Indian IT firm HCLTech struck an agreement with Anthropic to establish a separate business unit designed to accelerate enterprise adoption of agentic AI, with a focus on safety, cybersecurity and governance.

HCLTech stated its services team will build industry solutions and offerings powered by Anthropic’s Claude, Cowork and Claude Code, while its HCLSoftware business unit will embed these capabilities into select enterprise products.

The company will further establish a dedicated “Anthropic Business Unit and Centre of Excellence” to accelerate use of Claude in enterprise environments, providing secure sandbox environments to enable development.

Clients will also be aided by the partnership with the adoption of AI-native engineering practices, training workforces and building organisational capabilities to operate agentic AI safety at scale.

As what is known as an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner, HCLSoftware will be given access to advanced models. It cited select products across cybersecurity, automation, business process application and application development as services that will benefit from advanced Claude capabilities.

Claude will also be used across IT support and for digital employee services, workflows supported by policy guardrails, exception handling and human oversight for high-impact changes.

CEO and managing director at HCLTech, C Vijayakumar, said few technology companies can combine the scale of a global systems integrator with the product depth of an ISV.

“That gives us a rare advantage to securely engineer and deploy Agentic AI at scale and deliver the business outcomes that matter most to our clients.”

HCLTech’s deal with Anthropic follows an agreement worth $1.1 billion in July with a major unnamed European company to deploy AI services and boost enterprise services for the business.

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Telia Company outlined plans to cut approximately 900 jobs across the group and lower its operating cost base, setting a target of achieving annual gross savings amounting to SEK1 billion ($100 million).

The company stated its moves represent the next step in becoming simpler, faster and more efficient, with an intention to localise its operations further “and strengthen the role of its country units in meeting evolving customer needs”.

As part of the shake-up, it will transfer approximately 220 positions primarily from its common Technology unit to country units. The 900-headcount reduction will hit all units, covering both employees and resource consultations.

The restructure is expected to be completed by 31 December, subject to customary union negotiations and will result in charges of SEK600 million in Q4 206, with cash flow effect mainly in 2027.

Finland will be the most impacted by the staff cuts, with 280 reductions, followed by home market Sweden with 260.

Patrik Hofbauer, CEO and president at Telia (pictured), said the plan was part of building the future Telia and further localisation “means doubling down on what we know gets results”.

“We must always become even simpler, faster and more efficient in everything we do.​ We want to empower our countries more, get the utmost from our common Technology unit and other Group Functions, and sharpen Telia’s edge in a very competitive market,” he added.

As of 1 October, the company had a total 14,100 employees.

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SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son (pictured) is reportedly targeting up to $100 billion in funding to scale up the company’s AI ambitions, with a number of investors in the Gulf in line to strike partnerships.

The Financial Times (FT) reported Son has been in discussions with senior figures across the Middle East including in the UAE over possible fundraising, although the outlet added there is no guarantee talks with the investors will amount to anything.

It also did not name any companies or specific individual investors.

FT sources claim Son is looking to use the cash to set up a fund to buy companies and then use AI and other advanced technology to improve operations.

SoftBank’s AI and robotics business Roze is expected to play a key role in the process should it come to fruition, with the company planning to take the unit public.

Raising $100 billion to fuel its AI ambitions adds to a $65 billion bet SoftBank has made on OpenAI.

There is also notably a drive across the Gulf nations to invest in the AI sector and diversify economies into technology-related fields, with UAE-based G42 and MGX pumping big sums of cash into development.

Son has a history of courting Gulf investors, with UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund partnering with the Japanese company on its original Vision Fund in 2017.

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In the second of our special podcast series focused on Digital Industries, MWL‘s Chris Donkin delves into the operational realities of deploying private networks alongside experts from Druid Software, Boldyn Networks and Vodafone Business.

0:00 Meet the Panel
3:00 What’s Taking Off
12:00 4G or 5G?
21:00 The Messy Reality
28:00 Beyond the POC
35:00 Q&A and the Future

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VodafoneThree raised its cost-savings target to £1 billion per annum by 2032, as it set out a UK growth strategy with a new set of “bolder” financial ambitions.

During a Vodafone Group investor briefing, the company focused on its ambitions for VodafoneThree and how it will deliver significant value creation over the coming years.

Among the highlights, the company stated it was upping its cost savings goal, which was previously pegged at £700 million per annum by full year 2030, to £1 billion per annum by full year 2032, which will run to March that year.  By 2030, £800 million in annual cost savings is expected.

The upgraded target comes more than two months after Vodafone completed a full takeover of VodafoneThree, acquiring CK Hutchison’s 49% in the business for £4.3 billion.

Targets
Other financial targets set for the company include a goal of mid-to-high single digit annual growth in adjusted earnings between 2025 and 2032, and a plan to more than triple operating free cash flow during the same period.

The briefing, hosting by group CEO of European markets, Ahmed Essam and VodafoneThree CEO Max Taylor, also reiterated an £11 billion network investment plan spanning 10 years to upgrade the UK’s mobile network, accelerate leadership in the consumer market and grow its Business unit.

Margherita Della Valle, CEO of Vodafone, said VodafoneThree had been created because it saw an opportunity to transform the UK market.

“After a strong start, we now have even greater confidence in the opportunity ahead. That’s why we are upgrading our cost target to £1 billion, with VodafoneThree set to become an increasingly important contributor to Vodafone’s growth ambitions,” she said.

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The parent company of agentic AI specialist Manus secured more than $500 million in a funding round conducted a little more than a month after it resumed independent operations following the unwinding of an acquisition by Meta Platforms.

Butterfly Effect, which developed the AI company, did not reveal how it plans to use the money or a valuation.

However, Bloomberg reported last month a potential $500 million raise would give it a valuation of around $4 billion, double the sum Meta Platforms paid for the company in an agreement struck in December 2025, before the deal was cancelled on orders from the Chinese government.

Existing investors Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund were involved in the funding round, along with Boyu Capital and IDG Capital.

Investment rules
Manus formally resumed independent operations in September after China’s National Development and Reform Commission told all parties to cancel the deal with Meta Platforms, following an investigation which cited concerns over foreign investment rules.

Manus’ founding investors then moved to buy the company back at the same $2 billion valuation.

China’s concerns related to the fact Butterfly Effect was founded in the country in 2022 but moved its corporate base to Singapore in 2025.

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