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IAG’s Hangar 51 Accelerator 2024 Takes Off with New Cohort of Startups Focused on Sustainability, Customer Experience, and Operational Efficiency

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VIENNA, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — International Airlines Group (IAG) announced the launch of its eighth Hangar 51 Accelerator program, welcoming a new cohort of startups poised to revolutionize the aviation industry. Plug and Play, a global innovation platform connecting startups and corporations is proud to support this year’s program as the innovation partner of IAG. 

The selected startups will tackle some of the industry’s biggest challenges across four core areas:

Sustainability: Exploring new technologies that can help decarbonize aviation.

Customer Experience: Enhancing the passenger journey through innovative products and services.

Operational Efficiency: Testing new solutions to improve efficiency and performance.

Airports: Optimizing turnaround management and ground operations.

Over twelve weeks, the startups will work closely with IAG experts to test and refine their solutions in a real-world environment. The culmination of the Hangar 51 Accelerator 2024 will be a Demo Day held on November 27 at IAG’s Headquarters in London. This event will provide a platform for the startups to present their projects to key stakeholders across IAG and its operating companies: Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, LEVEL, Vueling, IAG Loyalty and IAG Cargo. This event will foster networking, knowledge exchange, and collaboration, enabling IAG to showcase the potential of these solutions across the group.

Plug and Play provided support to IAG with key program activities, including global scouting, startup assessment, and event management. Beyond the program itself, Plug and Play has connected IAG to its wider partner ecosystem, offering speaking and participation opportunities at events across Europe. This creates opportunities to connect with other industry leaders to exchange best practices and identify potential synergies.

“We’re truly excited to partner with one of the world’s largest airline groups to drive impactful improvements in airline operations and sustainability. Working with IAG is a unique highlight within our global ecosystem, showing how open innovation across diverse companies/carriers, regions, and approaches can make a real difference for the entire industry. In aviation, collaboration is key, and we’re proud to work together in tackling challenges like CO2 emissions and climate impact. The best startups have made it through our selection process and are now collaborating with various airlines and business units to test their solutions. I’m personally looking forward to Demo Day to see the impact they’ve made,” said Nik Munaretto, Director of Plug and Play Vienna.

Congratulations and welcome to the new Hangar 51 Accelerator 2024 Cohort:

Aeon BlueAiir InnovationsbederFlyOROKeepFlying®Nexus LabNoyaOreyeonParloaTarmac TechnologiesTomorrow.ioZero®ZestIoT

For more information about Plug and Play, please visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 60+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About IAG

International Airlines Group (IAG) is one of the world’s largest airline groups with 585 aircrafts flying to over 250 destinations and carrying more than 115 million passengers in 2023. The Group was created in 2011 and includes the airlines British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL, and IAG Loyalty and IAG Cargo. It is a Spanish-registered company with its corporate office in London, United Kingdom. Its shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Spanish stock markets. IAG’s vision is to be the leading airline group in sustainability. The group is proud to have been listed on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s A List for its commitment to sustainability and action on climate change.

Media Relations Contact

press@pnptc.com

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SOURCE Plug and Play

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From China Mobile’s Call Upgrade to the Commercial Launch of “Calling + AI” by Leading Operators: AI Is Reshaping the Value of Native Calling

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BEIJING, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On June 15, 2026, China Mobile announced a comprehensive upgrade to its traditional calling services, ushering in a next-generation calling experience defined by HD, intelligence, and security. This milestone not only marks a major leap in telecommunication innovation but also reflects a global, inevitable shift: the transformation of basic communication into intelligent, inclusive services.

Breaking Experience Barriers and Redefining the Paradigm of Basic Calling

Overcoming the limitations of traditional, voice-only interactions, China Mobile has leveraged its mature VoLTE/VoNR network foundation to deeply integrate AI models with HD audio and video capabilities. Without requiring users to change their phones or SIM cards, seven core AI functions are now seamlessly embedded into the native dialer interface.

These upgrades include Live Captions bridge communication gaps for the elderly and hearing-impaired; HD video calls and AI noise reduction create a crystal-clear, immersive calling experience; AI anti-fraud intercepts high-risk calls in real time to safeguard users’ assets. Furthermore, the introduction of Data Channel (DC) technology and visual call menus transforms standard calls into agile, interactive service windows, enabling multi-party collaboration and seamless business transactions directly within the call. Through this initiative, China Mobile has successfully evolved traditional calls from a mere voice pipeline into a secure, integrated information hub.

“Calling + AI” Becomes a Strategic Consensus Among Global Leading Operators

From a global perspective, China Mobile’s call upgrade is not an isolated milestone, but a microcosm of the global telecommunications industry’s broader transformation. Throughout 2026, major operators worldwide are accelerating the commercial deployment of “Calling + AI” solutions:

Deutsche Telekom launched Magenta AI, leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance calling across all scenarios;T-Mobile US introduced a network-side, real-time translation service covering over 80 languages, effectively breaking down cross-border communication barriers;Saudi stc rolled out English-Arabic bilingual simultaneous interpretation, which has now entered large-scale commercial trials;South Korea’s LG U+ launched its ixi-O intelligent calling assistant, shifting the user experience from passive responses to proactive smart interactions and earning three prestigious GLOMO industry awards.

The synchronized efforts of these global leaders confirm that basic calling services have officially entered a new era of AI integration. Deeply empowered by artificial intelligence, “Calling + AI” has become the definitive blueprint for the intelligent transformation of the global telecommunications industry. As operators continue to refine these native capabilities, the traditional voice network is poised to reclaim its position as the most secure, ubiquitous, and valuable entry point in the AI era.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/from-china-mobiles-call-upgrade-to-the-commercial-launch-of-calling–ai-by-leading-operators-ai-is-reshaping-the-value-of-native-calling-302834622.html

SOURCE China Mobile

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Trip.com Group Sincerely Accepts Administrative Penalty Decision Issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China

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SINGAPORE, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: TCOM; HKEX: 9961) today announced that it has received the administrative penalty decision issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China.

Trip.com Group sincerely accepts the decision and will adopt rectification measures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations to implement the decision’s requirements. The Company will strengthen its long-term governance mechanisms and strive to contribute to the sustainable development of the travel industry.

Trip.com Group’s management team will host a conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on July 27, 2026 (or 8:00 PM Hong Kong Time on July 27, 2026).

The conference call will be available on Webcast live at: http://investors.trip.com.

All participants must pre-register to join this conference call using the participant registration link below:
https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIb78e08d8f18340c4882a7e4ab961906b.

Upon registration, each participant will receive details for this conference call, including dial-in numbers and a unique access PIN. To join the conference, please dial the number provided, enter your PIN, and you will join the conference instantly.

For further information, please contact:
Investor Relations
Trip.com Group Limited
Email: iremail@trip.com

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SOURCE Trip.com Group Limited

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NAVER Partners with Brookfield and NVIDIA to Expand Korea’s National AI Factory Infrastructure Buildout

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NAVER, Brookfield and NVIDIA announced an expansion of Korea’s sovereign AI factory infrastructure. New investments will increase the initial NVIDIA DSX™ AI factory deployment from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts.

Announced during Korea President Jae Myung Lee’s AI Summit visit to San Francisco, the planned 200-megawatt expansion will be built with the NVIDIA DSX platform at NAVER’s GAK Sejong hyperscale data center in Sejong, South Korea. The expanded infrastructure will provide Korea- and U.S.- based AI innovators with access to production-scale AI compute for building next-generation models, agents and AI-powered services.

Under the terms of the agreements, Brookfield will fund up to $9 billion as the exclusive capital partner, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion and NAVER will fund the remaining amount to finance the $10 billion project.

This builds on NAVER’s June announcement to extend its GAK Sejong data center with NVIDIA DSX, with a long-term path to gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure serving Korea’s enterprises, industries, government organizations and global AI cloud customers. Combining Brookfield’s capital with NVIDIA’s computing platform, the investment supports NAVER’s AI factory deployment.

“NVIDIA’s strategic investment and our infrastructure supply agreement with Brookfield have propelled NAVER’s vision for the AI Factory business into a robust execution phase,” said Haejin Lee, Founder and Chairman of NAVER. “Leveraging the solid partnerships with our global partners, we will drive technological innovation, foster a sovereign AI ecosystem, and spearhead efforts to strengthen South Korea’s AI competitiveness.” 

AI Factory Expansion and Open Model Collaboration to Fuel AI Innovators

NAVER, as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, provides deep expertise in operating hyperscale infrastructure powered by the full-stack NVIDIA AI platform. The 200-megawatt AI factory, featuring NVIDIA Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms, will establish a dedicated resource pool for emerging AI companies, providing the compute, software and support needed to develop and deploy competitive AI models and applications at scale.

This expanded infrastructure also builds on NAVER and NVIDIA’s collaboration on open model development for agentic and physical AI. NAVER is advancing its HyperCLOVA X models to be based on NVIDIA Nemotron™ 3 Ultra open models with its proprietary data and training expertise. NAVER is also the first Korean company to join the NVIDIA Nemotron Coalition, contributing to open model development across pretraining, post-training and reinforcement learning.

NAVER plans to launch an AI agent platform in Korea in the second half of the year, powered by NVIDIA Agent Toolkit software including NVIDIA NemoClaw™ blueprints. NAVER is also developing a Seoul World Model using proprietary urban street-view and spatial modeling data, built on NVIDIA Cosmos™ world foundation models.

About NAVER

Founded in 1999, NAVER is Korea’s largest Internet company and one of the world’s top tech companies. Leading cutting-edge technologies, NAVER operates the No.1 search engine in Korea and holds various business portfolios encompassing commerce, fintech, cloud, AI and robotics.

NAVER recorded sales of KRW 12.04 trillion (USD 8.18 billion) in 2025. TEAM NAVER continues to enhance its business portfolio and expand its global presence across Japan, North America, and Europe, while pursuing innovation through continuous research and development in future technologies.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/naver-partners-with-brookfield-and-nvidia-to-expand-koreas-national-ai-factory-infrastructure-buildout-302834577.html

SOURCE NAVER

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