2025 highlights: September

Technology highlights for September 2025 included:

- Alibaba launched Qwen3-Next, a new model architecture optimised for long-context understanding, large parameter scale, and computational efficiency. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Base in instruct (non-thinking) and thinking modes are open source and available on Hugging Face, Kaggle and Alibaba Cloud’s ModelScope community.

- Amazon launched the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region and announced plans to invest more than NZ$7.5 B in New Zealand to support the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of its data centres in the country.

Source: Apple. The next generation of iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods were launched.

- Apple introduced the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max as well as the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3. 

- Baidu announced that its autonomous ride-hailing platform, Apollo Go, has been granted Dubai's first autonomous driving trial permit, along with the first batch of 50 autonomous driving test licenses issued by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai. Apollo Go's 50-vehicle fleet has been conducting open-road testing in designated areas in Dubai since August.

- Electronic Arts, an interactive entertainment provider, is to be acquired by an investor consortium comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for approximately US$55 B.  

- Huawei reiterated that: 

• Its monetisation strategy for AI is focused on hardware.
• For Compute Architecture for Neural Networks (CANN), software and the compute architecture that works with its Ascend AI processors, Huawei will open interfaces for the compiler and virtual instruction set, and fully open-source other software, with open source and open access for CANN based on the existing Ascend 910B/910C design by December 31, 2025.
• The Mind series application enablement kits and toolchains will be fully open source by December 31, 2025.
• The openPangu foundation models will also be fully open source.

The company also shared its chip roadmap: Three new series of Ascend chips will be launched over the next three years. 

• The Ascend 950 series will provide additional support for low-precision data formats, stronger vector processing, and 2 TBps interconnect bandwidth, which is 2.5x times higher than the Ascend 910C. The Ascend 950PR will be out in Q126, followed by the Ascend 950DT, which is optimised for both the decode stage of inference and for model training.
• The Ascend 960, out in Q427, will have twice the computing power, memory access bandwidth, memory capacity, and number of interconnect ports compared to the Ascend 950 chips, and is designed to boost training and inference performance.
• The Ascend 970 will have double its computing power in 4-bit floating point calculations (FP4) and 8-bit floating point calculations (FP8), double its interconnect bandwidth relative to the Ascend 960, increased memory access bandwidth by at least 1.5x. The plan is to go to market in Q428.

- Microsoft updated at 1.45 pm Singapore time on 6 September that Azure network traffic going through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea. There are no interruptions as Microsoft has rerouted traffic. The company said that the cables would be repaired over the long term and stopped updating on 10 September.

- Nintendo has set up Nintendo Singapore with the aim of accelerating its business in Southeast Asia. Nintendo Singapore will be helmed by MD Takahiro Miura. The company is also considering establishing a local entity in Thailand for the same reason.

- NVIDIA released the AI Blueprint for 3D object generation — a workflow that lets 3D artists create up to 20 3D objects to prototype a scene from a text prompt. 

The company also has an Omniverse Blueprint for building high-performance, energy-efficient infrastructure that converts traditional data centres into AI factories. A number of longtime collaborators are supporting the blueprint, including Jacobs as the design integrator; Schneider Electric, Siemens and Vertiv for power and cooling, as well as Cadence, Emerald AI, E Tech Group, phaidra.ai, PTC, Schneider Electric with ETAP, Siemens and Vertech for infrastructure design and simulation, and orchestration.

The company further rolled out "the biggest cloud gaming upgrade ever", with GeForce NOW Blackwell RTX 5080-class SuperPODs delivering next-level high-performance cloud gaming. Up to 5K at 120 frames per second (fps) is now possible for gameplay.

NVIDIA also announced "the biggest AI infrastructure project in history", where it will invest US$100 B in OpenAI in addition to deploying 10 GW of NVIDIA systems in OpenAI's infrastructure. 

This followed another September announcement of joint development plans with Intel. NVIDIA will also invest US$5 B in the company. 

- OpenAI announced the OpenAI Jobs Platform to connect people with AI skills with employers, as well as OpenAI Certifications to provide more AI training as well as a standard way of gauging skill levels. 

OpenAI and Microsoft signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the next phase of their partnership. No terms were shared.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shared that the company is building advanced security controls to keep chats private, and that OpenAI will extend the freedom to ask anything "as far as possible without causing harm or undermining anyone else’s freedom". Those under 18 will be treated differently, however. 

OpenAI's Sora 2 AI video generator was launched. The company described it as "more physically accurate, realistic, and more controllable than prior systems". Generated videos come with synchronised dialogue and sound effects. 

- Singapore refreshed its guidelines on e-commerce.

The Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) also shared in an addendum to the President's Address how it is refreshing its Smart Nation 2.0 strategies, including:

- Building capabilities, boosting innovation, and accelerating AI adoption in enterprises and the workforce. The MDDI also committed to anchoring more AI Centres of Excellence to deepening their capabilities. 

- Continuing to support individuals and households in accessing digital tools and services, and work with partners to promote inclusivity of digital services by design. 

- Helping Singaporeans stay safe online amid rising scams, cyberbullying, and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. An Online Safety Commission will be set up to support victims of online harms in seeking timely relief from perpetrators and platforms. 

- Raising baseline cybersecurity standards nationally, including by promoting stronger cyberhygiene practices, particularly in entities that handle sensitive data or critical systems. 

- Continuing to invest in core digital infrastructure to ensure robust connectivity, and study areas such as 6G, non-terrestrial networks, and frontier technologies like quantum to futureproof networks. 

"MDDI will lead whole-of-government efforts to transform our digital systems, and deliver more user-centric, secure and resilient digital services. This will be supported by plans to systematically improve the Public Service’s digital capabilities, including through scaling up training for public officers," added Mrs Josephine Teo, Singapore Minister for Digital Development and Information, in the addendum.

Hashtag: #2025highlights