News
New Merger Creates Middle East’s Biggest Telecom Company
Saudi Arabia’s PIF and stc Group have combined resources, in a move that will significantly boost network coverage and customer experience.
Saudi Arabian wealth fund PIF has agreed to purchase a 51% stake in Tawal, the country’s biggest telecommunications infrastructure company, with an enterprise value of $5.85 billion. The stake was formerly owned by the Saudi Telecommunications Company (stc Group).
PIF and stc Group will now merge Tawal and Golden Lattice Investment Company (GLIC) into a new entity, forming the “largest regional company in the telecommunication infrastructure sector” with over 30,000 mobile tower sites and annual revenues surpassing $1.3 billion.
The new company will be owned 54% by PIF and 43.1% by stc Group, with GLIC minority shareholders owning the rest of the issued share capital.
Raid Ismail, Head of MENA Direct Investments at PIF said: “Today’s announcement is a significant milestone for the telecommunications industry in Saudi Arabia and the wider region. By bringing together the assets of GLIC and TAWAL, we will establish a consolidated platform on which the telecommunications sector can flourish and give people a better experience to best connect communities and businesses. It is also in line with PIF’s strategy and the Saudi Vision 2030”.
Also Read: Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion In Abu Dhabi AI Tech Firm G42
Combining Tawal and GLIC is seen as a positive stepping-stone to consolidating Saudi Arabia’s tower market and increasing operating efficiencies and excellence to deliver a better experience for customers.
Once operational, network coverage should see a welcome boost, while general connectivity and internet speeds will also be improved.
The merger follows Tawal’s purchase of infrastructure in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia, making this “Saudi national champion” the region’s biggest independent tower company.
News
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.
Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.
Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.
Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.
Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.
Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide
To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.
While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.
Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.
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