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AfricAI Secures Exclusive Continental Rights to Deploy Advanced Robotics Platforms Across Africa in Landmark Deal with Micropolis Robotics

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Micropolis Robotics appoints AfricAI as its exclusive continental partner, prohibiting direct sales, alternative distributors, or third-party agents operating within the territory

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, January 27, 2026/APO Group/ –AfricAI (www.AfricAI.ai) has signed a multi-year exclusive distribution and deployment agreement with Micropolis Robotics, granting AfricAI sole and exclusive rights to commercialise, deploy, and scale Micropolis’s advanced robotics platforms across Africa, marking one of the most consequential robotics market entries on the continent to date.

Under the agreement, Micropolis Robotics appoints AfricAI as its exclusive continental partner, prohibiting direct sales, alternative distributors, or third-party agents operating within the territory. The agreement establishes AfricAI as the primary execution, localisation, and go-to-market platform for intelligent robotics across African industrial, security, logistics, and infrastructure sectors.

This exclusive mandate positions AfricAI as the gateway for advanced autonomous systems entering African markets, ensuring regulatory compliance, local capacity building, and sovereign control over deployment frameworks. The partnership moves beyond software- based artificial intelligence into the realm of physical AI — intelligent machines capable of operating in complex, real-world African environments.

“This is not a collaboration — it is a market-shaping mandate,” said Fareed Aljawhari, CEO of Micropolis Robotics. “AfricAI now represents the exclusive gateway through which Micropolis technologies enter Africa. Their sovereign AI vision, operational reach, and regulatory fluency make them the only partner capable of executing at a continental scale.

AfricAI now represents the exclusive gateway through which Micropolis technologies enter Africa

The agreement enables AfricAI to integrate Micropolis’s autonomous robotics systems with AfricAI’s sovereign AI stack, enabling AI-driven security and surveillance platforms, robotics-enabled logistics and port operations, industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and municipal robotics tailored to African operating conditions.

Embedded within the agreement are long-term performance-linked expansion rights, automatic renewals, and a structured localisation framework designed to anchor robotics deployment, workforce training, and skills transfer within Africa.

HRH Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Executive Chairman of AfricAI, stated: “Africa does not need imported automation — it needs sovereign, context-aware intelligent systems. This exclusive mandate allows AfricAI to industrialise robotics deployment at scale while retaining control, compliance, and value creation on the continent.”

Initial deployments will commence in security, smart infrastructure, and logistics, with phased expansion across multiple African states as part of AfricAI’s broader continental AI, data, and intelligent infrastructure strategy.

Industry analysts note that the agreement positions AfricAI as one of the first exclusive robotics gatekeepers on the continent, enabling Africa to leapfrog legacy industrialisation pathways through the deployment of autonomous, AI-driven physical infrastructure.

Both companies reaffirmed their commitment to responsible innovation, ESG compliance, and the development of sustainable robotics ecosystems that enhance productivity, security, and economic resilience across Africa.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of AfricAI.

 

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Huawei Launches the HUAWEI Mate 90 Series, Equipped with the Flagship Tau Chipset Across the Entire Series

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Huawei

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 1 October 2026 – Huawei today officially launched its next-generation flagship HUAWEI Mate 90 Series, featuring the powerful LogicFolding Tau Chip, the Kirin 9050 Pro. Packed with breakthrough innovations, including the XMAGE True-to-Color Portrait Camera, the Second-generation Linglong Display, full-body Kunlun Xuanwu architecture, and the HUAWEI XMAGE Z10 Modular Camera, the series sets a new benchmark for mobile technology.

 




 Richard Yu, Executive Director of Huawei, Director of the Investment Review Board, and Chairman of the Huawei Consumer BG, stated: “The HUAWEI Mate 90 Series is equipped with the flagship Tau chipset across the entire series. Through vertical integration of hardware, software, chips, and cloud, we have achieved a comprehensive evolution in design, performance, imaging, reliability, and smart user experience. Today, we step into a new era of brilliance.”

Between 2007 and the end of 2025, Huawei invested a total of CNY1.8 trillion into R&D. Today’s product breakthroughs are the direct result of long-term R&D investment and a foundation of core technology. Huawei is turning foundational advancements in Kirin, HarmonyOS, and beyond into tangible product experiences that consumers can truly feel.

Meticulously Crafted, Radiant at First Sight

The HUAWEI Mate 90 Series introduces a refined, seamless design, pairing a glossy mid-frame with a matte metal rear cover.

In terms of durability, the Mate 90 Pro and higher models are built on the full-body Kunlun Xuanwu architecture. The camera cover introduces the industry’s first Optical Kunlun Glass, delivering 20x better drop resistance, while the front display is protected by 3rd-gen Kunlun Glass, offering a 50% improvement in impact resistance. The Pro Max Premium Edition and RS ULTIMATE DESIGN go further with upgraded Xuanwu Kunlun Glass, cutting reflections by 70% and boosting scratch resistance by 16x. The entire lineup supports IP68 dust and water resistance up to 6 meters alongside IP69 resistance against high-temperature, high-pressure water jets.

Powered by LogicFolding Tau Chip: A Massive Leap in Performance

At the heart of the HUAWEI Mate 90 Pro Max is the LogicFolding Tau Chip, built on an innovative architecture that drastically compresses critical path latency to enable 5 million signal transmission bonds and an impressive 125 TB/s inter-die bandwidth. The Pro Max Premium Edition and RS ULTIMATE DESIGN are powered by the Kirin 9050 Pro chip, delivering a 31% increase in overall performance. Meanwhile, the Pro model’s Kirin 9035 chip brings a 20% performance boost, and the standard edition’s Kirin 9030 chip offers a 27% gain in performance.

Vertically integrated with HarmonyOS 7 across hardware, software, chips, and the cloud, the Kirin 9050 Pro CPU supports hyper-threading technology for effortless, ultra-smooth operations. Mobile gaming also reaches new heights with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, capable of rendering up to 55 million rays per second.

Second-Generation Linglong Display: A Screen That Truly Stands Out

The HUAWEI Mate 90 Pro introduces the second-generation Linglong Display, reaching an unprecedented peak brightness of 12,000 nits at 1% APL. Built on an enhanced Tandem OLED Architecture, panel lifespan is extended by 138%. The HUAWEI Mate 90 Pro Max and RS ULTIMATE DESIGN debut the Full-color Linglong Display. Leveraging its 12,000-nit ultra-high brightness and full BT.2020 end-to-end color management, over 60 mainstream apps can now upsample P3 content to vibrant, full-color BT.2020 quality. Eye care technology also receives a major upgrade, featuring industry-first ambient light detection and a 1-nit ultra-low brightness eye-comfort mode for a seamless, strain-free viewing experience.

Breakthrough Connectivity & Reliable Outdoor Utility

Connectivity gets a total overhaul. The industry-first Wi-Fi and cellular converged antenna architecture boosts signal gain by 2 dB. The entire lineup supports eSIM, with the Pro Max pioneering four-SIM, three-standby functionality. With multi-device communication sharing, photo and video upload speeds are boosted by up to 40% in congested environments like crowded concerts or remote outdoor areas.

XMAGE True-to-Color Portrait

The entire series comes equipped with True-to-Color Camera 3.0, featuring full-focal-length infrared optical coating for the first time, which advances overall color accuracy by 37% and skin-tone accuracy by 62%. The updated XMAGE True-to-Color Portrait engine introduces four versatile shooting modes: Portrait original, Soft light portrait, Dazzling fireworks, and Starburst, delivering striking, authentic portraits that speak directly to the heart.

The Pro Max features a powerful 18 EV ultra-HDR main camera, a large-sensor 200 MP RYYB telephoto camera, and CIPA 7.5-rated hardware image stabilization, guaranteeing crisp, steady shots even beyond 20x zoom. The lineup also introduces a dedicated live-streaming optimization mode, making it an ideal companion for content creators.

Additionally, the HUAWEI XMAGE Z10 Modular Camera features a 1-inch large sensor, 24–240 mm continuous optical zoom, and a maximum aperture of f/2.0 to f/4.5, providing pristine, studio-quality imagery across every focal length.

HarmonyOS AI: Smarter, Proactive, and Seamless

Powered by the 30B MoE full-modal on-device foundation model on the Pro Max and higher models, next-generation AI features come to life. Celia Memories seamlessly syncs and organizes content from over 50 mainstream apps, while the Celia navigation bar proactively suggests over 30 context-aware actions based on on-screen content. For everyday tasks, Celia Call 2.0 handles automated call answering, call summaries, and real-time translation, while the Celia Gallery Assistant enables intuitive voice- or text-driven photo editing and instant video generation. Furthermore, HarmonyOS Interconnect brings distance-free remote Huawei Share and allows one-tap sharing to multiple HarmonyOS devices simultaneously.

Committed to taking the harder but right path, Huawei provides users and developers with a powerful alternative in HarmonyOS. Today, HarmonyOS 6 and HarmonyOS 7 power over 90 million devices, including smartphones, PCs, and tablets, and are on track to pass the 100 million mark by the end of this year. At the same time, Huawei’s global registered developer community has grown to over 11 million.

ULTIMATE DESIGN: See the Extraordinary

The HUAWEI Mate 90 RS ULTIMATE DESIGN evolves the iconic Star Diamond camera module aesthetic and debuts Dynamic Lenticular Kunlun Glass, elevating high-durability materials into an expression of premium design. The rear cover showcases an all-new Ascending Texture available in Red, White, and Black. Under the hood, it packs the Kirin 9050 Pro chip, Full-color Linglong Display, Tiantong Satellite Communications, BeiDou Satellite Messaging, four-SIM three-standby, and the advanced True-to-Color Camera 3.0 with an 18 EV ultra-HDR main camera, delivering ultimate design, technology, imaging, and experience.

The series starts at CNY5,999 for the HUAWEI Mate 90, CNY6,999 for the HUAWEI Mate 90 Pro, CNY9,499 for the HUAWEI Mate 90 Pro Max, and CNY12,999 for the HUAWEI Mate 90 RS ULTIMATE DESIGN.
 




 

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Huawei Pioneers a New Computing Architecture for the AI Era: Making One Million Processors Work as One Computer

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SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 30 September 2026 – During HUAWEI CONNECT on September 17, 2026, Eric Xu (Huawei’s Rotating Chairman) and Dr. Liao Heng (Chief Scientist of HiSilicon) had a Q&A session with journalists of media outlets to discuss Huawei’s Peerium Computing Architecture for the AI era as well as UnifiedBus (UB).

At last year’s HUAWEI CONNECT, Eric Xu gave a keynote speech and released Ascend chips and their roadmap (including the 950, 960, 970, and SuperPoDs and SuperClusters). He also announced the open release of the UnifiedBus protocol.

 




 
 

At this year’s HUAWEI CONNECT, Huawei announced the Ascend 950 and the Atlas 950 SuperPoD. While the industry is talking about SuperPoDs or supernodes, the ways of making these products differ hugely. The key of SuperPoDs is about allowing several thousand or even tens of thousands of processors to work as one computer.

Today, Huawei announced a SuperPoD based on the Ascend 950 chip. The SuperPoD is powered by a new computing architecture that Huawei has pioneered. This architecture now can make one million processors work as one computer. This architecture is called Peerium, and it can achieve strong scaling to the million-processor level through nested parallelism, unified memory addressing, and peer-to-peer interconnect. It extends the parallelism paradigm of Turing with the introduction of Nested BSP (Nested Bulk Synchronous Parallel).

This architecture also extends the von Neumann single-machine architecture and overruns the master-slave design paradigm that has prevailed for decades. Given that the available technologies in the industry could not support this architecture, Huawei invented a key interconnect technology – UnifiedBus. Ultimately, one million processors can truly work as one larger computer.

UnifiedBus is a high-speed bus that uses an open protocol to scale without a limit to connect CPUs, NPUs, memory, SSDs, interface cards, and switches. With UnifiedBus, peer-to-peer interconnect is achieved across compute, storage, and networking. This fundamentally overruns the traditional master-slave architecture.

The Atlas 950 SuperPoD is a product built upon the Peerium Computing Architecture. A SuperCluster with 256,000 computing cards is currently being deployed and tested.

Q: Dr. Liao, your paper mentioned a SuperPoD that’s made up of 256,000 cards. Is that the upper limit of your technology? Can you tell us more about market demand for your products?

Liao Heng: 256,000 or roughly 200k, this number is not an arbitrary number.

First of all, the purpose of these large clusters is for training. It has a hardware infrastructure that can support the training of foundation models, which today are already in the 5T parameter range.

Over the next two years, there will be roughly 6 or 7 frontier AI labs in China, and all will aim at training foundation language models of sizes ranging from 10 to 40 trillion parameters. These numbers kind of match up to the memory capacity and the size of the SuperPoD. So you need such a scale of infrastructure to train these models.

The second thing is that in China, most data centers have a national plan on this power grid. So 200,000 is a relatively conservative number, given the design of the power delivery system in a single autonomous zone and single data center campus.

As I said, everybody must be quite familiar with the AI model race that’s happening across the globe. And in China, there are at least 3 or 4 tier-1 players that are already well recognized and have achieved tier-1 status.

Q: What are your plans to encourage Chinese model providers to use Ascend chips for training?

Eric Xu: For the Ascend 950, we first launched the 950PR to the market. It’s primarily used for AI inference, and currently the total volume of supply available in the market is not very big. The SuperPoDs based upon the Ascend 950DT are mainly used for AI training. Right now, they are under testing, and their large-scale supply will start at the end of this year or early next year. We are having extensive dialogues and discussions with AI model providers. The testing result of using the Ascend 950DT for training is pretty good. I believe that starting from next year, a lot of AI model training will be based upon SuperPoDs that use the Ascend 950DT. I think at the end of the day, it’s not about how hard we are going to push model providers, but about how much supply capacity we will have. We can only supply based on how much that’s produced. And we hope the value chain will expand its capacity faster to increase supply.

Q: What is Huawei’s take on recent calls by leading AI model providers in the US to slow down AI development?

Eric Xu: We need to look at the level and cadence of AI development in China and the US. AI models in China are largely open-source models and their progress is relatively transparent. If we look at the mainstream model providers in the US, they have more computing power, so maybe only they themselves know where they are in terms of the level of sophistication of their models. The market feeling about AI risks might be weaker in China than in the US. Model providers in China need to speed up their pace to reach a level where they could also feel the risks from AI development. And then, maybe they will feel the same as the leading US model providers. But I always believe that we need to strike a balance between driving AI development and managing AI risks. At the very least, the bottom line is we need to ensure AI for good, not AI for evil.

Q: Does Huawei have plans to bring the Atlas 950 SuperPoD to other markets outside China? If yes, which markets are you going to target? Can you share with us data about your market share in China? What is your take on China’s push for chip self-sufficiency?

Eric Xu: Since we don’t have enough capacity to even satisfy the demand in China, we don’t have plans to expand to the international market in a fully-fledged way. But indeed, there are several countries that have very strong demand. We are doing some testing, and we are providing some supply to those countries, but the volume is quite limited.

Right now, it’s pretty hard to collect data about the market share of NVIDIA in China. But based on the data we have collected, Ascend has surpassed NVIDIA.

China’s push for chip self-sufficiency is an inevitable path forward. China is a country of 1.4 billion people and it’s an industrial powerhouse, so the way people work and live is closely tied to chips. Chinese people have a keen sense of urgency, and will not accept a future in which others decide whether or not we can have access to certain products. Even though our chips may be less advanced, at least their supply is assured, so that you don’t have to worry about chip supply day in and day out. I think that’s certainly the path forward. For the Chinese government, for the domestic industry, and for Huawei, the path forward is undoubtedly to push for full self-sufficiency in terms of chips and the entire semiconductor value chain. We also believe this will become a reality sooner or later.

To read the full Q&A session: https://www.apmultimedianewsroom.com/multimedia-newsroom/huawei-pioneers-a-new-computing-architecture-for-the-ai-era-making-one-million-processors-work-as-one-computer-2 




 

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Mukuru launches everyday transactional account in South Africa

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Mukuru

Higher limits, faster EFTs, better prices: everyday banking for the burgeoning emerging economy

This launch is a key milestone in our remittance-led neobank strategy

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 30, 2026/APO Group/ –Mukuru (www.Mukuru.com), the Pan-African fintech trusted by more than 17 million customers, today launched the Mukuru Account & Card in South Africa. The product is offered in partnership with Bank Zero, the licensed sponsor bank, and is enabled by Paymentology and Mastercard.

 




  

The new proposition builds on Mukuru’s established remittance and card foundation, giving customers access to a broader range of everyday financial services through a single account, integrated with the rest of the Mukuru offering in South Africa. For existing Mukuru customers, it means being able to receive their salaries, make local payments, shop and send money across borders without having to rely on multiple financial services providers.

More power, better value

With the new Mukuru Account & Card, customers can:

  • send EFTs and real-time payments to any bank in South Africa for the first time through their Mukuru Account
  • receive salaries and other incoming EFT payments faster
  • spend up to R150 000 a month
  • make everyday purchases in-store and online and withdraw cash at reduced ATM fees
  • access credit facilities
  • get exclusive discounts when sending money across Africa.

The account launches with an existing customer base. Around 500 000 Mukuru customers hold a Mukuru prepaid card today, and migration to the new Account, for more functionality and lower fees, is already gathering momentum.

“This launch is a key milestone in our remittance-led neobank strategy,” said Andy Jury, Mukuru CEO. “For 22 years, we’ve been synonymous with cross-border money transfers, and millions of our customers have trusted us with the money that matters most to them, the money they send to family. Over time we have introduced a range of complementary products and services and now, together with Bank Zero, we can give them their everyday banking too: getting paid, paying rent, shopping and sending money across borders, all from one account.”

A bridge between cash and everyday banking

Mukuru has built its business on understanding how customers across Africa earn, move and use their money. In South Africa, that includes people who support family members in another province or country and who move between cash and digital payments every day.

The new Account & Card build on Mukuru’s established and proprietary distribution network (with 320 000 physical locations offering Mukuru services or cash-in/cash-out points) and digital channels, enabling customers to move between cash and digital financial services in ways that suit their individual needs.

“At Mukuru, we always talk about meeting our customers where they are,” said Juan Seco, Chief Growth Officer at Mukuru. “Just because someone transacts in cash should not mean they have access to fewer financial services. The strength of the Account & Card is that it bridges that gap and can grow with the customer, leveraging the reach of our physical and digital networks.”

The Mukuru Account & Card is now available at Mukuru branches, participating partner locations and customer service offices, and through roaming customer field ambassadors across South Africa. Customers can also sign up via the Mukuru app and on WhatsApp. To find the nearest location, visit https://apo-opa.co/4xWCDdJ .

The South African launch follows the recent launch of the Mukuru Wallet & Card in Botswana. It further expands Mukuru’s regulated footprint across the region, which includes e-money licences in Botswana, Zambia and Malawi, as well as a deposit-taking microfinance licence in Zimbabwe.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Mukuru.

 

 




 

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