Telstra and Accenture Launch Silicon Valley Hub to Rapidly Advance Benefits of AI for Telstra Customers and People

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2025--

Telstra and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today launched an AI Silicon Valley hub, a first-of-its-kind innovation facility for Telstra to incubate and accelerate its top priorities.

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As part of the Telstra and Accenture joint venture, which officially kicked off in April, the hub provides direct access to cutting edge technology, top engineering talent and collaboration spaces with ecosystem partners, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Databricks and Microsoft.

The hub will connect with teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Bangalore as part of Accenture Connected Innovation Centers— creating a virtual door where teams can ideate, collaborate, build and test in a secure environment. With top global experts working with the joint venture team, the hub will deliver foundational architecture and solutions that enable Telstra to realize its AI-first ambitions.

Telstra Group Executive for Product and Technology Kim Krogh Andersen said, “Advances in AI technology are happening at incredible speed – we’ve seen the conversation shift from generative AI to include agentic AI in the space of months, and this technology will change the game. To extend our network leadership and reinvent customer experiences, we will take our innovation to the next level by combining our domain expertise with the best AI minds, in the heart of technology advancement, Silicon Valley.”

Across the seven-year joint venture, the AI Silicon Valley hub will accelerate Telstra’s foundational AI architecture that will power AI use cases and unlock business intelligence. It will also drive advanced engineering and applied research and development to fast-track Telstra’s data and AI roadmap. The initial priorities include to:

“Bringing together leading research and engineering talent to innovate and build solutions for our customers and people is exactly what this joint venture is about. With some of the best minds in emerging tech and advanced AI, and an ecosystem of partners, we’re opening up pathways to access global talent to build technology that creates value for our customers and our people, faster,” Krogh Andersen said.

Karthik Narain, group chief executive – Technology and CTO, Accenture, said, “Telstra’s AI strategy is a bold, whole-of-business strategy that sets a new industry standard. Strategic partnerships, like what we have with Telstra, are an important source of competitive advantage for winning in this AI era. They bring out the best out of both organizations. This hub represents a nexus of breakthrough innovations for our teams in Silicon Valley, Australia and India, enabling co-development and learning across the ecosystem.”

About the joint venture

Telstra and Accenture announced a joint venture in January 2025, which commenced in April 2025, to rapidly accelerate Telstra’s data and AI roadmap to further extend its network leadership, improve customer experience, and help its teams operate more efficiently and effectively. Steered by joint global leadership, the JV comprises specialists from Telstra and Accenture’s data and AI teams to build on Telstra’s work creating a world-class data and AI ecosystem, modernizing its data and AI platforms, and embedding responsible AI by design.

About Telstra

Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology company. We offer a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets in Australia, operating the largest mobile and wi-fi networks. Globally, we provide end-to-end solutions including managed network services, global connectivity, cloud, voice, colocation, conferencing and satellite solutions. We have licenses in Asia, Europe and the United States and offer access to more than 2,000 points of presence across the globe. For more information visit www.telstra.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 801,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at accenture.com.

Telstra and Accenture launch AI Silicon Valley hub in Mountain View (Pictured left-to-right: Teresa Tung, Raphael James, Kim Krogh Andersen, Arnab Chakraborty, Karthik Narain, Jay Subrahmonia)

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes and at least one confirmed death, authorities said Monday.

In Redding, a city at the northern end of the Central Valley, one motorist died after calling 911 while trapped in their vehicle as it filled up with water, Mayor Mike Littau posted online Monday. Police said they received numerous calls for drivers stranded in flooded areas.

“Redding police officer swam out into the water, broke the windows and pulled victim to shore. CPR was done but the person did not live,” Littau wrote.

The weather in the coming days could be even more dangerous, he warned.

The National Weather Service expected more rain through the Christmas week as a series of atmospheric rivers was forecast to make its way through Northern California. A large swath of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding areas were under a flood watch through Friday.

The weather pattern was expected to intensify by midweek, which could lead to potential mudslides, rockslides and flooding of creeks and streams, forecasters warned. Up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada and winds could reach 55 mph (90 kph) in high elevations by Wednesday.

Southern California can also expect a soggy Christmas, with heavy rain in the forecast starting Tuesday evening. The National Weather Service urged people to make backup plans for holiday travel.

In Redding and surrounding areas, between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 centimeters and 15.2 centimeters) had fallen by Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.

As of Monday morning, local roads in Redding remained flooded as street crews worked to clear debris and tow out abandoned cars.

Dekoda Cruz waded in knee-deep muddy water to check on a friend's flooded tire business, where the office was littered with a jumble of furniture and bobbing tires.

In the mountain pass area of Donner Summit, firefighters in Truckee extended a ladder to stranded residents at a house along the South Yuba River, the fire department posted online Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.

Earlier this month, stubborn atmospheric rivers that drenched Washington state with nearly 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said. That rainfall was supercharged by warm weather and air plus unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as a tropical cyclone in Indonesia.

Dekoda Cruz works to clear a drain following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A man rides in a pick-up truck bed while salvaging belongings from a flooded storage unit following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Dekoda Cruz walks through the flooded office of Northstate Tire & Wheel following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who's tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)