Foundations by Axented
Hyundai drives South Korea’s $6.3B AI push, Nokia and AWS pilot AI automation for real-time 5G network slicing, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank test agentic AI for trade surveillance.
Table of Contents:
AI | Artificial Intelligence
Nokia and AWS pilot AI automation for real-time 5G network slicing
Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank test agentic AI for trade surveillance
VC | Startup & Funding
Dutch AI inference chipmaker Axelera AI raises $250M
Y Combinator-backed AI insurance brokerage Harper raises $45M
HI | Hardware & Infrastructure
Google acquires 900-hectare site in Finland for data center development
Hyundai drives South Korea’s $6.3B AI push with data center energy plan
Nokia and AWS pilot AI automation for real-time 5G network slicing
Nokia and Amazon Web Services have unveiled a pilot deployment of an agentic AI-powered 5G-Advanced network slicing solution that uses AI agents to monitor live network conditions and automatically adjust resource allocation across virtual network slices.
The collaboration integrates Nokia’s AirScale and MantaRay platforms with AWS’s Bedrock AI to infer patterns from network KPIs and real-world data like events, traffic and weather, enabling intent-based service provisioning without manual reconfiguration.
Operators du and Orange are testing the system on live networks, aiming to deliver adaptive, premium connectivity for enterprise, mission-critical, and high-demand scenarios.
The innovation is designed to help carriers unlock new revenue streams and improve service level adherence by making slicing decisions in real time.
Source: AI News
Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank test agentic AI for trade surveillance
Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are exploring the use of agentic artificial intelligence for trade surveillance, seeking to automate pattern detection and compliance workflows traditionally handled by humans.
The initiative reflects a broader shift within financial services toward leveraging autonomous AI agents to manage high-volume, rules-based processes like fraud detection and regulatory monitoring.
While early discussions highlight the potential for increased efficiency, banks are also focused on explainability and audit trails to ensure decisions made by AI are transparent and defensible.
Adoption at this stage is experimental, with firms still refining how agentic models integrate with existing systems and governance frameworks.
Source: AI News
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Dutch AI inference chipmaker Axelera AI raises $250M
Axelera AI, a Netherlands-based startup specializing in energy-efficient AI inference hardware and software, has raised $250 million in a funding round to accelerate the development and commercialization of its edge AI solutions.
The company focuses on low-power AI inference platforms for applications spanning security, automotive, industrial automation, IoT and healthcare.
The investment will support scaling operations and advancing its chiplet and software stack to meet growing demand for distributed AI compute outside traditional cloud environments.
Axelera AI’s growth reflects broader investor interest in specialized AI hardware optimized for performance and efficiency at the network edge.
Source: Silicon Angle
Y Combinator-backed AI insurance brokerage Harper raises $45M
Harper, an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage founded by Dakotah Rice and Tushar Nair, has secured $46.8–$47 million in combined seed and Series A funding led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and others.
The platform uses AI to automate labor-intensive brokerage tasks such as application processing, submission routing, and underwriter engagement, enabling coverage decisions in one to two days versus the traditional five-to-seven-day timeframe.
Harper currently serves over 5,000 small and mid-sized business clients across more than 160 carriers and plans to use the new capital to expand engineering, deepen carrier relationships, and scale operations.
Investors noted the round represents one of the largest publicly disclosed Series A financings by a Black founder.
Source: Tech Crunch
Google acquires 900-hectare site in Finland for data center development
Google has acquired approximately 900 hectares of land near Vaala in central Finland to support future data center development, marking a significant expansion of its infrastructure footprint in the region.
The site, located close to a major substation, positions Google to leverage Finland’s abundant land, renewable energy and strategic location for additional cloud and AI-oriented facilities, though specific development plans have not been disclosed.
Finland’s data center market has been attracting global operators due to cost-effective green energy and supportive local policies.
The acquisition builds on Google’s existing presence in the country, including long-standing sites in Hamina and other planned developments nearby.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Hyundai drives South Korea’s $6.3B AI push with data center energy plan
Hyundai Motor Group is advancing a KRW 9 trillion (about $6.3 billion) investment to establish an integrated industrial hub in Saemangeum, South Korea, centered on AI data center infrastructure, robotics manufacturing, and clean energy production.
The plan includes building an AI data center with up to 50,000 GPUs, hydrogen and solar power facilities to support renewable energy generation, and an AI-enabled “Hydrogen Smart City” concept.
Hyundai’s strategy aims to create a closed-loop ecosystem linking physical AI development, manufacturing and energy, while boosting regional economic activity and advancing the company’s technological transformation beyond automotive manufacturing.
Construction of core data center and energy facilities is slated to begin in 2027 with completion targeted for 2029.
Source: Data Center Knowledge
Foundations is written by the Axented team.
Axented works with companies around the world to design, build, and scale digital products, teams, and AI-driven systems.
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