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FranConnect Unveils a Suite of AI Agents, Empowering Franchises and Multi-Location Businesses with Generative AI Bots that Automate Critical Business Outcomes

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HERNDON, Va., Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ —  FranConnect, a leading provider of sales, operations, and marketing solutions for franchise and multi-location businesses, announces the launch of Frannie AI™, a suite of AI-powered agents embedded within FranConnect’s platform. These agents leverage multiple generative large language models to provide contextually specific insights, content and automation trained on FranConnect’s deep understanding of multi-location businesses.

Frannie AI acts as a smart, reliable partner for teams in sales, operations, finance, and training, including three types of agents—

Analyzer surfaces personalized insights by user roles and recommends additional prompts for the user to explore what will drive more actionable insights across the business.Builder autonomously generates content, such as tailored emails, targeted campaigns and workflows, and more salient visit summaries to be shared and distributed cross-functionally; and,Automator identifies prescriptive actions that brands can take to optimize performance outcomes, such as suggesting the optimal engagement method to close a new franchisee, recommending locations to be visited, and custom coaching plans for owners, among many other actions.

“Franchises and multi-location businesses manage hundreds of variables across development, operations, and complex ownership structures, that have consequential outcomes. Generative AI comes at a critical time for our customers who must navigate ever-changing markets and competing constraints while delivering growth to shareholders and exceptional products to consumers,” said Gabby Wong, CEO of FranConnect. “We have spent the better part of the last two years thinking through how we can leverage AI to help our customers fundamentally transform their businesses. Frannie AI simplifies the complexity of running a multi-location business by surfacing what truly matters—whether it’s pinpointing your next high-performing location or identifying unit-level challenges before they impact revenue and autonomously recommending actions that will improve business results.”

“We are lucky to have some of the best minds in the industry focused on AI. Last year, we carved out a team of analysts, engineers and AI specialists to focus on innovating with AI, both for our internal operations and for our end-market. Frannie AI is one of the successful projects arising out of this initiative and we are thrilled to announce its launch,” said Wong.

“General purpose generative AI models by themselves cannot replicate what FranConnect delivers,” said Jaffrey Ali, CPO and Head of Innovation at FranConnect. “Frannie AI is architected on a proprietary franchise data model refined through years of deep domain training and based on the breadth of our reach in the market. This enables a level of system-wide intelligence that we are uniquely positioned to provide.”

In the future, Frannie AI will have the capability to be a completely automatous set of agents that can analyze, build and execute key business actions to drive improved productivity and scale for multi-location businesses.

Frannie AI is now available as a subscription for any FranConnect customer. To learn more about this exciting solution and how it can revolutionize your business, visit frannieai.com or contact your account manager.

See Frannie AI in Action 

Experience Frannie AI firsthand at the International Franchise Association (IFA) Annual Convention in Las Vegas, February 10–13, 2025. Join FranConnect for a live demonstration and discover how Frannie AI is reshaping the future of franchise and multi-location management.

About FranConnect  

FranConnect is the leading enterprise software provider for franchise and multi-location businesses. For over 20 years, the FranConnect platform has served as the backbone for sales, operations, and marketing for over 1,500 brands and one million locations worldwide. Iconic brands such as SPARC/Authentic Brands (Forever 21), Tropical Smoothie Café, Authority Brands, and Papa John’s rely on FranConnect to expand locations, streamline unit operations, enhance collaboration, and improve profitability. Backed by private equity investor Serent Capital, FranConnect is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with global offices in Australia, India, Colombia, and Canada. For more information, visit www.franconnect.com.

Media Contact:
Lorena Garcia
SVP of Marketing
Lorena.garcia@franconnect.com
571-659-3830

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SOURCE FranConnect

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CM Global Services Announces Project Santos, a Planned 50-Megawatt AI Data Center Campus in ERCOT South

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CM Global Services targets a site and engages with strategic partners to become operational in the AI data center space.

DENVER, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CM Global Services, LLC (CMGS) today announced Project Santos, its plan to develop a 50-megawatt AI data center campus for a site in the ERCOT South grid zone. CMGS is a long-standing strategic partner of Compass Mining, Inc. and is a global provider of logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services, with a growing focus on AI infrastructure and building site development. The announcement was made by Shanon Squires, Chief Mining Officer of Compass Mining, during a panel on bitcoin mining companies diversifying into AI infrastructure at the Energy Investors Forum.

CMGS intends to deliver Project Santos in two phases. The first phase, a 7-megawatt, 5 MW of IT Load Tier III facility purpose-built for AI inference workloads, is targeted for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2027. A subsequent 43-megawatt expansion, bringing the site to its fully planned 50-megawatt capacity

“This is a disciplined next step for CM Global Services, drawing upon its expertise in standing up infrastructure, while Compass Mining simultaneously continues to be the gold standard in Bitcoin mining-related services,” said Shanon Squires. “Bitcoin mining remains the core of Compass Mining. CMGS’ Project Santos reflects the power infrastructure and site development discipline CMGS built over years, and we’re pursuing this initiative on our own terms.”

“This is a new step forward for CMGS, as we continue building for the future,” said Vishnu Mackenchery, Managing Director at CMGS. “Project Santos marks our entry into AI infrastructure and inference, and we’re charting our own path, moving fast to get there.”

GPU-as-a-Service for Enterprise and Neocloud Customers

Project Santos is being developed as a GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) platform. Rather than requiring customers to bring their own hardware, CMGS is securing NVIDIA GB300 Blackwell GPU capacity to offer directly to off-takers as dedicated, single-tenant or multi-tenant compute. The company’s ideal customer profile is AI enterprise organizations seeking dedicated capacity, and CMGS is also in active discussions with neocloud providers.

Project Status

Site: located in the ERCOT South grid zoneCompute: CMGS is securing NVIDIA GB300 Blackwell GPU capacity to offer as GPU-as-a-Service to off-takersTotal planned capacity: 50 megawatts, 35 MW of IT to be delivered in two phasesPhase 1: 7 megawatts, 5 MW of IT load Tier III, targeted for completion by end of Q1Phase 2: adding a 43-megawatt expansion, 30 MW of IT load with utility-supported expansionCustomer profile: AI enterprise companies are the ideal customer; CMGS is also in active discussions with neocloud providers

About CMGS

CM Global Services (CMGS) is a global provider of logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services, with a growing focus on AI infrastructure and building site development. CMGS supports clients with end-to-end logistics solutions, hardware procurement, and site-level execution for next-generation compute infrastructure.

About CMGS and Compass Mining Partnership

Compass Mining serves as a strategic partner and advisor to CM Global Services (CMGS), supporting its growth across global logistics, hardware sales, and infrastructure services. As CMGS expands its focus into AI infrastructure and site development, Compass Mining’s guidance helps shape its strategic direction and execution. Together, the two organizations continue to collaborate on delivering end-to-end solutions for clients building next-generation compute infrastructure.

Disclaimer

This communication contains forward-looking statements relating to a potential closing of a transaction. There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will be completed on the terms described, or at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities of the company. Furthermore, investing in or engaging with our company involves substantial risk, and past performance or previous communications are not indicative of future results. There is no guarantee, assurance, or warranty that any specific financial outcome, return on investment, or overall results will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed, projected, or implied in any forward-looking statements. Investors and stakeholders should not rely solely on preliminary press releases regarding potential transactions or projected financial metrics when making investment decisions. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Prospective investors are strongly encouraged to conduct their own independent due diligence and consult with a qualified, independent financial or legal advisor prior to making any investment.

Contact
All inquiries can be made to: Santos@CMGlobalServices.io 

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SOURCE CM Global Services

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Advantech Unveils Next-Gen AI Infrastructure Solutions Powered by AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series Processors

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TAIPEI, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Advantech, a global leader in industrial edge computing and edge AI solutions, today announced its next-generation server and network platforms powered by the latest AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series processors. Designed to accelerate AI infrastructure from the data center to the intelligent edge, Advantech’s 6th Gen AMD EPYC-powered servers deliver the performance, scalability, and reliability organizations need for AI, HPC, storage, networking, and mission-critical industrial workloads.

At AMD Advancing AI 2026, Advantech will showcase its latest 2U 4-node edge server and EATX server board, demonstrating how its workload-ready server solutions enable customers to build scalable, high-performance AI and edge computing infrastructure with greater deployment confidence.

Continuing Performance Leadership with AMD EPYC 9006 Series Processors

6th Gen AMD EPYC server CPUs bring continued leadership in performance, efficiency, memory bandwidth, and next-generation I/O. Featuring up to 128 cores and 256 threads, advanced 2nm process technology, “Zen 6” and “Zen 6c” architecture, up to 20% average generational performance uplift, and up to 20% performance-per-watt improvement, AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors are designed to support more virtual machines, higher throughput, and better system efficiency. With up to 128 PCIe Gen6 lanes per CPU, CXL™ 3.1 memory expansion, and support for DDR5 8000NHz and MRDIMM 12800MHz for high memory bandwidth, Advantech edge server solutions deliver balanced compute, memory, and I/O performance for next-generation AI, telco, edge, and storage infrastructure.

Key Features Include:

Up to 128 cores / 256 threads with “Zen 6” and “Zen 6c” architectureAdvanced 2nm process technology for improved performance and efficiencyUp to 20% average generational performance uplift and 20% performance-per-watt improvementDDR5-8000 and MRDIMM 12.8G support for higher memory bandwidth and capacityPCIe® Gen6 scalability: up to 128 lanes for 1 CPU and up to 196 lanes for 2 CPUsCXL™ 3.1 support for optimized memory expansion

Comprehensive Edge Server Solutions from Edge to Cloud

Advantech’s edge server portfolio powered by AMD EPYC™ 9006 Series processors delivers a complete board-to-system lineup for AI infrastructure, data centers, cloud, HCI, HPC, edge computing, industrial applications, and high-performance networking. The first-wave portfolio includes:
(1) The SKY-642E5, 4U MGX GPU server, for large-scale AI acceleration
(2) The SKY-722E5, 2U DC-MHS server with DC-SCM support, for modular data center and edge AI deployments
(3) The SKY-712E5, 1U DC-MHS server, supporting HHHL and FH-3/4L expansion cards for high-density enterprise edge and cloud workloads
(4) The SKY-822E5, 2U short-depth DC-SCM modular server, supporting 2–3 dual-slot GPU cards for space-constrained edge data centers
(5) The SKY-924E5F, 2U 4-node front-access server, for distributed edge computing,
(6) The ASMB-982 & ASMB-832 server boards for flexible, high-expandability system designs.

These new platforms also support PCIe Gen6 scalability, GPU-optimized architecture, advanced DDR5/MRDIMM memory, and AFA-ready high-density E1.S/E3.S NVMe SSD storage to meet low-latency data access, high-throughput storage performance, and scalable infrastructure for data-intensive AI and edge-cloud workloads.

Expanding the portfolio further, Advantech also introduces the FWA-6084, the 2U network appliance and is designed for demanding network security and edge AI workloads. It features DDR5/MRDIMM memory capability, eight Gen6 network module cards, and one PCIe Gen5 x16 slot for GPU or add-on card expansion. It is well positioned to support line-speed multiple 200G network workloads without compromise.

Together with Advantech’s unique service advantages—including 3-5-10 service guarantee, strict revision control, stable component supply, worldwide local support, and custom-ready integration—the new portfolio supports customers reduce deployment risk, secure long-term product roadmaps, and accelerate workload-ready AI and edge-cloud infrastructure from concept to deployment.

Explore more product information, please contact us or visit the Advantech x AMD website.

About Advantech

Advantech is a global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms, driven by its vision of “Enabling an Intelligent Planet.” To address the growth of edge computing and AI, Advantech focuses on five key markets: Edge Intelligence Systems, Manufacturing, Energy and Utilities, iHealthcare, and iCity Services & iRetail. By integrating edge computing hardware, WISE-IoT software, sector-specific AI solutions, and domain expertise, Advantech creates an orchestration model that connects industrial ecosystems and accelerates industrial intelligence with partners and customers.(www.advantech.com

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SOURCE Advantech Co., Ltd.

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MulticoreWare and AMD Collaborate to Advance Physical AI and Autonomous Robotics on AMD Platforms

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Companies Demonstrated Real-Time Multimodal AI and Vision-Language-Action Workflows on AMD Ryzen™ AI Platforms at AMD Advancing AI 2026

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — MulticoreWare, Inc., a global technology company specializing in AI software solutions, physical AI, accelerated computing, and engineering services, today announced its ongoing collaboration with AMD to advance autonomous robotics and edge intelligence on AMD platforms.

As part of this collaboration, MulticoreWare joined AMD at AMD Advancing AI 2026 to present ‘Enabling Physical AI on AMD’, demonstrating how advanced vision, language, and action (VLA) models can drive real-time robotic intelligence on AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded platforms.

As AI increasingly moves from the cloud into robots, autonomous systems, and intelligent edge devices, organizations need efficient ways to run sophisticated AI models closer to where decisions need to be made. Together, AMD and MulticoreWare are helping developers bring advanced perception, reasoning, and action capabilities to AMD-powered systems.

At AMD Advancing AI 2026, AMD and MulticoreWare demonstrated how multimodal VLA models run on AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded integrated GPUs using AMD ROCm™, enabling robots to perceive, reason, and act in real time. The session showcased practical guidance for AI developers, robotics engineers, and innovators building next-generation intelligent machines on AMD Embedded platforms.

“Physical AI is reshaping how machines perceive, decide and act in the real world,” said Sumit Shah, Head of Product Management and Marketing, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “AMD Ryzen™ AI Embedded X100 Series processors deliver a scalable, open x86 Embedded platform that unifies AI, real-time control and industrial reliability to enable the generation of autonomous systems without locking developers into a single compute architecture or software stack.”

“A Physical AI system depends on a tightly integrated loop between perception and actuation. It must operate in real time, on real hardware, and in environments that are inherently unpredictable,” said Vish Rajalingam, VP & GM, Mobility and Transportation BU at MulticoreWare. “That makes it a hardware-software co-design challenge, not simply an AI inference problem. Building on the open-source AMD Robotics Software Suite, we work closely with OEMs to optimize the entire stack so that latency, reliability and accuracy targets are consistently achieved in production environments. That’s the integration MulticoreWare and AMD deliver together to move intelligent robotic systems from prototype to deployment.”

This session builds on more than 15 years of collaboration, with MulticoreWare delivering software optimization, AI, and engineering expertise across the AMD ecosystem, including Ryzen™ AI, Ryzen™, AMD EPYC™, AMD Instinct™, AMD Radeon™, and adaptive computing technologies.

About MulticoreWare

MulticoreWare, Inc. is a global technology company delivering AI software solutions and engineering services that accelerate innovation in Physical AI, Agentic AI, Robotics, Edge Intelligence, and Accelerated Computing. With expertise in multimodal AI, Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, sensor perception and fusion, AI optimization, embedded systems, and high-performance software, MulticoreWare helps customers transform advanced AI technologies into production-ready solutions. Its innovations power applications across automotive, robotics, industrial automation, smart cities, healthcare, defense, and intelligent edge devices, while its video codec technologies enable next-generation video experiences worldwide.
www.multicorewareinc.com

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, EPYC, Instinct, Radeon, Ryzen and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Contact:
Suchithra Thyagarajan
VP – Corporate Marketing
marcom@multicorewareinc.com 

 

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SOURCE MulticoreWare Inc.

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