Category: 3. Business

[Barcelona, Spain, March 2, 2026] During MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei launched next-generation voice virtual agents for its Artificial Intelligence Contact Center (AICC) with hyper-human voice interaction capabilities. It aims to provide more efficient and intelligent customer service experiences for industries including carriers, finance, government, and transportation etc., improving the self-service resolution rate by 20%.

With the rapid evolution of large language models, enterprises have higher requirements for optimizing customer experience, improving operational efficiency, and achieving intelligent upgrades. Huawei AICC continuously innovates, building a next-generation of voice virtual agent solution centered on

“domain-specific models + intelligent agents” to enable virtual agents with “Conversational Intelligence, Task-Oriented Intelligence, Operational Agility”. This solution features three key capabilities:

• Conversational Intelligence: Powered by large language models fine-tuned for the customer service scenarios, these virtual agents learn from the best practices of top-performing customer service representatives. They generate hyper-human responses in real-time using TTS (Text-to-Speech), with a voice quality that closely mimics human intonation and tone. The immersive intelligent interruption and intelligent response capabilities create a smoother human-machine interaction, with a user experience MOS (Mean Opinion Score) exceeding 4.5, reaching an excellent level.
• Task-Oriented Intelligence: Based on domain-specific large models and Huawei’s self-developed CAE (Conversational Agent Engine), these virtual agents provide high business process compliance, precise intent recognition, tool invocation, and secure, controllable multi-turn dialogue capabilities for complex tasks. This enables the virtual agents to move beyond simple “chatting” and achieve true end-to-end “closed-loop” problem resolution for users.
• Operational Agility: Through visualized and no-code SOP（Standard Operating Procedure） orchestration, these virtual agents support low-barrier business operations. AI-assisted SOP process mining and continuous accumulation facilitate the rapid rollout of new scenarios and efficient operations and maintenance (with a TTM of less than two weeks). The performance of business processes can be monitored, and online application optimization can be done with a “what you see is what you get” approach.

The launch of this next-generation of voice virtual agents marks a significant upgrade in contact centers, transitioning from a single semantic interaction to an end-to-end closed-loop. By deeply integrating domain-specific large models with agent technology, this innovation achieves a human-like leap in interaction experience. Additionally, the agile SOP operational system effectively breaks down the barriers between technology and business. This is not only a quantitative improvement in customer service efficiency but also a qualitative transformation toward “delivering definitive value” as enterprises advance their digital transformation. Moving forward, Huawei will continue collaborating with global customers and partners to expedite the seamless integration of AI technologies into industry scenarios. This will empower contact centers to enhance customer experiences, boost operational efficiency, and drive revenue growth.

MWC Barcelona 2026 will be held from March 2 to March 5 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.

The era of agentic networks is now approaching fast, and the commercial adoption of 5G-A at scale is gaining speed. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to unleash the full potential of 5G-A and pave the way for the evolution to 6G. We are also creating AI-Centric Network solutions to enable intelligent services, networks, and network elements (NEs), speeding up the large-scale deployment of level-4 autonomous networks (AN L4), and using AI to upgrade our core business. Together with other industry players, we will create leading value-driven networks and AI computing backbones for a fully intelligent future.

For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/minisite/events/mwc2026/ 

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US liquefied natural gas exporters are racing to capitalise on a 50 per cent price surge in European and Asian markets triggered by the conflict in Iran, which knocked out supplies from LNG powerhouse Qatar.

Venture Global and Cheniere Energy, two of the largest US producers, are seeking to squeeze additional LNG volumes from facilities in Texas and Louisiana and bring more capacity online as consumers from the UK to Japan brace for supply shortages.

Traders and other buyers of US LNG — once described by the Trump administration as “freedom molecules” — are also rerouting their cargoes to take advantage of skyrocketing prices as customers battle for supplies.

“With the largest available incremental LNG capacity in the world the United States will play a critical role during this historic disruption in the market. Venture Global stands ready to help keep the markets stabilised and supplied,” Mike Sabel, chief executive of Venture Global, told investors on Monday.  

Analysts have warned that the loss of Qatari LNG could trigger a severe new energy crisis, just four years after the loss of Russian gas supplies spiked European prices and hammered the continent’s economy until American gas began arriving.

Venture Global shares closed up almost 20 per cent on Monday while Cheniere closed up 5.6 per cent, as investors bet the two giant LNG exporters would benefit from the surge in spot prices.  

The Center for LNG, an industry lobby group, said US providers contracted on a “free-on-board” basis, which meant traders were able to redirect US cargos after purchase to provide much greater flexibility in a crisis.   

“US LNG destination flexibility allows exporters and their customers to redirect cargoes when geopolitical tensions arise,” said executive director Charlie Riedl. “That said, no single supplier can immediately substitute for another at scale.”

The crisis was sparked when an Iranian drone attack forced QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan LNG plant to shut down. It produces about a fifth of global supplies. The company has not provided an update on damage to the facility or when it can resume production.

LNG from Qatar and the UAE also flows to global markets through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran moved to shut in response to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Natural gas prices in Europe settled 39 per cent higher at €44.51 a megawatt-hour, which is the highest in about a year. UK natural gas prices settled up 45 per cent at 113.79 pence a therm.

In contrast, US natural gas prices settled up just 3.5 per cent at $2.96 per million British thermal units.

The US surpassed Qatar and Australia as the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2023 and last year shipped more than 100mn metric tonnes overseas. Several new plants are under construction but will not begin operating for months or years.

Golden Pass, a massive new facility on the Gulf coast in Texas, backed by ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy, should begin producing LNG within weeks. But it will take months to reach full capacity.

Analysts said US producers would be unable to compensate for a long shortfall in Middle Eastern supplies.

“Nothing can make up for the loss of Qatari LNG,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee, an investment bank.

“If the shutdown is prolonged, or worse the LNG infrastructure is damaged, it portends a larger gas market shock than in 2022 when Russia turned off pipeline gas to Europe. Gas prices could retest their record highs set in 2022.”

Scott Shelton, energy specialist at TP ICAP, an interdealer broker, said the US didn’t have enough spare capacity to contain a price surge.

“Whatever we can put on a boat we are going to send,” he said. But “even if prices go up 100 per cent from here, we are still limited.”

Venture Global sells just over 30 per cent of its LNG cargoes at spot prices, compared with less than 10 per cent for Cheniere, which helps explain the bigger rally in its share price on Monday.

But traders with free-on-board cargoes they could sell into the markets would also reap a fortune, analysts said.

“The commodity traders with US supply, the trading arms of Cheniere and Venture Global and anyone who has purchased US LNG and can trade those cargoes on international markets will benefit,” said Alex Munton, analyst at Rapidan Energy Group.

“They can now sell on those cargos at 50 per cent higher prices.”

 [Barcelona, Spain, March 2, 2026] At Huawei Product & Solution Launch during MWC Barcelona 2026, George Gao, President of Huawei Cloud Core Network Product Line, unveiled the AgenticCore solution. Designed for AI-centric networks in the agent era, AgenticCore helps operators modernize and strengthen their main services—voice, mobile Internet, and home broadband—and accelerate the evolution toward an agent network featuring terminal-network-business synergy.

As agent capabilities rapidly expand across terminals and applications, AI is driving the upgrade of operators’ essential services to better meet the differentiated, personalized experience requirements of individuals, families, and enterprises.

AgenticCore supports this transformation by introducing a more intelligent, user-centric service model. It builds user-centric memory, and interprets both B2C and B2H service intent. This helps operators enrich user experience. Looking ahead to a future with hundreds of billions of interconnected agents, AgenticCore provides skill-based routing to ensure efficient agent communication, while strengthening service awareness and agent connectivity to support an agent network with terminal-network-business synergy.

“Huawei is committed to supporting operators in their service transformation,” said George Gao. “AgenticCore provides three service-enabling solutions, two terminal-network-business synergy capabilities, and one intelligent infrastructure for efficient cross-domain and cross-ecosystem collaboration between agents.”

Three Service-Enabling Solutions to Reshape Operators’ Main Services

• AI Calling is the industry’s first AI noise cancellation solution for all generations of mobile communication in all scenarios, making every call crystal-clear. It enables interactive calls to eliminate speech communication barriers and handle multiple tasks through just one call.
• The Intelligent Personalized Experience (IPE) solution differentiates experiences by user or service. This helps operators pivot from traffic monetization to experience monetization.
• The AI home hub provides proactive, emotional services. It can deliver emotional support for the elderly, and smart learning assistance for children.

Two Terminal-Network-Business Synergy Capabilities to Enhance Service Experience

• Artificial Intelligence Service Function (AISF): provides user-centric service agents to integrate B2C and B2H services. This helps operators improve their primary service experience.
• Agent Communication Network (ACN): The agent-based routing architecture enables terminal-network-business synergy across various domains and ecosystems. This allows operators to flexibly expand AI services and develop robust network services based on this architecture.

Intelligent Infrastructure Ready in Advance, Facilitating Smooth Network Evolution

The intelligent infrastructure gets ready in advance, offering diverse computing power, terabit-level inference bandwidth, and agent-based autonomous troubleshooting. It lays a solid foundation for AgenticCore evolution.

George Gao stated that AgenticCore embodies the pivot towards future agent communication networks. Huawei will collaborate with operators and industry partners to help operators reshape their main services, and accelerate the evolution to terminal-network-business synergy with AI service enablement, agent communication, and ready intelligent infrastructure.

MWC Barcelona 2026 will be held from March 2 to March 5 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.

The era of agentic networks is now approaching fast, and the commercial adoption of 5G-A at scale is gaining speed. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to unleash the full potential of 5G-A and pave the way for the evolution to 6G. We are also creating AI-Centric Network solutions to enable intelligent services, networks, and network elements (NEs), speeding up the large-scale deployment of level-4 autonomous networks (AN L4), and using AI to upgrade our core business. Together with other industry players, we will create leading value-driven networks and AI computing backbones for a fully intelligent future.

For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/minisite/events/mwc2026/ 

Following the recent attacks on the energy infrastructure in the Middle East, the Secretary General of the International Gas Union, Mr Menelaos (Mel) Ydreos, would like to make the following statement: 

“The International Gas Union remains deeply concerned about the targeting of energy infrastructure. This infrastructure is essential not only to public safety and security but, also, to regional and global economic activity.

Continued investments in energy infrastructure and diversity of energy supply are critically needed to mitigate market shocks.“

[Barcelona, Spain, March 2, 2026] At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei’s President of the Computing Product Line, Seaway Zhang, unveiled the latest SuperPoD product Atlas 950 SuperPoD, TaiShan 950 SuperPoD and a series of computing solutions, marking their first global debut.

With an innovative “cluster + SuperPoD” architecture, Huawei is delivering a resilient computing foundation, powered by an open and collaborative ecosystem. This foundation will empower carriers to accelerate their transition from the mobile internet to the internet of agents, while driving intelligent transformation across every industry.

AI is rapidly evolving from generative to agentic AI, with trillion-parameter models and 10-trillion-scale data training becoming the norm—driving a ten to hundredfold increase in compute demand. Context lengths have expanded from thousands to millions of tokens, demanding greater scale and lower latency in compute infrastructure.

At the conference, Mr. Zhang highlighted Huawei’s commitment to building a resilient computing foundation through innovation and create a new option for the world. He noted that the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, powered by UnifiedBus interconnect, enables thousands of compute nodes to operate as a single computer. Huawei also remains committed to open source and open systems, supporting leading open source communities and projects to empower developers to unlock computing potential and accelerate AI innovation.

Huawei’s latest computing portfolio, including Atlas 950 SuperPoD, Atlas 850E, TaiShan 950 SuperPoD, and TaiShan 500, TaiShan 200 series, addresses diverse carrier compute demands, accelerating AI transformation.

For AI computing, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, powered by UnifiedBus, integrates 64 NPUs per cabinet and can scale up to 8,192 NPUs, delivering superior performance for large-scale AI training and high-concurrency inference. It significantly boosts model training efficiency, reliability, and inference performance compared to conventional clusters.

The Atlas 850E supports flexible deployment in standard air-cooled data centers, scaling from 8 to 1,024 NPUs. This enables carriers to smoothly transition from small-scale inference to cluster-level inference, ensuring rapid service deployment and business agility.

In the field of general-purpose computing, Huawei introduces the industry’s first TaiShan 950 SuperPoD, delivering breakthroughs in performance with hundred-ns-level latency, TB-level bandwidth, and memory pooling. Through memory semantics communication, the solution enables efficient cross-node data transfer through load/store operations, addressing key challenges such as high latency, costly data migration, and low coordination efficiency.

Huawei also launched the TaiShan 200 and TaiShan 500 series, spanning high, medium, and low computing power requirements. By integrating with openEuler and BoostKit, these solutions support diverse carrier requirements, driving efficiency and scalability across computing environments.

Huawei is committed to open source and open collaboration to accelerate developer innovation and drive computing industry growth. The company contributes extensively to openEuler, a leading open source OS community. Through layered decoupling, Huawei has open-sourced the CANN—including operator libraries, acceleration libraries, graph engines, and programming languages—enabling developers to customize solutions efficiently. CANN also supports open source projects such as PyTorch, vLLM, SGLang, xLLM, verl, Triton, and TileLang, significantly improving developer productivity.

Huawei will deepen collaboration with customers, partners, and developers to build a resilient computing foundation, accelerate industry transformation, and create a new option for global computing growth.

MWC Barcelona 2026 will be held from March 2 to March 5 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.

The era of agentic networks is now approaching fast, and the commercial adoption of 5G-A at scale is gaining speed. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to unleash the full potential of 5G-A and pave the way for the evolution to 6G. We are also creating AI-Centric Network solutions to enable intelligent services, networks, and network elements (NEs), speeding up the large-scale deployment of level-4 autonomous networks (AN L4), and using AI to upgrade our core business. Together with other industry players, we will create leading value-driven networks and AI computing backbones for a fully intelligent future.

For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2026

Amazon closed its fulfillment center operations in Abu Dhabi and suspended deliveries across the region, as the company responds to escalating instability that is rippling across its Middle East network.

The e-commerce giant shared the updates in an internal memo this week, which was seen by Business Insider. As a result, customers in the region are experiencing delivery and return delays, the memo said.

Amazon employees in Saudi Arabia and Jordan have been instructed to remain indoors, the memo added. Many Amazon employees across the region are transitioning to work from home this week, while business travel to Israel and Lebanon has been blocked.

No employee safety issues have been reported so far, the memo said.

“Our priority is the safety of our employees and partners across the region, and we’re working closely with our local teams to ensure they have the support they need,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to Business Insider.

The disruption highlights how quickly geopolitical tensions can strain global supply chains. Amazon has spent years expanding its logistics footprint in the Middle East, after acquiring Souq.com for roughly $600 million in 2017. The UAE anchors that network, which also includes Amazon marketplaces in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey.

The shutdown in Abu Dhabi is expected to reduce network capacity across Amazon’s Middle Eastern businesses, according to the memo. The company has placed additional operational support on standby as it manages disruptions and monitors the situation.

The impact extends well beyond Amazon’s own warehouses. Nearly 300,000 third-party sellers in the region are facing shipment delays and potential order cancellations as logistics channels tighten, according to the memo. Many of these sellers rely on Amazon’s fulfillment and cross-border shipping infrastructure to move goods between Gulf countries.

Amazon did not specify how long deliveries in Abu Dhabi would remain suspended.

The US-Iran conflict in the region has also caused a power outage at one of Amazon’s data centers, the company announced on Sunday. Amazon said it could take at least a day to repair the damage.

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[Barcelona, Spain, March 2, 2026] Huawei launched its AN L4 Phase 2 solution today at the Autonomous Networks Summit co-hosted with TM Forum as part of this year’s MWC Barcelona 2026 activities. The event, themed “Collaborating to Accelerate AN L4 Deployment at Scale” was attended by executives from leading telecom carriers, including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Orange, who discussed how the large-scale commercial adoption of autonomous networks will inject new momentum into intelligent transformation across the industry.

The AN industry identified high-value L4 scenarios and an implementation blueprint in 2025, and more breakthroughs in large-scale deployment are expected to be made in 2026. The commercial AN L4 Phase 2 solution is being launched to address bottlenecks in large-scale deployment, such as cross-domain integration and cross-scenario coordination. Huawei’s new solution makes breakthroughs in three areas.

Foundational network element (NE) awareness for network autonomy: At the NE layer, the solution has enhanced millisecond-level awareness and decision-making capabilities to provide stable and reliable data and execution support for complex collaboration.

AI agent collaboration for domain-specific autonomy: At the network layer, the solution creates domain-specific network agents to coordinate and plan tasks in different scenarios across the domain, such as fault management, energy efficiency optimization, and experience assurance. This enables the evolution from scenario-specific automation to network autonomy.

A2A-T protocol for cross-layer, cross-domain integration: To support complex agent collaboration across the network layer, services layer, and even different equipment suppliers, the solution has introduced A2A-T, the world’s first carrier-grade AI agent communication protocol. Huawei and China Mobile also announced an A2A-T open-source software program to accelerate the protocol’s global adoption and application.

At the summit, a number of AN industry players shared their own best practices, and China Mobile also launched new AN L4 innovations. The launch was attended by representatives from several companies that supported these innovation projects, among them Cao Ming, Huawei’s ICT BG COO and CIO.

A recommitment ceremony titled “Accelerating Large-Scale AN L4 Deployment” was also held at the summit, with industry leaders including TM Forum, China Mobile, Orange, Telefónica, Huawei, Infovista and Inspur reaffirming their commitment to accelerating the implementation of the AN L4 industry blueprint and driving a transition for AN L4 from innovation pilots to global commercial adoption.

Huawei believes that the large-scale commercial adoption of AN L4 will be key to intelligent upgrade across industry, so the company plans to continue working with industry partners to achieve this goal faster and move towards an era of agentic networks.

MWC Barcelona 2026 will be held from March 2 to March 5 in Barcelona, Spain. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1.

The era of agentic networks is now approaching fast, and the commercial adoption of 5G-A at scale is gaining speed. Huawei is actively working with carriers and partners around the world to unleash the full potential of 5G-A and pave the way for the evolution to 6G. We are also creating AI-Centric Network solutions to enable intelligent services, networks, and network elements (NEs), speeding up the large-scale deployment of level-4 autonomous networks (AN L4), and using AI to upgrade our core business. Together with other industry players, we will create leading value-driven networks and AI computing backbones for a fully intelligent future.

For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/minisite/events/mwc2026/