ​it is the world’s largest EV maker by sales, China has its Shanghai Grand Prix and there are 221.1 million F1 fans in China, according to Formula One, By 2028, it aims ​to produce locally all the cars it sells in Europe.

However, if BYD decides to go down this path, it must clear several hurdles.

“From a financial point of view it might not sound like a wise move to spend so much money on a field they barely know,” Felipe Munoz, an independent analyst who runs the Car Industry Analysis platform, told Reuters.

Spending on infrastructure ​and a wind tunnel would be costly with no guarantee of success; for example, Aston Martin F1 team’s factory and campus in Silverstone, which includes a wind ​tunnel, is estimated to have cost between £150 million and £200 million, and the team have so far scored one point this season.

A new team would likely need to pay more than $450 ‌million in ⁠anti-dilution fees as Cadillac did to enter this year, since more teams impact income distribution.

Other options also pose challenges.

Buying into a team could be one way, with Alpine F1 team’s minority stakeholder Otro Capital looking to sell its 24% stake, but majority owners Renault are unwilling to cede control and must approve any deal.

Former Red Bull boss Christian Horner is looking to get back into the sport and has had some contact with BYD, but the Otro stake might suit his purposes better.

Sponsorship option could cause ​conflict

There could be opportunities, instead, for a ​branding-led approach.

“Entering F1 as a sponsor ⁠only would be the lowest risk for BYD because it avoids the FIA regulatory requirements such as demonstrating technical and governance compliance requirements,” Nick De Marco, a sports law barrister for Blackstone Chambers, told Reuters.

BYD could potentially sponsor a midfield or ​back-of-the-pack team at a lower cost than a top-tier team like Oracle Red Bull Racing, where Oracle is paying $300 million ​over five years for ⁠title branding.

For instance, software company Atlassian has a title partnership with nine-time constructors’ champion Williams worth between $40 million to $60 million a year.

Bernstein analysts estimated that the automotive category accounts for only 1% in annual F1 sponsorship value, while technology accounts for 14% and luxury accounts for 26%.

BYD chairman says firm will be world’s biggest automaker in 5 years as shares slide

Formula One has no series-level auto partner like LVMH’s, opens new tab $100 million a year ⁠deal, where its ​multiple luxury brands feature across the sport.

“I’m not sure if that’s an option (for BYD) given that ​they’re also an OEM,” Moore said, noting that a BYD sponsorship could possibly put it in conflict with existing auto manufacturers in F1.

De Marco, however, pointed out that a sponsorship approach would mean BYD not demonstrating ​its engineering and manufacturing abilities.

“I imagine (that) is the key benefit BYD would seek to derive from that participation”.

The MoU was signed in Islamabad between Jahanzeb Khan, President and CEO of easypaisa digital bank, and Tarik Erk, Regional Head for MENAT and Senior Executive Officer (SEO) Abu Dhabi at Binance, read an official statement.

Under the MoU, easypaisa and Binance will initiate exploratory discussions to assess potential areas of collaboration to support the development of Pakistan’s digital savings and investment ecosystem.

“Any future collaboration will remain subject to applicable regulatory approvals, evolving regulatory frameworks, and the fulfilment of all licensing and compliance requirements,” it said.

Telenor considering sale of Pakistan’s Easypaisa: report

Binance has also obtained AML registration under the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), marking an important step in supporting Pakistan’s regulated digital financial ecosystem.

According to the statement, proposed initiatives under the MoU may include exploratory awareness, education, and capacity-building initiatives, which will enable the bank to develop potential future initiatives in line with applicable regulatory guidelines.

Commenting on the collaboration, Jahanzeb Khan, President & CEO, easypaisa digital bank, said, “Leveraging Binance’s expertise in emerging areas of financial technology presents an opportunity for us to learn and explore in line with the guidelines of the PVARA.

Australia takes Binance unit to court over consumer protection failures

“We look forward to working with Binance to explore safer and more reliable ways to support digital financial access and innovation in Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, Tarik Erk, Regional Head for MENAT and SEO Abu Dhabi at Binance, added, “Partnering with easypaisa reflects Pakistan’s growing potential as a forward-looking market for emerging financial technologies, supported by scale, trust, and increasing regulatory engagement.”

“With rising awareness and interest across Pakistan, we believe Binance’s global expertise, combined with easypaisa’s local reach and scale, can help support responsible innovation and long-term ecosystem development.”

A surge in AI-driven demand for data centers has forced consumer ‌electronics companies into a fierce competition for dwindling supplies of the key components, driving prices sharply higher.

Groups representing automakers, retailers, electronics firms and others had warned earlier this month that the increasing demand for ​memory chips could lead to dramatic price hikes in US consumer goods and disrupt ​supply chains.

“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook told WSJ. “We’re doing our best ⁠to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying ​to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”

Cook, who will ​hand over the reins to John Ternus in September, did not disclose when or how much prices might rise, nor which products could be impacted.

Musk, Apple’s Cook and Boeing CEO going to China with Trump

Apple is reportedly on track to release its first foldable iPhone in ​September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

Memory and storage costs are both concerns ​for the company, with particular emphasis on the DRAM market, Cook told the Journal. He noted that ‌more ⁠supply is being allocated to high-bandwidth memory, which is used in AI servers.

“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” he said. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for ​consumer products. That’s the ​bottom line.”

China has ⁠leading domestic memory and storage companies, but U.S. firms would likely need licenses to work with them under national-security rules. Asked if restrictions ​should be eased, Cook said: “Everything needs to be on the table,” ​adding, “I think ⁠we should look at all supply.”

In the interview, Cook indicated that Apple is prepared to use its cash reserves to boost memory supply, without offering details. “We’re willing to use our balance sheet ⁠to ​help be a part of the solution,” he said. “Obviously, ​more capacity is needed.”

Apple launches slimmer iPhone Air, new iPhone 17

Cook clarified that Apple has no plans to use its cash and silicon expertise to build ​its own memory and storage factories.

The development was shared in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange today.

The contracts cover “4 tightly integrated technology pillars, i.e. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) backbone, a Customer and Supplier Intelligent Self-Service platform, an Enterprise Asset Management system and a combined Mobile Field Workforce solution.

The tech company said that all were unified through iTanz’s proprietary integration framework and enriched with embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics capabilities.

The total engagement value stands at USD 5.00 million over the course of the next 5 years with an equal annual fee, the notice added.

“Under the terms of the Contract, the initial phase shall be initiated within 2026,” the listed company informed the bourse.

READ MORE: Pakistan’s iTANZ approves Rs4.34bn overseas acquisition

iTANZ Technologies Limited was incorporated in Pakistan as a public limited company in 1990. The company was formerly known as Zahur Cotton Mills Limited.

In March 2025, the Lahore High Court approved the merger of the company and ITANZ Technology Private Limited (ITPL) with effect from October 01, 2023.

After the merger, the company’s principal business activity included software development, installation and implementation, as well as other IT-related supplies and services. The company also provides consultancy services in the field of IT.

According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday morning, exports of IT and IT-enabled services—including earnings generated by software companies and freelancers—reached $4.184 billion during July-May FY2025-26, compared to $3.475 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

The sector recorded a robust year-on-year growth of 20 percent, with export receipts increasing by $709 million. The performance is particularly significant given the challenges faced by the industry during the year, including internet disruptions and geopolitical uncertainties.

Analysts attribute the continued growth in IT exports to supportive government policies, tax incentives, and sustained efforts to promote Pakistan’s technology sector in international markets. Measures are aimed at facilitating foreign exchange inflows and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) have also contributed to the sector’s expansion.

READ MORE: Pakistan’s IT exports: momentum without depth

Despite a moderation in monthly inflows, export earnings remained strong. IT export receipts stood at $373 million in May 2026, compared to $423 million in April, 2026. With one month remaining before the close of the fiscal year, total exports are expected to approach $4.5 billion, although they may fall short of the government’s target of $5 billion.

Commenting on the sector’s performance, IT exporter Dr Noman Said has stated that Pakistan possesses significant untapped potential to further increase IT exports and attract higher foreign exchange earnings. However, he noted that several structural gaps continue to hinder the sector from realizing its full growth potential.

He emphasized that the IT industry has emerged as a key contributor to Pakistan’s macroeconomic stability by supporting the current account balance, attracting investment inflows, and creating employment opportunities.

“Our country needs a comprehensive roadmap to strengthen the domestic IT ecosystem and sustain the impressive growth in exports,” he said. “This requires a robust education and training framework to equip the workforce with in-demand digital skills, while simultaneously exploring new international markets and deepening penetration in existing ones.”

The outlook for the sector remains positive following a series of incentives announced by the government in the federal budget. Among the key measures is the extension of the 0.25 percent Final Tax Regime (FTR) for IT exporters for the next three years, providing long-term policy certainty for businesses operating in the sector.

Additionally, the government has reduced the withholding tax on international transactions made through payment cards from 5 percent to 0.5 percent. Industry stakeholders believe these measures will improve the ease of doing business, enhance competitiveness, and encourage greater foreign exchange inflows.

Chairman of the Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA), Ibrahim Amin, said freelancers have played a significant role in driving the growth of IT exports, contributing more than 20 percent of the sector’s overall export receipts, crossing $1 billion.

He noted that the number of freelancers and digital workers in Pakistan continues to rise as awareness of freelancing opportunities and access to digital skills training increase among students and young professionals.

Looking ahead, Amin said the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-related skills is expected to create new opportunities for Pakistani freelancers, further boosting export earnings and strengthening the country’s position in the global digital economy.

In April this year, SpaceX said it had secured an option to either acquire Cursor, an AI code-generation startup co-founded by Pakistani-born Sualeh Asif, for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for their new partnership.

The acquisition, announced on Tuesday, comes days after Elon Musk took the rockets-to-AI company public in a blockbuster Nasdaq debut that valued it at more than $2 trillion.

Buying the startup could give xAI, the Grok chatbot maker SpaceX merged with in February, a stronger foothold in AI coding, one of the first areas where companies have turned AI into real revenue from businesses. The AI push is also a critical component to the $28.5 trillion addressable market SpaceX had pitched to investors.

Cursor is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have drawn waves of developers by using AI to automate coding, making it a key competitor to current market leaders Anthropic and OpenAI. But the company has highlighted that a lack of access to computing power has hampered its growth.

SpaceX had been eyeing Cursor for months. It unveiled in April an option to either buy the San Francisco-based firm for $60 billion later this year, or pay $10 billion for a partnership.

Cursor will be paid in stock under the deal, a regulatory filing showed, and will not use proceeds from SpaceX’s IPO. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

SpaceX’s shares were up nearly 10% in premarket trading, on track to add about $247 billion to its market capitalisation of $2.53 trillion. At $211.27, the stock has climbed more than 56% from its IPO price of $135.

If the gains hold, SpaceX is set to overtake Amazon in market value to become the fifth-largest company.

High-profile backers, rapid growth

Cursor’s business has scaled rapidly since its founding in 2022, with roughly $2.6 billion in annualised business-to-business revenue and enterprise sales growing sharply, according to company data shared with Reuters earlier this month.

Backed by some of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture capital names including Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive, as well as Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google, Cursor had reportedly been in talks earlier this year for a funding round valuing it at $50 billion.

If Tuesday’s deal is ended under specific circumstances, SpaceX will pay a termination fee of $10 billion, according to the regulatory filing.

The filing also said SpaceX will pay a “regulatory” termination fee of $4 billion if the deal falls through due to antitrust issues.

It was not immediately clear if the deal would affect SpaceX’s agreements to rent out its data centers.

The company has in recent weeks struck deals with Anthropic and Google to lease cloud computing capacity worth roughly $26 billion combined on an annual basis.

Both deals include 90-day termination clauses, meaning SpaceX could quickly reclaim computing capacity if needed.

Who is Sualeh Asif?

According to Forbes, Sualeh Asif, originally from Karachi, cofounded Cursor with three friends from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Asif, boosting a net worth of $1.3 billion, represented Pakistan in the International Math Olympiad from 2016 to 2018.

As per the report, Cursor reached a $29.3 billion valuation in November 2025, after raising $2.3 billion. The startup claims to have more than $1 billion in annualised revenue.

If a deal is agreed, Iluvatar CoreX would become ByteDance’s third major domestic supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs) after Huawei and Cambricon, the sources added.

TikTok parent ByteDance is also considering using Baidu’s Kunlunxin chips, they said, declining to be named as the talks are not public.

Tencent is already a Kunlunxin chip customer, according to one of the sources.

ByteDance, Iluvatar CoreX, Baidu and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

The potential deals demonstrate that efforts by Chinese chipmakers to offer alternatives to foreign AI chips are gaining traction as Beijing promotes the use of locally developed chips to improve self-reliance amid US export controls on advanced chips.

Chinese GPU and AI chipmakers captured nearly 41% of China’s AI accelerator server market last year, eroding Nvidia’s once-dominant position in one of its most important overseas markets, Reuters reported in April.

While Nvidia’s market share in China has effectively fallen to zero, according to its CEO Jensen Huang, Chinese AI chips would become available in large quantities in the second half of this year, Tencent’s Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell said in May.

Iluvatar CoreX, one of China’s leading GPU startups, is expected to ship at least 50,000 chips to ByteDance this year and most of them will be used for inference workloads, as ByteDance expands the customer base for its signature AI chatbot Doubao, the sources said.

Inference workloads involve answering queries and are different from AI model training, which tends to use the most powerful chips.

The details of the potential deals are not final and still subject to change, the sources said. 

Commercial milestone

A deal with ByteDance, one of China’s biggest technology companies and a major spender on AI infrastructure, would be a significant commercial milestone for Iluvatar CoreX.

Until now, the Shanghai-based company has mainly supplied government procurement projects, one of the sources said.

Iluvatar CoreX, which listed in Hong Kong in January, reported 1 billion yuan ($148 million) in 2025 revenue, about 90% from selling GPUs, as it benefited from growing demand for domestic AI hardware.

Its Tiangai series chips are tailored for AI training, while its Zhikai series is geared toward inference tasks, according to its website.

Iluvatar CoreX’s revenue is projected to reach 3.04 billion yuan ($449.8 million) this year, with total shipments expected to jump 139% to over 100,000 chips, according to a Huatai Securities research note.

The broker estimated the Zhikai inference chips had an average selling price of 12,000 yuan, or about $1,775 each. Iluvatar Corex shares rose 12% in Hong Kong following the Reuters report.

Jassy’s involvement sheds light on the extraordinary move by Anthropic on Friday to shut down its latest models globally in response to national security orders from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, had ​previously warned about the hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and held it back from wide release, but earlier this week, Anthropic rolled ​out a public version, called Fable, with what it described as cybersecurity safeguards.

That brief release ended on Friday. ⁠In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government told the company it believes there is a method of bypassing, or “jailbreaking,” a safeguard ​against using the model to find cybersecurity holes.

The bypass found only “minor” security flaws that other publicly available models can also find, Anthropic said in ​its blog post.

The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to block any foreign nationals, whether inside or outside the U.S., from using both its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the company said. In response, Anthropic said it would disable access to the models globally.

Amazon did not confirm whether it spoke to government officials about Anthropic’s ​models.

“As a leading cloud provider that serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it’s not uncommon for governments to seek ​our counsel on potential security risks,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “When they occur, we don’t share the details of these discussions.”

Export controls

The Information, a technology news outlet, ‌earlier on ⁠Saturday reported Jassy’s concerns. The Information, citing a U.S. official, later reported that the administration was unlikely to force other AI firms to abide by restrictions similar to those placed on Anthropic.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Trump administration’s plans for regulating other firms.

The US government restrictions came in the form of an export control, Anthropic said in its blog post. The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which ​oversees export controls, did not immediately ​respond to a request for ⁠comment.

Officials issued the export control “reluctantly” after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei “refused” to “fix the jail break or de-deploy the model,” White House adviser David Sacks wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

“The Admin’s hope now is ​that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general ​release,” wrote Sacks, ⁠co-chair of Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and formerly the White House’s AI czar.

Amazon cloud unit’s data centres in UAE, Bahrain damaged in drone strikes

Some experts who favor export controls on advanced AI models found the Trump administration’s action puzzling because it affects allied nations as well as adversaries.

“This was not well thought-out,“ said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior ⁠fellow at ​the University of California’s Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation. “It even bans Canadians and ​Brits employed at Anthropic from doing research and development.”

The order came just as a previous dispute between Trump administration officials and Anthropic showed signs of easing across parts of the US ​government.

Talking to Business Recorder, they said that the continuation of the tax regime will further strengthen the confidence of IT exporters and freelancers in the government’s taxation policies, and provide crucial support for sustaining export earnings growth in the years ahead.

Dr Noman Ahmad Said, an IT exporter and CEO of SI Global Solutions, said that the extension of the 0.25% Final Tax Regime for the IT industry is a positive step towards empowering IT companies and exporters that are making significant contributions to the country’s foreign exchange earnings through consistent growth and expansion.

“By incentivising the IT industry, the government will not only attract foreign exchange inflows but also generate higher tax revenues and create employment opportunities for youth,” he said.

He further emphasised that the government should maintain a stable and long-term tax policy for the IT sector to attract both local and foreign investment, accelerate IT exports, and encourage exporters to expand their operations into international markets.

Chairman of the Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA), Ibrahim Amin, said that the proposal to maintain the 0.25% FTR for freelancers is a major relief and a strong source of motivation for both existing and aspiring freelancers.

He expressed confidence that freelancers’ earnings would continue to grow and could potentially double export receipts from $1 billion to $2 billion by 2029, with the number of freelancers will also be increasing to 4 million.

He also urged the government to reconsider its plan to tax content creators, particularly those producing informative and educational content, for at least the next three years.

“The government should first engage with social media and digital platforms to ensure fair revenue-sharing mechanisms for Pakistani content creators. Once a fair framework is established, taxation can be implemented through an equitable mechanism,” he said.

In addition to tax-related measures, the government has announced plans to expand the Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Programme, aiming to train 120,000 young people in IT and digital skills to enhance employability in the growing digital economy.

Saad Shah, CEO of Hexalyze and an IT exporter, said that the government’s investment in training and capacity building is an important initiative that will contribute significantly to the future growth of the IT industry.

He pointed out that the IT industry is facing a shortage of skilled human resources despite local universities are generating thousands of graduates every year.

“If Pakistan equips its youth with in-demand digital skills, the country will be able to meet both domestic workforce requirements and international demand for skilled professionals,” he said.

Stakeholders also urged the government to allocate Rs71.84 billion to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) for the development of IT infrastructure across the country, including IT parks, freelancing hubs, and export incentive programmes.

Local auto industry supports higher taxes

Meanwhile, the local auto industry supports higher taxes on imported SUVs because it helps level the playing field and may boost local car sales.

Federal excise duty (FED) has been imposed on imported SUVs with engines above 2000cc while tax on even larger SUVs (above 3000cc) has been increased.

Tax will also be imposed on imported luxury electric vehicles worth over Rs20 million.

Auto expert and analyst Abdul Rehman Aizaz said this will not impact and hit the local industry.

Suggesting to policy makers for forming the upcoming auto policy 2026-2031, he said and pleaded for fostering localisation of maximum and more auto parts, safeguarding the local parts manufacturing industries, reducing custom duty and abolishing regulatory duty and additional custom duty on all raw material including steel sheets, steel rods/shocks, aluminum ingot and others.

“We’re aware people are currently having trouble accessing our services. We’re working on it,” the company’s spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X.

There were more than 62,000 reports of issues with Facebook and more than 8,000 reports of issues with Instagram as of 10:11 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.

Since the numbers on Downdetector are based on user-submitted reports, the actual number of affected users may vary.

Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the cause of the outage.

At a time when concerns about inequality are high and public attitudes toward the ultra-wealthy have soured, Musk has managed to retain a loyal following despite his stratospheric net worth ‌and without the folksy persona that endeared other tycoons such as Warren Buffett to the masses.

While admirers view Musk’s no-filter style as part of his appeal, critics have accused him of wielding oligarch-like power, raised concerns about governance at his companies and objected to his increasingly partisan political interventions.

Still, SpaceX, the sprawling rocket, satellite and AI company that together with electric-car maker Tesla form the center of Musk’s empire, raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering on Thursday, highlighting investor enthusiasm for his business ventures. Prior to the share sale, Forbes pegged his net ​worth at roughly $780 billion, far ahead of the man next in line, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page.

Musk’s SpaceX prices record $75 billion IPO at $135 a share

“The second richest person has been hovering around $300 billion, so about less than one-third of what Musk can potentially be worth ​tomorrow,” said Matt Durot, deputy editor at Forbes Wealth. “And only one other person, (Oracle founder) Larry Ellison, has ever been worth $400 billion.”

Most of Musk’s wealth now rests with SpaceX, where ⁠he holds a stake worth roughly $866 billion. Along with Tesla and the rest of his properties, his net worth will exceed $1.1 trillion when the stock begins trading Friday, according to Reuters calculations based on company filings. The tally includes ​stock components that would vest over time.

Musk became a household name through Tesla and SpaceX before expanding his influence with the $44-billion acquisition of social media platform Twitter in 2022. The deal gave him a direct channel to hundreds of millions of ​users and made him a prominent voice on issues ranging from politics and immigration to government spending and free speech.

SpaceX seeks record USD75bn in stock market debut

His move into politics, particularly his role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency last year, has been among his most contentious ventures. The political fallout coincided with weakening Tesla sales in several international markets in 2025 as protests and consumer boycotts targeted the electric vehicle maker.

THE ELON PREMIUM

Musk, 54, was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and South African father. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997.

He took ​over as Tesla’s CEO in 2008 with the conviction that electric vehicles could combine high performance with software-driven features, helping redefine the global automotive industry. Some auto-industry watchers say Tesla’s success – and its trillion-dollar-plus market cap – helped prod traditional automakers ​to pivot to electric cars.

Many investors are betting he can repeat the feat in space and artificial intelligence. Yet SpaceX remains cash-hungry, and much of the company’s valuation rests on technologies that may take years or decades to become commercially viable.

SpaceX registers to take rocket maker public in blockbuster IPO

Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk ‌has co-founded ⁠five other companies, including tunneling startup The Boring Company and brain implant maker Neuralink.

As CEO of Tesla, Musk has courted controversy and praise in equal measure. He is credited with turning Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker. Executives at legacy automakers dismissed the threat for years, skeptical that a startup car company could figure out how to mass produce electric vehicles profitably.

“He renewed the world’s respect for American ingenuity in automotive engineering,” said Bob Lutz, a former General Motors vice chairman.

At the same time, Tesla has faced legal challenges and shareholder concerns tied to its storied CEO, particularly his 2018 pay package, once worth $56 billion.

Musk’s influence has become so pervasive that market observers have dubbed the network of businesses around him the “Muskonomy.”

The phenomenon has given ​rise to what some investors call the “Elon premium,” a valuation ​boost driven as much by faith in Musk’s vision as ⁠by traditional financial metrics.

“Much like Tesla, SpaceX is a bet on Elon Musk,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs.

SpaceX registers to take rocket maker public in blockbuster IPO

“A market cap of $1.5 trillion-$2 trillion would certainly throw all traditional valuation methodologies out the window, and is instead best characterized as the ‘Elon Musk premium.’”

MUSK UNFILTERED

The concentration of influence around a single entrepreneur ​has amplified concerns about corporate governance, conflicts of interest and the risks of tying company fortunes too closely to one individual.

Over the years, Musk has turned clashes with ​regulators, billionaires, short sellers, journalists and ⁠media organizations, including Reuters, into recurring public battles that often unfolded on social media.

Musk’s alliance with Trump followed a familiar pattern. After helping bankroll Trump’s return to the White House and serving in a senior advisory role through the administration’s DOGE initiative, Musk became one of the president’s closest corporate allies.

The relationship later fractured amid disagreements over policy and spending, spilling into a public feud. Though the two have since struck a more conciliatory tone, their falling-out highlighted the increasingly blurred lines between Musk’s business empire ⁠and political ambitions.

Starlink outage hit drone tests, exposing Pentagon’s growing reliance on SpaceX

Yet ​for many investors, concerns about Musk’s often unconventional behavior are outweighed by his track record of turning ambitious ideas into some of the ​world’s most valuable companies.

“Elon is the Edison of our time,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said during a recent conversation with Musk.

The banker, a former adversary of Musk in a prolonged legal battle, has since become an admirer. Dimon told CNBC last year that the pair had “hugged it out,” ​and hailed Musk as “our Einstein.”

Taiwan produces most of the advanced chips powering the AI revolution, but the industry has long complained about what executives call the “five shortages” - water, power, labour, land and talent.

Speaking at a rain-drenched ceremony for a new science park in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said he was happy about the weather.

“Just last month, I was still wondering: What should we do about water Should we start using water trucks” he said in comments carried live on Taiwan television networks.

Wei said Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who was present at the event, had told him of government plans to connect the island’s reservoirs together.

“In that case, in the future I will no longer need to say that land, water or electricity may be in short supply,” Wei said.

Reservoirs in much drier southern Taiwan generally drop over the winter, though heavy rain in the past week has helped replenish them. In 2021, Taiwan imposed widespread water controls after the worst drought in its history.

“We may face shortages, but what we still lack most is talent,” Wei added, calling on efforts to train more workers and keep people in largely rural Pingtung.

Lai, speaking after Wei, said the government was close to completing its plans to link reservoirs.

“Our problem is how to retain water, how to distribute water, and how to use water efficiently,” Lai added.

He also outlined how the government is trying to attract and retain foreign talent in particular to help the tech industry, including by easing work permit applications.

While TSMC, a major supplier to Nvidia, is investing $165 billion to build factories in the US state of Arizona, the company has repeatedly said most of its production, along with research and development, will remain in Taiwan. Wei said semiconductors have become “inseparable” from everything, and demand will continue to grow.

“Regarding semiconductors, Taiwan will definitely be the most important place,” he said.

Ignite in a statement said the NIC will create new opportunities for technology driven startups and entrepreneurs in one of Pakistan’s leading industrial and export hubs.

NIC Sialkot, it said, will support up to 25 startups annually through mentorship, investor connections, business development support, market access, and digital innovation programmes.

“The initiative aims to accelerate entrepreneurship, strengthen export competitiveness, and foster innovation in emerging fields such as AI, Industry 4.0, advanced manufacturing, health technologies, and digital commerce,” it added.

To achieve its goal of building a knowledge economy in Pakistan, Ignite focuses on ecosystem development projects and fourth industrial wave technology.

Whereas, an NIC is a government-backed platform in different cities of Pakistan designed to support entrepreneurs and startups by providing mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities to foster innovation and economic growth.

Reliance will ​build a data center with 168 ​MW capacity in Jamnagar in the western ⁠Indian state of Gujarat, which Meta will ​lease, with options to scale, according to the ​statement.

Meta said India’s massive user base and fast-growing digital economy make it an ideal place to invest.

India’s ​data center market is projected to nearly ​double to $13.11 billion by 2034, fueled by digital transformation, ‌cloud ⁠adoption and rising AI workloads, according to consulting firm IMARC Group.

In August last year, Meta and Reliance formed a joint venture to ​build AI ​platforms and ⁠tools for enterprises in India, using Meta’s Llama models. Reliance and ​Meta had jointly committed an initial ​investment ⁠of 8.55 billion rupees ($89.67 million), split 70% and 30% respectively.

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion in ⁠Jio ​Platforms, a Reliance entity.

BYD, which ranked ‌sixth globally in 2025 with 4.6 million vehicles sold, has struggled to restore growth after its domestic sales were hit by intensified competition with local peers over the past year. Shares of the ​company have dropped more than 45% from their peak in Hong Kong over ​the past year, while its Shenzhen-listed stock has fallen 33%.

Speaking at the ⁠company’s annual shareholder meeting at its Shenzhen headquarters, Wang addressed nearly 1,000 shareholders, emphasizing ​a focus on ramping up the output of its second-generation Blade Battery, which he identified ​as this year’s key growth bottleneck, according to the state-owned Shanghai Securities News. The report was confirmed by an attendee at the meeting.

“BYD will truly become the No. 1 automaker globally in terms of ​scale in five years,” Wang said, highlighting the firm’s strong exports and technological advancements, ​including improvements in battery and fast-charging technologies that he believes will drive growth at home and abroad.

On ‌Wednesday, ⁠BYD confirmed that Wang said he wants the company to be the world’s No. 1 automaker, but didn’t respond to additional questions from Reuters about other details discussed at the meeting.

To achieve that goal, the firm would need to overtake Toyota Motor, which sold more ​than twice as many ​vehicles as BYD ⁠in 2025. Toyota has seen its overseas market share erode in regions like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where Chinese automakers ​have recorded significant growth this year, according to data from the ​China Passenger ⁠Car Association.

China’s BYD vehicle sales fall for fifth month in a row

BYD’s exports between January and May grew 65% from a year earlier, with Brazil, Britain and Australia ranking as its largest markets, aided by relatively low trade barriers.

However, this growth ⁠failed ​to offset a weaker domestic performance, as overall deliveries ​during the same period fell more than 20%.

BYD shares in Hong Kong and Shenzhen fell 4.3% and 1.6%, respectively, ​on Wednesday morning.

Visa on Tuesday has released its annual Stay Secure study in Pakistan, which assesses consumer awareness and behaviors around digital commerce and fraud. This year’s edition, conducted by Wakefield Research, highlights how AIenabled shopping and social commerce are changing consumer behavior even as expectations around trust and protection remain firmly in place.

According to report, consumers are embracing artificial intelligence as part of their shopping journeys some 82 percent in Pakistan have used AI tools to assist with shopping, including comparing prices (56 percent), finding gift ideas (47 percent), and checking reviews or product ratings (53 percent).

The appeal is clear that 93 percent feel new technologies, including AI-powered tools, are making online shopping faster and easier than before. AI is also influencing discovery, with 55 percent typically discovering new brands or retailers while shopping online.

However, consumers remain more cautious when it comes to AI handling transactions on their behalf. Today, only 42 percent would trust AI agents to complete checkout, reinforcing the importance of earning consumer trust in the age of agentic commerce.

Shopping through social platforms has become mainstream, with 82 percent of consumers in Pakistan having purchased products directly through social media platforms. As commerce expands across new channels, fraud risks continue to follow consumers online. 55 percent have experienced a financial scam in the past 12 months. Among those who have experienced a scam, 44 percent report the incident occurred on social media, more than those who encounter scams on other platforms such as websites, online marketplaces, or shopping apps.

The study also highlights growing concern around how children encounter scams online, with 77 percent of consumers reporting that children in their lives struggle to recognize scams. A significant 33 percent have seen a child fall victim to a scam while gaming or shopping online.

That concern comes as children gain greater access to digital commerce. 44 percent of Pakistani parents have children who can access mobile payment apps or digital wallets.

When it comes to protecting against fraud while shopping online, consumers look first to institutions rather than themselves. 49 percent believe payment providers and online marketplaces should be primarily responsible, followed by government authorities or regulators (36 percent) and banks or financial institutions (31 percent). Only 13 percent believe consumers themselves should hold primary responsibility.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

The information was disclosed in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday.

The Board of Directors took the decision in a meeting held on June 6, 2026, the notice said.

“As per agreed terms, the settlement of the entire amount shall be made over a period of 5 years.

Furthermore, it has been agreed that Itanz Technologies Limited shall be eligible for dividend entitlement from the date of transfer of shares,”the listed company shared.

READ MORE: Pakistan’s iTANZ eyes $45mn tech opportunities through China partnerships

iTANZ Technologies Limited was incorporated in Pakistan as a public limited company in 1990. The company was formerly known as Zahur Cotton Mills Limited.

In March 2025, the Lahore High Court approved the merger of the company and ITANZ Technology Private Limited (ITPL) with effect from October 01, 2023.

After the merger, the company’s principal business activity included software development, installation and implementation as well as other IT-related supplies and services. The company also provides consultancy services in the field of IT.