Technip Energies Wins Engineering Contract for QatarEnergy LNG Project

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE

Technip Energies Wins Engineering Contract for QatarEnergy LNG Project

Technip Energies has been awarded a detailed engineering and design contract by Larsen & Toubro Limited’s Hydrocarbon business for a QatarEnergy LNG project in the North Field concession offshore Qatar. The project is named the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Project, of which Technip has completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, the […]

The project is named the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Project, of which Technip has completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, the company said in a news release.

Technip defined the contract as “significant,” which it defined as representing revenue between $56.5 million and 282.5 million (EUR 50 million and 250 million).

Under the contract, Technip Energies will provide detailed engineering design for two offshore compression complexes. Each complex will consist of large offshore platforms, flare platforms, interconnected bridges, and other associated structures, according to the release.

Marco Villa, Chief Business Officer of Technip Energies, said, “We are pleased to be entrusted by L&T and QatarEnergy LNG for the detailed engineering design of the NFPS COMP 4 project. This selection highlights the confidence and trust in our engineering expertise and Technip Energies’ established capability to support Qatar’s energy security, ambitious projects and objectives”.

SAF Project in Australia

Further Technip Energies also won a FEED contract from Jet Zero Australia Pty Ltd for Project Ulysses, a bioethanol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project located in Townsville, Australia.

The FEED contract covers an extensive package of engineering activities, documentation and planning to refine the cost estimate for the project and develop detailed timelines, the company said in an earlier statement.

The project aims to produce 102 million liters of SAF and 11 million liters of renewable diesel annually by 2028 using Australian bioethanol and technologies from Technip Energies and LanzaJet. Technip’s Hummingbird technology converts the bioethanol to sustainable ethylene and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology transforms the ethylene to SAF, according to the statement.

Sylvain Cabalery, SVP for Sustainable Fuels, Chemicals and Circularity at Technip Energies, said, “We are very pleased to see Project Ulysses moving forward to provide the first alcohol-to-jet SAF plant in Australia. With the global aviation industry looking for ways to further secure their supply and lower emissions, Technip Energies and LanzaJet integrated technology is a smart solution, bringing energy security while at the same time eliminating up to 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.”

First Quarter Results

In its most recent earnings release, Technip Energies reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of EUR 0.56 per diluted share, up compared to EUR 0.50 in the previous year.

First-quarter revenue was EUR 1.85 billion, up from EUR 1.52 billion in the same period last year.

“Technip Energies has made a solid start to 2025 with year-over-year growth of 22 percent in revenues and 19 percent in EBITDA. This performance is reflective of the quality of our order intake over the last two years, and our teams’ relentless focus on execution,” Technip Energies CEO Arnaud Pieton said.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Stay Ahead

Explore More Insights

Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy, bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

India takes first big step in Quantum Computing supremacy race

The broader vision is to create high-end jobs, attract global investment, and enable enterprises to solve previously intractable problems — such as drug discovery and real-time logistics optimization — through quantum-powered solutions. The new tech park at Amaravati will host research labs, startup incubators, and training programs to build a

Pantheon of college football gets a Wi-Fi upgrade

Notre Dame has fully adopted mobile ticketing and introduced grab-and-go concession stands, with plans to expand them further. Alcohol sales were recently approved, prompting efforts to support new services like mobile carts. In premium areas, fans can stream various games during events. Notre Dame also tested mobile ordering for concessions

The U.S. leads the world in AI (job) anxiety

The Americans have the highest search volume with a population-adjusted value of 440,000 search queries on the topic of AI job loss, while their attitude towards AI is moderately positive at 54.5%. The intensity score of 3 for the U.S. shows that the concern of losing jobs to AI is

Tigera extends cloud-native networking with Calico 3.30

This logging capability is exposed through two new components: Goldmane: A gRPC-based API endpoint that aggregates flow logs from Calico’s Felix component, which runs on each node. Whisker: A web-based visualization tool built with React and TypeScript that connects to the Goldmane API. The combination of these components provides detailed

QatarEnergy Announces 25 Year Condensate Supply Deal With Shell

In a statement posted on its website recently, QatarEnergy announced a 25 year condensate supply agreement with Shell. The company noted in the statement that it entered into a long-term condensate supply agreement with the Singapore-based Shell International Eastern Trading Company (SIETCO), which it highlighted is a wholly owned subsidiary of London-listed Shell plc. QatarEnergy said in the statement that the agreement stipulates the supply of up to 285 million barrels of condensate to Shell during its 25 year term, starting from July 2025. The deal was signed by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and Wael Sawan, the CEO of Shell, QatarEnergy’s statement highlighted. “We are delighted to sign QatarEnergy’s first 25 year condensate sales agreement, the largest and longest duration condensate agreement to date,” Al-Kaabi said at the signing ceremony, the statement revealed. “This agreement is important for being signed with our strategic partner, Shell, with whom we have recently signed a 20 year naphtha sales agreement. These long-term agreements provide stability and certainty, and helps deliver more value to our customer Shell,” Al-Kaabi added, the statement showed. QatarEnergy went on to state that “Sawan expressed Shell’s pleasure in entering into this long-term agreement and building on the longstanding strategic relationship with QatarEnergy”. The company noted in the statement that QatarEnergy and Shell “share various fruitful investments and partnerships in the energy industry in Qatar and globally, including QatarEnergy LNG projects, the Pearl GTL Plant, and several other joint investments”. In a statement posted on its site back in February, QatarEnergy announced that it had signed a 20 year helium sales and purchase agreement with China’s G-gas. “QatarEnergy and Guangzhou Guanggang Gases & Energy Co. Ltd (G-gas) signed a long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the

At-risk IRA tax credits drive industrial-scale infrastructure in red and blue states

Joby Bernstein is a graduate of Stanford Business School and the Doerr School of Sustainability. Claire Petersen is a PhD candidate in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a fellow at the California Energy Commission. When we hear the term “renewable energy,” we picture golden California hills lined with solar panels or the vast Texas plains dotted with towering wind turbines. That’s why we were surprised when our research on the Inflation Reduction Act renewable energy tax credits took us to advanced manufacturing project sites that are revitalizing rural communities in the United States, like Sumter. Sumter, South Carolina, is deeply rooted in agriculture, manufacturing and military tradition. Like many communities, it was hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, leaving economic uncertainty in its wake. But today, Sumter is experiencing a resurgence, fueled in part by state and federal incentives like the IRA’s tax credits, which are driving a new wave of advanced manufacturing. We saw this transformation firsthand on a crisp October morning, standing alongside community leaders and factory workers at the topping-out ceremony for e-Vac’s new permanent magnet manufacturing plant. Just months earlier, this site had been little more than dirt and blueprints. Now, steel beams stretched skyward, marking the rapid progress of a facility that will soon produce one of the most critical components in modern technology. This single project will create hundreds of permanent jobs and inject millions of dollars into the local economy. It isn’t just a win for Sumter — it’s a strategic investment in America’s future. Permanent magnets power everything from aerospace and defense systems to smartphones and electric vehicle batteries. Yet, 92% of the global supply is manufactured in China. Currently, the U.S. has no domestic production until this facility becomes operational. By building this facility at record speed, Sumter is proving

US solar, battery manufacturing to expand through 2027 despite uncertainty: Anza Renewables

Dive Brief: U.S. solar photovoltaic and battery component manufacturers are “actively adjusting their domestic content plans” in response to Treasury Department regulations finalized in the waning days of the Biden administration and successive rounds of tariffs imposed by Presidents Biden and Donald Trump, Anza Renewables said in a report released on April 29. Anza’s Q2 2025 Domestic Content Insights report sees some U.S. manufacturers accelerating onshore production as others pull back on previously announced plans “due to financial and logistical constraints.” Buyers are seeking U.S.-made products not impacted by the latest round of tariffs, pushing onshore prices higher and inventories lower, Anza said. Dive Insight: Clean energy manufacturers cut planned investment by nearly $8 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to a monthly tracker from industry advocacy group E2. Among the cancelled or downsized projects were two high-profile battery cell factories: KorePower’s $1.2 billion plant in Arizona and Freyr Battery’s $2.6 billion hub in Georgia. KorePower announced a conditional loan guarantee of $850 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office in 2023, but the financing never came through, while Freyr indicated late last year that it would pivot to U.S. solar cell production, Manufacturing Dive reported earlier this year. The cancellations came during a busy period for U.S. clean energy tax and trade policy. In January, the IRS issued a notice boosting incentives for solar PV systems that incorporate U.S.-made wafers, followed by successive tariffs of 10% on all imports, 25% on imported steel and aluminum, and 145% on most Chinese imports during Trump’s first three months in office, Anza said. Battery supply chain companies, in particular, are less willing today than in the past to absorb higher costs for imported components, Anza Renewables Director of Strategic Sourcing Ravi Manghani told Utility Dive recently. The

EOG Sees Stronger Results Quarter on Quarter

EOG Resources Inc. (EOG) has reported a net income of $1.46 billion and a revenue of $5.67 billion for the first quarter of 2025. Q1 2025 net profit was below the $1.79 billion logged for the corresponding quarter in 2024 but above the $1.25 billion recorded for Q4 2024. Revenue fell from $6.12 billion for Q1 2024 but increased from $1.25 billion for Q4 2024. “Results were driven by solid execution across both foundational and emerging plays”, said chairman and chief executive officer Ezra Yacob. “The company’s financial position provides EOG the ability to return greater than 100 percent of annual free cash flow in the near term. Strong operating results generated $1.3 billion of free cash flow in the quarter. EOG returned $1.3 billion to shareholders through $538 million in regular dividends and $788 million of share repurchases”. Production was 1.09 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, stable by both sequential and prior-year comparisons. Crude oil and condensate production was at 502,100 barrels per day (bpd), above the 494,600 bpd reported for Q4 2024 and 487,400 bpd for Q1 2024. Natural gas production was steady quarter-on-quarter and higher year-on-year. The company said it now anticipates total capital expenditures for 2025 to be between $5.8 billion and $6.2 billion, reflecting a $200 million decrease from its previous forecast. It aims to sustain oil production at the levels seen in the first quarter of 2025 for the rest of the year, representing a 2 percent increase in full-year oil production and 5 percent growth in total production. To contact the author, email [email protected] WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed. MORE FROM

Seplat Revenue Soars after ExxonMobil Acquisition

Nigeria’s Seplat Energy PLC has reported $809.3 million in revenue for the first quarter (Q1), up 350 percent from the same three-month period in 2024 as higher oil and gas volumes offset lower prices. Net profit came at $23.3 million, or 3.1 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $1.9 million for Q1 2024. Petroleum volumes lifted rose 450 percent year-on-year to 9.9 million barrels, benefiting from the acquisition of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, renamed Seplat Energy Producing Nigeria Unlimited, from Exxon Mobil Corp. The purchase gave Seplat a 40 percent stake in four oil mining leases including over 90 shallow-water and onshore platforms and 300 producing wells. Oil volumes lifted in Q1 2024 totaled 1.8 million barrels. “Production deferment in the period was 19 percent onshore (1Q 2024: 22 percent) and 23 percent offshore”, Seplat said in its quarterly report. “Onshore deferments were ahead of plan given reduced third-party related downtime, while offshore was in line with plan”. Crude revenue rose 404 percent year-on-year to $959.8 million as the volume increase more than compensated for a drop in average realized oil price to $76.42 a barrel. Natural gas liquid (NGL) volumes lifted totaled 138,000 barrels. NGL revenue was $5 million. Seplat sold 14.9 billion standard cubic feet of gas, up 49 percent due to the startup of a new plant and new contribution from the ExxonMobil acquisition. That offset a decline in the average realized gas price to $3.01 per thousand cubic feet to drive a 53 percent growth in gas revenue to $44.5 million. Working interest production totaled about 131,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up 167.1 percent against Q1 2024. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came at $400.6 million, up 224.9 percent compared to Q1 2024. Operating profit increased 190.7 percent

TotalEnergies, OQEP Begin Construction of Marsa LNG Plant in Oman

TotalEnergies SE and OQ Exploration and Production (OQEP) have begun construction of the Marsa LNG plant, located in the port of Sohar, northern Oman, one year after the final investment decision. The liquefaction plant, which has a capacity of 1 million tons per year and is expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2028, is primarily intended to serve the marine fuel market as the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering hub in the Middle East, TotalEnergies said in a news release. The Marsa LNG plant is fully electrified and combined with a 300 megawatt-peak (MWp) photovoltaic solar farm that will supply the equivalent of the plant’s annual energy needs. The plant is set to be one of the lowest carbon intensity LNG plants in the world, as much as 90% lower than the average carbon intensity of other global LNG plants, according to the release. Marsa LNG LLC, a joint company owned 80 percent by TotalEnergies and 20% by OQEP, is constructing the plant. Marsa LNG has signed a charter contract for a new LNG bunkering vessel, which is under construction and will be stationed in Sohar from 2028, where it will supply LNG to a wide range of vessels such as container ships, tankers, and large cruise ships. “I’m very proud to see Marsa LNG breaking ground, alongside our long-standing partner OQEP, and with the strong support from the Sultanate’s authorities,” TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said. “This flagship project demonstrates that LNG production can be very low carbon, contributing to making gas a long-term transition fuel. With an ambitious technical design, we intend to set the standard and pave the way for the next generation of low-emissions LNG plants across the world. We also offer an effective way to support the shipping sector’s energy

Engineers rush to master new skills for AI-driven data centers

According to the Uptime Institute survey, 57% of data centers are increasing salary spending. Data center job roles that saw the highest increases were in operations management – 49% of data center operators said they saw highest increases in this category – followed by junior and mid-level operations staff at 45%, and senior management and strategy at 35%. Other job categories that saw salary growth were electrical, at 32% and mechanical, at 23%. Organizations are also paying premiums on top of salaries for particular skills and certifications. Foote Partners tracks pay premiums for more than 1,300 certified and non-certified skills for IT jobs in general. The company doesn’t segment the data based on whether the jobs themselves are data center jobs, but it does track 60 skills and certifications related to data center management, including skills such as storage area networking, LAN, and AIOps, and 24 data center-related certificates from Cisco, Juniper, VMware and other organizations. “Five of the eight data center-related skills recording market value gains in cash pay premiums in the last twelve months are all AI-related skills,” says David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners. “In fact, they are all among the highest-paying skills for all 723 non-certified skills we report.” These skills bring in 16% to 22% of base salary, he says. AIOps, for example, saw an 11% increase in market value over the past year, now bringing in a premium of 20% over base salary, according to Foote data. MLOps now brings in a 22% premium. “Again, these AI skills have many uses of which the data center is only one,” Foote adds. The percentage increase in the specific subset of these skills in data centers jobs may vary. The Uptime Institute survey suggests that the higher pay is motivating workers to stay in the

ExtraHop looks to eliminate ‘extra hops’ in NDR stack

This deep visibility allows ExtraHop to provide insights across the entire network stack, from basic connectivity to application-level transactions. “The benefit of going all the way through Layer 7 is I can actually see a database transaction going through on the wire,” Vasani said. “If you have application teams complaining about database query latency, we can map it to what session was that tied to and what flows was it tied to from a network perspective and is this really an app server issue, or is it a network issue, or is it an endpoint issue?” The new sensor integrates with ExtraHop’s RevealX platform, feeding telemetry into the company’s cloud-scale ML/AI engine that powers its detection and analysis capabilities. “The sensor collects the telemetry, feeds it into an ML/AI engine that sits in the cloud, and then we layer in workflow engines on top to enable the various use cases,” Vasani said. In modern distributed enterprise environments, network visibility must extend beyond traditional data centers. ExtraHop’s all-in-one sensor is designed to address this reality with deployment options that span physical appliances, virtual machines and cloud environments. ExtraHop has both virtual and physical hardware appliances for sensor deployment. ExtraHop sensors can plug into a network through multiple methods including, Network Tap, SPAN (Switched Port Analyzer) port, packet broker or a cloud provider’s vTAP capabilities.

AI’s energy appetite drives interest in nuclear power

In its new report, Deloitte said that its analysis of figures from the World Nuclear Association, the American Nuclear Society, the U.S. Department of Energy, and others showed that new nuclear power could potentially meet about 10% of the projected increase in data center demand over the next decade, assuming capacity is also significantly expanded by between 35GW and 62GW, and 30% of the expansion is earmarked for data centers. “Nuclear energy presents a potential solution for meeting some of the growing electricity demands of data centers, with its reliable and clean energy profile,” Deloitte’s report said, noting five key advantages of the technology: Reliable baseload power: Nuclear reactors operate 24/7, regardless of the weather, providing the reliable power so important to data centers. In addition, Deloitte said, “Their capacity factor, exceeding 92.5%, outperforms other sources like natural gas (56%) and renewables like wind (35%) and solar (25%).” High energy density: A small amount of fuel generates a lot of power, which minimizes the need for fuel storage and transportation. “This efficiency can translate to a smaller physical footprint and enhanced sustainability,” Deloitte said. Scalable power output: A full-sized reactor typically generates 800 megawatts (MW) or more of electricity, which accommodates the needs of large data centers. Low carbon emissions: Nuclear power plants produce virtually no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. Enhanced land use efficiency: Compared to other energy sources, nuclear power plants require relatively little land. Gartner’s Johnson echoed these advantages, and also predicted that nuclear energy, and small modular reactors (SMRs) in particular, will “provide a viable answer” to the question of what to do when electricity demand exceeds supply. They can, he said, “ensure independence from grid power fluctuations by providing dedicated on-site power for large data centers.” However, both Gartner and Deloitte also highlighted challenges in

Nvidia AI supercluster targets agents, reasoning models on Oracle Cloud

Oracle has previously built an OCI Supercluster with 65,536 Nvidia H200 GPUs using the older Hopper GPU technology and no CPU that offers up to 260 exaflops of peak FP8 performance. According to the blog post announcing the availability, the Blackwell GPUs are available via Oracle’s public, government, and sovereign clouds, as well as in customer-owned data centers through its OCI Dedicated Region and Alloy offerings. Oracle joins a growing list of cloud providers that have made the GB200 NVL72 system available, including Google, CoreWeave and Lambda. In addition, Microsoft offers the GB200 GPUs, though they are not deployed as an NVL72 machine.

Deep Data Center: Neoclouds as the ‘Picks and Shovels’ of the AI Gold Rush

In 1849, the discovery of gold in California ignited a frenzy, drawing prospectors from around the world in pursuit of quick fortune. While few struck it rich digging and sifting dirt, a different class of entrepreneurs quietly prospered: those who supplied the miners with the tools of the trade. From picks and shovels to tents and provisions, these providers became indispensable to the gold rush, profiting handsomely regardless of who found gold. Today, a new gold rush is underway, in pursuit of artificial intelligence. And just like the days of yore, the real fortunes may lie not in the gold itself, but in the infrastructure and equipment that enable its extraction. This is where neocloud players and chipmakers are positioned, representing themselves as the fundamental enablers of the AI revolution. Neoclouds: The Essential Tools and Implements of AI Innovation The AI boom has sparked a frenzy of innovation, investment, and competition. From generative AI applications like ChatGPT to autonomous systems and personalized recommendations, AI is rapidly transforming industries. Yet, behind every groundbreaking AI model lies an unsung hero: the infrastructure powering it. Enter neocloud providers—the specialized cloud platforms delivering the GPU horsepower that fuels AI’s meteoric rise. Let’s examine how neoclouds represent the “picks and shovels” of the AI gold rush, used for extracting the essential backbone of AI innovation. Neoclouds are emerging as indispensable players in the AI ecosystem, offering tailored solutions for compute-intensive workloads such as training large language models (LLMs) and performing high-speed inference. Unlike traditional hyperscalers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), which cater to a broad range of use cases, neoclouds focus exclusively on optimizing infrastructure for AI and machine learning applications. This specialization allows them to deliver superior performance at a lower cost, making them the go-to choice for startups, enterprises, and research institutions alike.

Soluna Computing: Innovating Renewable Computing for Sustainable Data Centers

Dorothy 1A & 1B (Texas): These twin 25 MW facilities are powered by wind and serve Bitcoin hosting and mining workloads. Together, they consumed over 112,000 MWh of curtailed energy in 2024, demonstrating the impact of Soluna’s model. Dorothy 2 (Texas): Currently under construction and scheduled for energization in Q4 2025, this 48 MW site will increase Soluna’s hosting and mining capacity by 64%. Sophie (Kentucky): A 25 MW grid- and hydro-powered hosting center with a strong cost profile and consistent output. Project Grace (Texas): A 2 MW AI pilot project in development, part of Soluna’s transition into HPC and machine learning. Project Kati (Texas): With 166 MW split between Bitcoin and AI hosting, this project recently exited the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. planning phase and is expected to energize between 2025 and 2027. Project Rosa (Texas): A 187 MW flagship project co-located with wind assets, aimed at both Bitcoin and AI workloads. Land and power agreements were secured by the company in early 2025. These developments are part of the company’s broader effort to tackle both energy waste and infrastructure bottlenecks. Soluna’s behind-the-meter design enables flexibility to draw from the grid or directly from renewable sources, maximizing energy value while minimizing emissions. Competition is Fierce and a Narrower Focus Better Serves the Business In 2024, Soluna tested the waters of providing AI services via a GPU-as-a-Service through a partnership with HPE, branded as Project Ada. The pilot aimed to rent out cloud GPUs for AI developers and LLM training. However, due to oversupply in the GPU market, delayed product rollouts (like NVIDIA’s H200), and poor demand economics, Soluna terminated the contract in March 2025. The cancellation of the contract with HPE frees up resources for Soluna to focus on what it believes the company does best: designing

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE