Google said it is launching a cloud region in Qatar, its first in the Gulf state, boosting the country’s efforts to transform itself into a digital economy through innovation. A cloud region is the geographic area in which a cloud data centre is located. The move is expected to contribute US$18.9 billion to Qatar’s economic output between 2023 and 2030 and create 25,000 jobs in 2030 alone.

Pepper Advantage’s acquisition of Rieom.ai marks an aggressive expansion into the Indian market and is indicative of the AI-driven credit management model it plans to bring to additional markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Middle East in the near term. Rieom.ai’s flagship product is an AI/ML-driven predictive pre-payout credit approval tool that uses socio-demographic and profile-based analysis to assess loan application documents to identify fraud risks and other suspicious behaviour prior to credit approval.