Core, the exclusive distribution partner for Microsoft Surface in South Africa, has confirmed that the Surface Laptop Ultra will be sold locally, according to htxt.africa. The outlet’s headline frames the device as Microsoft’s “MacBook Pro killer,” presenting it as a challenger to Apple’s high-end laptop line. The provided information confirms local distribution through Core but does not include pricing, specifications, release timing, or which retailers will carry the machine in South Africa.

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek plans to deploy 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT chips at a new 1-gigawatt data centre in Inner Mongolia, according to Tech-ish, as Nvidia remains unable to sell advanced processors in China due to export restrictions. The report says DeepSeek will continue using Nvidia hardware for model training while relying on the Huawei chips for inference work. The outlet also published a full timeline for the project.

Microsoft Surface products will be distributed exclusively in South Africa by the Core Group, but the company has confirmed there are currently no plans to open a standalone Microsoft Surface branded store in the country. According to htxt.africa, despite the new distribution partnership, consumers should not expect dedicated retail locations for the Surface brand at this time. The arrangement means Surface devices will be available through existing channels rather than a flagship Microsoft store experience.

South African technology distributor Altron Arrow is bringing ASUS AI computing systems to local organisations seeking to build their own artificial intelligence infrastructure. According to TechCentral, the offering is positioned as delivering petaflop-level computing power in desktop form, enabling South African companies to run AI workloads locally rather than relying on cloud services. The initiative reflects growing interest in domestic AI compute capacity as organisations in the country look for alternatives for processing data in-house.

According to Techpoint Africa, Huawei has officially launched its Agentic AI Cloud in Nigeria, marking a new step in the company’s local infrastructure push. The report frames the launch as part of Huawei’s effort to expand cloud and artificial intelligence capacity in the country, though the provided excerpt gives no details on pricing, partners, data centres, rollout timelines, or expected enterprise and government uses.

OpenAI has introduced its first custom artificial intelligence chip named Jalapeño, which represents a significant advancement in the company's initiative to develop more of the computing infrastructure necessary for its AI models and products. This announcement was made on Wednesday, highlighting OpenAI's commitment to enhancing its technological capabilities.