By At this point in time, the majority of companies strive to adapt rapidly to the model impelled by technological advances; they do this by becoming involved in businesses that are not related to their main activity. The title of this article has been taken from the economic supplement “Business” of the Spanish newspaper “El País” (31st March 2019).
A good example of this is the Spanish oil company, Repsol, which, precisely, is no longer defined as an oil company. Repsol will allocate 2.5 billion to businesses that do not rely on oil.
Likewise, large banks have begun to take over emerging companies and projects that use artificial intelligence. As described in the article, some investments are completely new to banks, such as the Swedish mobile payments company, iZettle AB acquired by the Santander Bank in 2013; and its latest investment, Nivaura, which the Bank bought in London, in February 2019. Nivaura offers automated issuance of financial instruments, such as bonds. The same activities have been undertaken by BBVA, another Spanish bank which invested 50 million euros in Sinovation Ventures in April 2018, a Chinese venture capital fund that invests in technology companies.
In connection to those changes in the world of investment, we would like to highlight the objectives of the AIR-Institute:
- To promote and develop scientific research in the field of computer science and artificial Intelligence
- To create an information society through the development of intelligent systems and advances in the field of computer science.
- To encourage technological innovation in the field of IT, computer science, artificial intelligence and information and communication technologies.