Tencent Cloud will provide cloud services in Europe through a strategic partnership with Traac.
The cloud business of Chinese technology giant Tencent announced the collaboration in a press release on Thursday (Jan. 12), saying that the deal will establish Traac as an authorized reseller of Tencent Cloud products and services in 19 European countries.
While Tencent may be better known for its business interests in social media, entertainment and financial technology, in recent years the holding company has expanded its presence in the market for cloud services.
And while it initially focused on penetrating the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, since opening its first European data center in Frankfurt in 2021, the company has shown an interest in catering to the cloud needs of European customers.
“As demands for digital solutions and cloud technologies continue to see strong growth across Europe, Tencent Cloud will work closely with Traac together to help European customers speed up digital transformation and business growth,” Leo Li Shiwei, Tencent Cloud’s vice president for Europe, said in the release.
The agreement with Traac, a Swiss company, follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Swiss Finance and Technology Association (SFTA) announced by the organization’s president on LinkedIn last week.
While Tencent Cloud’s global infrastructure is still concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, the firm now operates 70 availability zones across 26 regions that include data centers in Europe, the U.S. and Brazil.
As well as the Central Europe region created by the Frankfurt data center, Tencent operates so-called “partner regions” by piggybacking off other providers’ physical infrastructure in London and Amsterdam.
In addition, it has over 1,000 cache nodes globally, excluding the 1,100-plus it operates in China. In the context of cloud computing, cache nodes are smaller hardware components that act as a local storage layer, enabling end-users to store a subset of data locally so that requests are served up faster than is possible by accessing the data’s primary storage location.
Outside of Europe, Tencent Cloud operates a number of cache nodes in the Middle East, helping to extend its cloud coverage to users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.
In the UAE, Tencent is one of several international hyperscalers jostling for position in the country’s increasingly active market for cloud services. For example, in 2022, the UAE got its own Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud region and new Azure availability zones, while in November, Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian, disclosed that the Big Tech firm was considering opening a data center in the country.
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What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?
These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.
Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.
CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.
From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.
See also: The Five Not-So-Obvious Things That Will Change the Digital Economy in 2025
It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.
For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.
CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.
For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.
Read more: Training Robots Using Video Games Could Democratize Warehouse Automation
The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.
Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.
As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.
TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.
It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.
Read more: Google Reportedly Bringing Gemini AI to TV Sets
Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.
As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.
Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.
But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.