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)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who as ruler of Qatar transformed the tiny Persian Gulf nation into a global player in diplomacy, media and investment, and then shattered tradition by voluntarily turning over power to his son, has died, state media reported. He was 74.
The state-run Qatar News Agency reported his death. It offered no cause.
Sheikh Hamad, who stepped down in June 2013 after 18 years as emir, was the architect of energy-rich Qatar’s stunning ambitions that turned it from a backwater into an international crossroads in less than a generation. Qatar owns the Harrod’s department store in London and founded the powerful Al Jazeera satellite news network.
Qatar’s political reach today stretches from North Africa to Afghanistan and it hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched soccer event. Sheikh Hamad, though long out of power, received thunderous applause from Qataris attending its opening match.
But Qatar’s rise under Sheikh Hamad also rankled regional and Western allies with its independent-minded policymaking, including its close ties to Shiite powerhouse Iran, the Palestinian militant Hamas group and Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera’s blunt reporting, though a much-praised departure from the traditionally deferential habits of Arab media, also was criticized and accused of slanting coverage to suit the views of Qatar’s rulers.
“The future lies ahead of you, the children of this homeland, as you usher into a new era where young leadership hoists the banner,” Sheikh Hamad said as he announced his abdication and the carefully crafted transition to his son, the British-educated crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was then 33.
The peaceful, voluntary transfer of power was rare in a region where such change usually results from death or overthrow. Sheikh Hamad himself seized control after deposing his father, Sheikh Khalifa, in a bloodless palace coup in 1995.
His abdication was seen as Qatar’s attempt to stay ahead of Arab Spring-inspired calls for reforms and leadership more attuned to the region’s large and powerful young population. Qatar, a peninsula half the size of New Jersey, is believed to have around 300,000 citizens.
At the time, Sheikh Hamad also was thought to have been in poor health for years. In December 2015, Qatari officials said he was flown to Switzerland for surgery after breaking a leg while on holiday.
Sheikh Hamad attended Britain’s military academy, Sandhurst, and became commander of Qatar’s armed forces and defense minister. He was named crown prince in the late 1970s and gradually broadened his duties to include planning for Qatar’s vast oil and gas reserves.
After seizing power from his father, who then lived in exile for nearly a decade, Sheikh Hamad quickly moved to open an inward-looking nation to outside influences, epitomized by Al Jazeera, which became a major force in global media.
Its reporting not only angered other Arab leaders, sometimes to the point of diplomatic rupture, it also riled Washington. Al Jazeera aired statements from the terror network al-Qaida, even as Qatar hosted one of the key Pentagon logistical hubs following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sheikh Hamad, meanwhile, aggressively sought international prestige through sports, an effort crowned by Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup, though marred by accusations that it used its huge wealth to woo poor countries’ support.
Qatar’s brand is also prominent across the sporting world from sponsorship deals with the Spanish football giant Barcelona to a majority stake in the football club Paris Saint-Germain.
Sheikh Hamad also pushed Qatar Airways to expand into a major international carrier, trying to rival neighboring carrier Emirates. The country’s international airport in Doha, Qatar’s capital, which cost at least $15 billion to construct, also bears his name.
Sheikh Hamad had wide-ranging visions for Qatar’s role as a diplomatic broker. Over the years, its mediation was brought to bear on the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, Lebanese factional feuding and the rift between the Palestinians’ Hamas and Fatah factions.
In October 2012, Sheikh Hamad became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control five years previously, promising a total of $400 million in projects and investments. During the visit, Gaza radio stations played a song entitled “Thank you, Qatar.”
Qatar also reached out to Hamas’ main foe, Israel. Sheikh Hamad met in 2007 with Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, at the United Nations General Assembly. Qatar allowed an Israeli trade office to operate in Doha until it was ordered closed in response to Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008.
While neighboring Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, Qatar maintained its distance. Israelis at the World Cup also faced a multitude of Palestinian flags and anger over its occupation of lands Palestinians claim for their future state.
During the Arab Spring, Qatar sent warplanes to the NATO-led missions in Libya against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and provided key military and financial aid to the successful Libyan rebels. In Syria, Qatar was a main political sponsor of the opposition to then-President Bashar Assad and led calls to increase the flow of weapons to the Syrian rebels.
However, its backing of Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood has caused rifts with other nations in the region. Those tensions culminated under Sheikh Tamim, when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a yearslong boycott of Qatar, in part over the policies of his father that continued during his rule.
In one of the last initiatives before Sheikh Hamad’s abdication, Qatar formally opened an office for Afghanistan’s Taliban, which set the stage for talks between the United States and the Taliban that ultimately led to NATO and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
FILE - Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, holds the World Cup trophy after the announcement of Qatar hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup in Zurich, Switzerland, Dec. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
FILE - President Barack Obama shakes hands with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Former Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, center, arrives before the start of the World Cup group A soccer match between Qatar and Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, Nov. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
FILE - Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, holds the World Cup trophy after the announcement of Qatar hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup in Zurich, Switzerland, Dec. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)
