IT, AI & Telecommunications

Teaneck, N.J. – October 05, 2026 -- Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) has launched Cognizant Activate, a new business unit targeting enterprises generating $1 billion to $5 billion in annual revenue with a dedicated AI transformation model.

Cognizant builds a right-sized operating model for fast-growing mid-market firms

The business unit pairs Cognizant's AI Builder capability, already deployed with the world's largest companies, with an operating model designed for the speed and decision-making pace of emerging enterprises building toward Global 2000 scale. Cognizant Activate will deliver platform-aligned, pre-configured solution kits covering data and AI, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, cloud modernization and managed services.

Austin, Texas – October 05, 2026 -- Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) has agreed to sell $2.0 billion of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock in Axiom Solutions International, its Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment, to funds affiliated with General Catalyst, Koch Equity Development, and co-investors, at an initial enterprise value of $37.5 billion for Axiom.

Flex Targets Q1 2027 for Axiom's Independent Public Listing

Flex intends to separate Axiom into an independent, publicly traded company in the first quarter of calendar 2027, with the current investment structured to apply solely to Axiom on a pro-forma basis once the separation completes.

Newtown, Pa. – October 05, 2026 -- EPAM Systems (NYSE: EPAM) has launched a strategic offering aimed at powering frontier AI models through high-fidelity data generation, model evaluation and custom reinforcement learning (RL) environments, targeting what it calls a critical industry bottleneck in enterprise AI deployment.

EPAM positions engineering heritage against shift from compute to domain intelligence

Elaina Shekhter, Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at EPAM, said demand has moved from raw compute to specialized domain intelligence as frontier AI models shift from general experimentation toward complex enterprise workflows and multi-step agentic execution. The company is leveraging its multi-decade enterprise engineering background to build what it describes as a foundational intelligence layer for the AI ecosystem.

Cary, N.C. – October 05, 2026 -- SAS Institute will stage the 2026 SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club Oct. 12-18, pairing PGA Tour Champions competition with a new AI-powered fan platform and roughly $280,000 in direct community and charity funding tied to tournament week.

SAS launches Fairway Forecast, an AI analytics app for live tournament data

The company has built Fairway Forecast, a mobile web application powered by SAS analytics and AI that gives fans real-time player insights, tournament trends and an interactive chat feature. The tool includes the SAS Index, a proprietary rating that projects player competitiveness, along with live leaderboards and a prediction contest on holes 17 and 18. Fans access the platform via QR code at the venue or through official tournament channels.

Austin, Texas – October 05, 2026 -- Nonhuman sources generated 87.3% of all recorded click activity across 1.77 billion emails processed in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from Omeda, raising questions about the reliability of engagement metrics marketers use to evaluate campaigns and report results to sponsors. Even newsletters, which registered the lowest bot share among major high-volume email categories, still saw 82.4% of clicks attributed to automated activity rather than human readers.

Breaker, a B2B-focused newsletter platform, has launched RealClickTM alongside a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and API designed to address distorted click data and unchecked AI access to marketing workflows.

Sugar Land, Texas – October 05, 2026 -- Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ: AAOI) has completed a $600 million at-the-market equity offering, selling 5,694,845 shares at an average price of $105.36 to net $587,999,985.89 for the company.

AOI raises $588 million through third ATM program of 2026

The offering, disclosed on August 21, 2026 via a prospectus supplement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marks the company's third at-the-market equity raise this year. AOI confirmed the program's completion today, closing a capital-raising effort aimed at funding its optical networking manufacturing expansion.

Wilmington – October 05, 2026 -- SignSplit PBC has secured a $400 million strategic seed round from W Group that values the data-licensing startup at $1 billion, as it emerges from stealth to build infrastructure for compensating people and institutions for their data, work and likeness.

W Group's fintech ecosystem backs SignSplit's data-licensing model

The financing comes from W Group, a global fintech and technology ecosystem serving more than 40 million users across 150 countries. The deal combines capital with a multi-year package of strategic resources to support SignSplit's global rollout.

Toronto – October 05, 2026 -- The Hinton Lectures, co-founded by Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, will return to Toronto for a third year on November 9-11, 2026, naming Paul Christiano as this year's distinguished lecturer.

Christiano brings OpenAI and alignment credentials to the stage

Christiano was an early researcher at OpenAI, where he developed reinforcement learning from human feedback, a technique now foundational to large language model training. He currently serves as founder and executive director of the Alignment Research Center, a non-profit focused on understanding decision-making inside machine learning systems. He also holds roles as Senior Technical Advisor at NIST's Center for AI Standards and Innovation, Board Member of the OpenAI Foundation, and Member of the OpenAI Safety and Security Committee.

San Francisco – October 05, 2026 -- The SONiC Foundation, the open source network operating system hosted under the Linux Foundation, has added Lenovo, NADDOD and Zhanwang (NEXAI) as General Members, expanding its industry base ahead of the OCP Global Summit 2026 in San Jose.

Three networking specialists join SONiC as AI infrastructure strains bandwidth and latency requirements

The additions bring expertise spanning networking silicon, hardware platforms, high-speed interconnects and enterprise infrastructure deployments. SONiC Foundation officials cited rising demands from AI, high-performance computing, cloud and data center operators for greater network bandwidth, reliability and observability as the driver behind the expansion.

Hsinchu – October 05, 2026 -- MediaTek and Airoha Technology, together operating as the MediaTek Group, will showcase next-generation Wi-Fi, 5G CPE and PON platforms at Network X 2026, running October 13-15 at Messe Wien in Vienna, Austria. The companies will present their combined connectivity portfolio at Booth K35, targeting telecom operators seeking to upgrade network infrastructure for AI-driven bandwidth and latency demands.

MediaTek Group combines PON, 5G CPE and Wi-Fi under one supplier

By merging MediaTek's and Airoha's technology stacks, the group now offers operators a single partner spanning network access, customer-premises equipment, and in-home and enterprise connectivity. This consolidation is designed to reduce system integration complexity for operators managing multiple connectivity layers simultaneously.