JUNEASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMQURAYYAH IPP GAINS GAS TURBINES ORDER THROUGH GE VERNOVADeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, released an update to its R1 reasoning model early Thursday, stepping up competition with US rivals such as OpenAI.DeepSeek released R1-0528 on the developer platform Hugging Face but has yet to make an official public announcement. It did not publish a model description or comparisons.However, the LiveCodeBench leaderboard, developed by researchers from UC Berkeley, MIT, and Cornell, placed DeepSeek's updated R1 reasoning model just behind OpenAI's o4 mini and o3 reasoning models on code generation, but ahead of xAI's Grok 3 mini and Alibaba's Qwen 3.Bloomberg previously reported the update on Wednesday. It stated that a DeepSeek representative informed a WeChat group that it had completed a "minor trial upgrade" and that users could begin testing it.DeepSeek debunked the notion that US export controls were impeding China's AI advancements earlier this year, when the startup released AI models that were on par or better than industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost.The launch of R1 in January sent tech shares outside China plummeting and called into question the notion that scaling AI requires massive computing power and investment. Since R1's release, Chinese tech titans such as Alibaba and Tencent have released models that claim to outperform DeepSeek's.Google's Gemini has introduced discounted tiers of access, while OpenAI has reduced prices and released an o3 Mini model that uses less computing power.The company is still widely expected to release R2, a follow-up to R1. According to sources, R2 was originally scheduled to be released in May. DeepSeek also released an update to its V3 large language model in March. The Qurayyah Independent Power Plant (QIPP) expansion project has gained an order for five 7H-Class gas turbines from Técnicas Reunidas(TR) and Orascom Construction. This order has been secured by GE Vernova, comprising three 7HA.03 and two 7HA.02 units. The expansion project is a 3GW combined cycle gas-fired power plant in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province.This particular expansion project will benefit Saudi Arabia. This power plant will facilitate the surge of electricity production capacity, which will benefit the country's operational efficiency. This initiative will be aligning with Saudi Arabia's objective of generating electricity from gas up to 50 percent, by 2030.CEO and Middle East and Africa gas power business president, of GE Vernova Europe, Joseph Anis said, "The QiIPP project is evidence of Saudi Arabia's strong belief in the future of gas as it emits less CO2 and other pollutants than oil-fuelled power plants." In March 2025, TR and Orascom Construction collaborated under an equal joint venture to manage the QIPP expansion project, related to engineering, procurement, and construction.Hajr Two Electricity, principle buyer of the expansion project stated, "The QIPP expansion project is very ambitious and we are proud to support its development. We look forward to working with TR, Orascom Construction and GE Vernova to contribute to Saudi Arabia's enhancement of its electricity supply as the kingdom transitions its power generation mix to incorporate more renewable energy in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030 and its sustainability targets."This expansion project has turned out to be a sustainable source for the future growth of the company. CHINA'S DEEPSEEK UNVEILS UPDATE TO ITS R1 REASONING MODELKey Highlights· DeepSeek's R1-0528 update ranks just below OpenAI's o3, surpassing xAI's Grok 3 mini and Alibaba's Qwen 3 on LiveCodeBench.· The R1-0528 update, released on Hugging Face without formal announcement, intensifies competition with U.S. AI leaders.Key Highlights· GE Vernova secures five gas turbines order from TR and Orascom Construction for the QIPP expansion project· This expansion project can facilitate Saudi Arabia's energy goals· Power plant can help in benefiting the country's operational efficiency
< Page 7 | Page 9 >