FEBRUARYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOM PEAK XV BACKS AGRANI LABS IN $8M AI CHIP FUNDING ROUNDAgrani Labs has officially gone public after remaining in stealth mode and disclosed it has raised $8 million in seed financing led by Peak XV Partners.The company is led by industry veterans of Intel and AMD and is devoted to the creation of high-performance AI GPUs in combination with a full-stack software platform to complement the adoption of advanced AI hardware by enterprises.Agrani Labs is working with academic institutions, semiconductor partners and government research organisations to build its product roadmap and ecosystem.The startup will seek to establish India as a reputable international player in high-quality semiconductor design, solving the increasing need of innovation within the country in the field of AI infrastructure.Although the company has presented a set of ambitious hardware and software objectives, the information about fabrication partners, manufacturing, advanced packaging, and memory architecture has remained unshared.These factors will play important roles in defining performance, power efficiency, and scalability especially in an industry that is increasingly being limited by high-bandwidth memory.The entry by Agrani also becomes a chance to software vendors and system integrators to enable the code portability to across AI accelerators as NVIDIA CUDA ecosystem remains to prevail in the market.Agrani Labs plans to minimise the obstacles to adoption and increase next-generation AI compute platforms deployment by creating interoperable tools and performance-optimised stacks. ISLAMABAD TO HOST CENTRAL ASIAN LEADERS FOR KEY SUMMITPakistan's regional diplomatic significance will be enhanced next week with the official visits of the Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; bolster engagement with Central Asian countries.The visits will include Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev from February 3­4 and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev from February 5­6 respectively. Comprehensive agendas have been established for both visits to develop political and economic relationships.Pakistani and Kazakh leaders anticipate that a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed regarding cooperation in the railway sector, which will improve connectivity between the countries and promote cooperative efforts in transportation infrastructure.This agreement will provide a critical opportunity for developing trade and logistics connections between Kazakhstan and Pakistan.With President Mirziyoyev's upcoming visit, the countries are expected to continue to strengthen their political and economic dialogue and will hold a series of high-level discussions aimed at achieving a key economic goal of increasing their mutual annual trade level to US$ 2 billion during the next few years by restructuring the economic cooperation.The Uzbek-Pakistani Business Forum will be held with the "Made in Uzbekistan" exhibition in Islamabad on the 5th and 6th of February and will provide the opportunity for business development and investment promotion.Both visitors will further highlight Pakistan's growing role as a regional connector, fostering stronger political, economic, and cultural ties with Central Asia. · Islamabad hosts Kazakh and Uzbek presidents next week.· Pakistan-Kazakhstan railway MoU to boost connectivity.· Uzbekistan-Pakistan forum targets $2 billion trade.· Agrani Labs raises $8 million in seed funding led by Peak XV Partners.· Startup is building high-performance AI GPUs with full-stack software.· Aims to strengthen India's position in advanced semiconductor design.
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