The appointment takes effect immediately. Maxson joins from Schneider Electric, where she served as group CFO.

The company generates more than $45 billion in annual revenue and has seen strong demand linked to data centre growth.

At Oracle, she steps into the role at a time when spending is increasing. The company has been investing heavily in data centres, multicloud systems and AI-ready infrastructure. Demand for those services continues to outpace supply.

Maxson said she would focus on disciplined investment. “I aim to ensure continued disciplined investment for creating lasting value for both customers and shareholders.”

Her background in energy could prove useful. Data centres require large amounts of power, and efficiency has become a growing concern as companies scale AI systems. Oracle has been increasing capacity while managing the cost and complexity that comes with it.

Oracle is growing fast, but that growth is expensive. The company has taken on more debt to support its build-out, and investors are watching closely.

In its latest quarter, Oracle reported its best results in 15 years, with revenue growth above 20%. Even so, its stock has struggled this year. Shares were trading around $146 on April 6, still about 25% below their 52-week high despite a slight rise in early trading.

Investors have pointed to the high debt levels and the cost of scaling AI infrastructure. Competition is also intense, with companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google continuing to invest heavily in their own cloud platforms.

Maxson, 48, will receive a base salary of $950,000 and is eligible for a performance-based bonus with a target of $2.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Her appointment also brings a change in leadership structure. Doug Kehring, who has handled the finance role for the past six months, will step down and return to leading go-to-market operations.

Hilary Maxson will report directly to Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, revealing a stronger link between finance and the company’s cloud growth plans.

The system was launched at the inaugural SA Innovation Week, sponsored by the Technology and Innovation Agency (TIA), held in Nasrec from 16–20 March 2026.

The launch marks a significant milestone in Diaz’s 10-year intellectual and entrepreneurial journey, during which he authored eight business books, beginning with The A-Game Business Blueprint.

These works collectively capture a comprehensive SME development framework built from globally tested methodologies and locally developed strategies tailored to African business realities.

“Over the past decade, I documented and refined practical frameworks to help SMEs grow sustainably,” says Diaz. “Initially, I believed these frameworks should be implemented at a national level. When that didn’t materialise, we made a decision to build the solution ourselves.”

Operating from Soweto, with virtual teams in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Diaz and his team have translated these frameworks into a fully integrated AI-powered digital platform, the A-Game Business Operating System, enabling SMEs to move from theory to real-time execution.

The platform is built on a decade-long body of work designed to address a long-standing gap in SME development: the disconnect between strategy and execution. Historically, SMEs have relied on static business plans, fragmented software tools, periodic consulting interventions, and manual tracking and reporting.

The A-Game Business Operating System consolidates these functions into a single unified platform that integrates business strategy and planning, marketing and sales execution, CRM and pipeline management, financial tracking and performance analytics, as well as operations, projects, team accountability, and AI-powered decision support.

The introduction of this BOS positions it as a direct challenger to established enterprise and mid-market software providers such as Sage, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Unlike traditional enterprise systems, which are often cost-intensive, complex to implement, and fragmented across multiple modules, the A-Game BOS offers a significantly more streamlined alternative.

It delivers an estimated 80% reduction in software and implementation costs, replaces multiple tools within a single unified platform, embeds AI-driven insights into daily workflows, and enables faster onboarding and adoption for SME teams.

Early projections indicate that businesses using the system can reduce operational inefficiencies by 50% or more, save significant time through automation and integration, and gain real-time clarity on performance and growth drivers.

“Most systems tell you what happened,” Diaz explains. “This system shows you, daily, whether your actions are actually driving growth, and what to do next.”

Beyond software, the implications of the A-Game BOS extend into the broader SME coaching and consulting landscape.

By embedding structured guidance directly into the platform, the system challenges traditional advisory models. Advancements from organizations such as OpenAI and Microsoft are accelerating the shift toward AI-assisted decision-making, reducing dependence on manual consulting processes.

According to McKinsey & Company, a significant portion of knowledge-based work is expected to be automated or augmented by AI in the coming years. Diaz believes this shift will fundamentally reshape industries.

“We are moving from a world where knowledge is monetised, to one where execution is measured,” he says. “Professionals who adapt will scale. Those who don’t will be replaced by systems.”

The launch of the A-Game Business Operating System represents a strategic opportunity for African SMEs to leapfrog legacy systems and outdated business models. Rather than adopting complex, high-cost enterprise solutions, SMEs can now access a centralised business control centre, AI-guided execution frameworks, real-time performance visibility, and scalable systems that reduce dependency on founders.

“This is about giving SME owners clarity, control, and the ability to build self-managing businesses,” says Diaz. “It’s about turning effort into measurable progress, every single day.”

The development comes after years of legal and political challenges, which threatened to ban the app for more than 200 million Americans.

The new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will house U.S. user data and algorithms under strict cybersecurity measures. American and global investors will hold 80.1% of the venture, leaving ByteDance with 19.9%. 

Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX are the managing investors, each with a 15% stake. TikTok’s U.S. data and recommendation algorithm will be hosted on Oracle’s U.S. cloud, allowing oversight while ByteDance continues to manage revenue-generating operations like advertising and e-commerce.

The venture’s leadership includes former TikTok USDS executives Adam Presser as CEO and Will Farrell as chief security officer. TikTok CEO Shou Chew joins the board to provide strategic guidance. 

The JV will retrain and update TikTok’s content algorithm to ensure it operates solely on U.S. user data.

This deal results from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April 2024. The law required ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban, a provision upheld by the Supreme Court in January 2025. 

Without the divestiture, TikTok risked removal from app stores and halted updates, which could have significantly weakened the platform’s U.S. presence.

The agreement received bipartisan attention. Former President Donald Trump, who first tried to ban the app in 2020 over national security concerns, praised the venture as “owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors.” 

The White House confirmed that both U.S. and Chinese authorities signed off on the deal, although the Chinese Embassy in Washington has not yet commented publicly.

The joint venture is part of a U.S.-China technology rivalry. In separating U.S. user data and algorithms from ByteDance’s global operations, the structure aligns with earlier national security debates surrounding Chinese tech firms. 

TikTok’s U.S. operations are effectively split, the venture oversees data and backend operations, while ByteDance maintains commercial operations, including e-commerce and advertising.

Investors include high-profile firms such as the Dell Family Office, Vastmere Strategic Investments, Alpha Wave Partners, Revolution, Merritt Way, Via Nova, Virgo LI, and NJJ Capital. 

TikTok aims to comply with U.S. law and also to reassure users and regulators about data security while maintaining the app’s growth and influence in the U.S.

This is designed to avert a nationwide ban and settle long-running security challenges with Washington.

Under the binding agreement, ByteDance will cut its stake to 19.9%, while investors led by Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will collectively take 80.1% ownership of a newly formed company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. 

The structure is intended to satisfy U.S. laws that demand the separation of TikTok’s American business from Chinese control.

The arrangement follows legislation passed by Congress in April 2024 that required ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban. The Supreme Court upheld the law in January 2025, setting a January deadline. This joint venture, due to close on 22 January, is meant to meet that requirement.

Ownership alone, however, has not ended the issue. The new entity will be run by a seven-member board, with Americans holding most seats. ByteDance will appoint one director. Oracle has been named the “trusted security partner” and will be responsible for auditing compliance and protecting US user data, which will be stored on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure inside the United States.

TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, told staff that the venture would “operate as an independent entity with authority over U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” according to an internal memo. 

He also said TikTok’s global US entities would separately handle “global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing”.

Even so, there’s still uncertainty over the heart of the platform, its recommendation algorithm. Former U.S. officials and analysts say it is still not clear if the algorithm has been transferred, licensed, or remains under ByteDance’s control, with Oracle potentially limited to oversight rather than ownership.

Reports from Chinese media have suggested ByteDance may continue to play an operational role or receive revenue from the US business, leading to questions about Beijing’s influence despite the new structure.

President Donald Trump has openly credited TikTok with helping his re-election and maintains a large following on the app. His administration has also launched an official White House TikTok account. At the same time, Trump’s close ties to Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison have drawn criticism from Democrats.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has been among the most vocal opponents, saying: “Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the president struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok.”

Trump previously said high-profile investors, including Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch, could be involved, though there are no reports about who ultimately joined the final deal.

This agreement ends the immediate threat of a ban, but not the argument around influence and control. 

The deal, announced Monday, gives OpenAI access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs hosted on Amazon’s cloud and is a realignment in the power dynamics of the global tech industry.

The partnership allows OpenAI to immediately begin deploying workloads on AWS infrastructure, which will scale up through 2026 with room for expansion into 2027 and beyond. 

Amazon’s specialised EC2 UltraServers will connect Nvidia’s most advanced processors, H100 and Blackwell chips, through high-speed networks designed for low latency and maximum performance.

For OpenAI, the agreement is part of a goal to build 30 gigawatts of computing capacity, backed by a $1.4 trillion investment plan that highlights the sheer cost of sustaining frontier AI research. 

CEO Sam Altman stressed the scale of the challenge, saying, “Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute. Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone.”

Amazon’s cloud chief, Matt Garman, described the move as a turning point for both companies: “As OpenAI continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, AWS’s best-in-class infrastructure will serve as a backbone for their AI ambitions.” 

The announcement immediately lifted Amazon’s stock by 5% in premarket trading, adding roughly $330 billion to its market value, its biggest single-day gain in a decade.

The deal follows OpenAI’s recent restructuring, which ended Microsoft’s exclusive cloud arrangement and freed the company to engage multiple infrastructure partners. Although Microsoft still holds a 27% stake in OpenAI, the company has also signed cloud agreements with Google and Oracle, further diversifying its supply chain and reducing reliance on any single provider.

OpenAI’s new partnership with AWS also reveals the competition among the tech giants to control the world’s AI computing backbone. Companies are stockpiling GPUs, expanding data centres, and betting heavily on infrastructure to train and deploy ever-larger models.

Earlier this year, OpenAI’s models became available on Amazon Bedrock, bringing its technology to millions of AWS customers across sectors such as media, health, and data analytics. 

Monday’s announcement pushes that collaboration to an entirely new scale that could change how global AI systems are built and deployed.

With the world’s biggest tech firms spending at unprecedented levels, analysts say the OpenAI–Amazon partnership represents both ambition and risk. 

The scale of investment required to power AI systems is nearing levels once reserved for national infrastructure projects, leading to concerns that the competition could create the industry’s next financial bubble.

Still, for now, the partnership gives OpenAI what it needs most, raw computing muscle. And for Amazon, it offers a decisive edge in the most lucrative race in modern technology: the vision to power the intelligence of the future.

The attackers, believed to be linked to the ransomware gang known as Cl0p, have launched a large-scale email campaign directed at organisations running Oracle E-Business Suite. The system underpins critical functions such as finance, supply chain, and customer management, making it an attractive target for cybercriminals.

According to Google, the extortion emails have been arriving in high volumes and are being sent from hundreds of hijacked accounts. Some of these accounts were previously connected to FIN11, a financially motivated group associated with Cl0p. The messages threaten exposure of allegedly stolen data, with some demands reported to be as high as $50 million.

Cybersecurity firm Halcyon confirmed that certain emails contained screenshots and file directories as supposed evidence of the breach. Experts, however, caution that these materials may be fabricated or recycled from past attacks. “Google does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of these claims,” the company stated.

However, neither Google nor its security subsidiary, Mandiant, has found proof that Oracle’s software was compromised or that data theft actually occurred. No zero-day vulnerabilities have been confirmed. Oracle has yet to issue a public statement.

Experts note that even unverified claims can destabilise businesses, trigger panic, and tarnish reputations. Recent campaigns by ransomware groups show a change in tactics, using threats and psychological pressure instead of traditional file encryption.

Security experts advise organisations to closely monitor Oracle environments for unusual logins or credential misuse, strengthen phishing defences, and review their incident response strategies. Multi-factor authentication, they warn, is no longer optional but essential.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle’s Larry Ellison had the highest, each adding $9 billion to their net worth.

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang followed with $5.4 billion, while Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin gained $4.5 billion and $4.3 billion respectively.

The windfall results from the deepening concentration of wealth and influence among Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures. 

These are not fleeting market blips, the growth is tied to the technologies reshaping everything from global communications to financial systems.

Zuckerberg, now the third-richest person in the world with $267.7 billion, controls about 13% of Meta. The company’s stock has risen 40% since April 2025, driven by AI-powered advertising and smart glasses. 

Back in 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to donate 99% of their Meta shares over their lifetimes, one of the most noteworthy philanthropic promises of the modern era.

Just ahead of him in the global rankings is Ellison, whose $298.3 billion fortune places him second only to Elon Musk. The Oracle co-founder stepped down as CEO in 2014 but still drives the company’s strategic acquisitions. He lives permanently on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he purchased almost entirely for $300 million in 2012.

Huang’s rise is perhaps the most emblematic of the AI era. Nvidia, once a graphics card specialist, now dominates AI hardware. In Q1 2026, its data centre division alone generated $39 billion, 89% of its revenue, with forecasts pointing to $200 billion for the fiscal year. 

Under Huang’s leadership, Nvidia’s valuation topped $3 trillion in 2024. His net worth now stands at $156.6 billion.

Page and Brin, despite stepping back from Google’s daily operations in 2019, remain among the most influential figures in tech. Their stakes in Alphabet keep their fortunes at $160.3 billion and $153 billion respectively, built on the algorithms they pioneered more than two decades ago.

As of August 2025, eight of the world’s ten wealthiest people are tech leaders, including Musk, Ellison, Zuckerberg, Page, Brin, Huang, Steve Ballmer, and Jeff Bezos. 

Their combined wealth stands at $2.1 trillion, up $100 billion since July. In total, 450 tech billionaires control an estimated $5.2 trillion, representing nearly one-third of all billionaire wealth.

The ongoing AI boom is creating new billionaires in semiconductors, cloud platforms, and generative AI startups like Anthropic and CoreWeave. Yet the same trend is intensifying debates over monopolies, digital inequality, and the vast control a handful of companies wield over critical infrastructure.

As an analyst stated, “This isn’t just a story about money, it’s a story about who owns the future.”

The project is part of the Stargate initiative, a $500 billion plan to deliver 10GW of data centre capacity over four years. 

This latest phase will increase Stargate’s total planned capacity to over 5GW, which OpenAI says will power more than 2 million chips, primarily Nvidia GB200s. The company stated: “We now expect to exceed our initial commitment thanks to strong momentum with partners including Oracle and SoftBank.”

Interestingly, OpenAI isn’t building the data centres itself. Instead, it has signed a $30 billion multi-year leasing agreement with Oracle, which will own and operate the infrastructure. 

Oracle will supply and manage the hardware, while OpenAI focuses on AI model development and deployment. This is a transition from earlier plans that saw SoftBank involved more directly in construction efforts.

In practical terms, the 4.5GW expansion represents about 25% of total operational data centre capacity in the U.S., noting the sheer scale of the Stargate project. The first site, Stargate I in Abilene, Texas, is already partially live, with Nvidia racks installed and initial workloads running.

But the Abilene site has also led to environmental concerns. Its $500 million natural gas plant, built to power the facility, has been objected due to pollution risks and potential health hazards to nearby communities.

On the political aspect, Stargate enjoys direct backing from the U.S. government. Former President Donald Trump unveiled the project at the White House in January 2025 as part of efforts to outpace China in AI development. To accelerate progress, the White House declared a national energy emergency earlier this year, fast-tracking permits for fossil fuel and nuclear plants to support high-energy AI campuses.

Despite the high-profile nature of the project, only $50 billion of the promised $500 billion investment has been raised so far. Immediate deployment of $100 billion has reportedly stalled. Internal disputes between OpenAI and SoftBank over site locations and governance have also emerged, leading to a scaled-down plan to build a smaller data centre in Ohio by the end of 2025.

In January, xAI owner Elon Musk dismissed the venture, stating: “They don’t actually have the money.”

Again, SoftBank and OpenAI are said to be pursuing different visions for Stargate, slowing progress. While OpenAI’s partnership with Oracle accelerates construction, its collaboration with SoftBank has shifted towards site assessments and infrastructure design innovations.

Beyond Stargate, OpenAI continues to diversify its infrastructure partnerships, working with CoreWeave, Crusoe, Cisco, and G42 in the UAE. Its new ‘OpenAI for Countries’ initiative is also helping governments build sovereign AI infrastructure and establish national AI investment funds.

For now, OpenAI predicts the construction and operation of the new 4.5GW capacity will generate over 100,000 jobs across construction and operations in the U.S. alone. Many of these roles, the company says, will be filled by skilled tradespeople, including electricians, equipment operators, and technicians, from over 20 states.

Nonetheless, funding is a concern as timelines are slipping, and internal disagreements could yet derail the project’s long-term goals. 

The new integration enables Infobip and Oracle customers and partners to access Infobip’s omnichannel services through Oracle Integration.

Customers increasingly expect omnichannel communications, but integrating and managing new channels can be time-consuming, requiring complex development, deployment, and organizational processes.

Infobip’s new Omnichannel Messaging Adapter for Oracle Integration addresses this challenge by enabling all types of businesses to work with and manage omnichannel messaging channels involving Oracle and third-party solutions, including WhatsApp and RCS.

The solution deploys quickly, reducing time to market.

In addition, Infobip has provided a prebuilt use case – or Accelerator – for Oracle’s contact center solution, Oracle B2C Service.

This Accelerator is a flexible solution that allows consumers to connect with a company’s support team via SMS and WhatsApp, delivering a streamlined two-way communication experience.

Both the Omnichannel Messaging Adapter and Accelerator offer low or no-code solutions, benefiting Oracle’s customers and partners.

Oracle Integration provides secure, highly scalable connectivity regardless of the applications an organization is connecting with or where the applications reside.

“Our new collaboration with Infobip will help enterprises simplify connectivity and provide integration between the Infobip messaging platform and any applications using our unified integration platform as a service, Oracle Integration,” said Deepak Arora, Vice President, Product Management, Oracle. “This partnership builds on our vision of fueling AI innovation for more businesses by integrating any apps, data, and services anywhere.”

“The Omnichannel Messaging Adapter for Oracle Integration enables Infobip and Oracle customers to tailor our omnichannel solutions to their specific needs using the same platform with just a few clicks,” said Veselin Vuković, Chief Alliances Officer, Infobip, “The solution is flexible and works for a broad range of sectors and industries.”

Mark Zuckerberg was the biggest winner. Meta’s CEO saw his net worth jump by $16 billion, reaching $220.9 billion. This places him as the third-richest person alive. 

The reason was that Meta shares surged after markets digested news of easing global trade pressures. His 13% stake in the company continues to pay off as confidence grows in Meta’s move toward the metaverse and artificial intelligence.

Jeff Bezos came next. The Amazon founder added $14.2 billion to his fortune, which now sits at $223.6 billion. Even though he stepped down as CEO in 2021, he still owns just under 10% of Amazon. 

The company’s shares jumped 8%, driven by hopes that reduced trade friction will cut down import costs, good news for Amazon’s sellers who source heavily from China.

Elon Musk wasn’t left behind. Tesla’s stock rose, and with it, Musk’s net worth increased by $11.3 billion. That puts him at $406.9 billion, maintaining his top spot as the richest man in the world. 

Investors were not only bullish on Tesla, but also on xAI, his artificial intelligence firm valued at $50 billion. Musk holds 42% of SpaceX and about 12% of Tesla, although much of his Tesla stock is pledged as collateral.

Oracle Co-founder Larry Ellison rounded out the top four, gaining $8.2 billion. He now holds $196.1 billion in wealth, putting him fourth globally. His fortune is closely tied to Oracle’s growth trajectory, with Ellison owning about 40% of the company.

Oracle’s share price rose off the back of growing expectations around AI-driven enterprise software demand and large-scale acquisitions like Cerner.

This sudden market rally wasn’t isolated. The entire “Magnificent 7”—Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Tesla, and Nvidia—gained $837.5 billion in market value in just one day, making it the largest single-day jump for the group since early April.

Tech investors took the tariff pause between the U.S. and China as a sign of temporary stability. It doesn’t mean the trade issue is over, but it offered a window of relief.

Supply chain disruptions have affected chipmakers and consumer tech brands alike. This move led to immediate confidence, particularly in the semiconductor sector.

Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Broadcom all rose by roughly 5–6%. Marvell led the chipmakers, jumping 8%. Apple also rose 6%, despite warning it may still face $900 million in added costs this quarter due to previously announced tariffs.

Chinese tech stocks listed in New York—Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com—saw their own bump. European chipmakers like ASML and Infineon followed suit.