What’s New Today Vietnamese conglomerate Geleximco plans to build a semiconductor plant in Hung Yen, with construction expected to begin in November 2026 and commercial products targeted for early 2028. Saudi construction-tech startup BRKZ \ raised USD 31 million from Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures. Accenture will pay USD 25 million to settle a US government probe into its diversity practices while denying discrimination. Solana tripled its transaction data capacity. This comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei agreed with concerns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity.
Geleximco plans a semiconductor plant in northern Vietnam.
Saudi construction-tech startup BRKZ raises USD 31 million.
Accenture agrees to a USD 25 million settlement over DEI allegations.
Solana increases its transaction data limit to 4,096 bytes.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei backs concerns over catastrophic AI risks.
Vietnamese conglomerate Geleximco is advancing plans for a semiconductor plant in Hung Yen province, with construction expected to start in November 2026. The company is targeting commercial products from the facility in early 2028.
The plant will focus on testing and integrating Vietnamese-designed control ICs, sensors and power chips into electric vehicles and Geleximco’s wider industrial ecosystem. The approach could give local chip developers a domestic environment to test and refine semiconductor designs before commercial deployment. The project is part of Geleximco’s broader expansion into artificial intelligence, robotics and semiconductor technologies.
Saudi Arabian construction procurement platform BRKZ raised USD 31 million in fresh funding, backed by Aramco’s investment arm Wa’ed Ventures. The round includes USD 13 million in Series B equity and USD 18 million in growth debt from Stride Ventures.
The company operates an AI-enabled procurement platform that connects construction contractors, manufacturers, and distributors with suppliers in Saudi Arabia and international markets.
Accenture agreed to pay USD 25 million to settle allegations from the US government over its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The settlement follows a Justice Department probe into the company’s hiring and promotion practices. The government alleged that Accenture considered race and sex in employment decisions to meet demographic goals. Accenture denied discrimination and said the agreement did not constitute an admission of liability.
The settlement comes amid the Trump administration’s wider push against DEI policies among federal contractors and other organisations. Deloitte previously agreed to pay USD 21.5 million, while IBM agreed to a USD 17 million settlement over similar government probes.
Solana introduced its Transaction V1 format, increasing the maximum data a single transaction can carry from 1,232 bytes to 4,096 bytes. The upgrade went live on Tuesday and is designed to support more complex blockchain operations.
The higher limit could help developers handle applications involving multi-party approvals, zero-knowledge proofs, and data-heavy transactions. Previously, developers often had to split complex operations across multiple transactions because of the smaller limit. The upgrade expands the amount of information available in each transaction. Developers and services that process Solana data will need to support the new transaction format.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei agrees with former company researcher Jacob Coxon’s concerns about the risks posed by rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. Coxon recently warned that AI companies could be moving towards self-improving superintelligence without adequate safeguards.
Speaking to CNN, Amodei said he agreed with Coxon “much more” than he disagreed with him. However, he stressed that the concern was about the AI industry’s broader direction rather than a direct criticism of Anthropic.