Cisco has announced Johannesburg as its newest 40 Communities (40C) Initiative site, marking its first in Africa. This expansion builds on Cisco's three-decade history in South Africa, focusing on digital transformation and skills development through partnerships. The initiative, named Masibambisane, will collaborate with Jozi My Jozi to address local challenges in digital education, safety, mobility, and community engagement.

IBM has signed a multi-year, $240 million agreement with Together AI to deploy a large cluster of NVIDIA HGX B300 systems on IBM Cloud by Q1 2027. This collaboration aims to provide Together AI with dedicated, high-performance infrastructure for open-source AI model inference, which currently serves 400 trillion tokens monthly. The partnership is expected to improve performance and token economics for large-scale AI workloads, leveraging NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking for up to 30x more AI factory output.

Archer Aviation's stock surged 12% following its agreement to acquire Boeing's Wisk Aero, Insitu, and SkyGrid subsidiaries, which is expected to add over $200 million in annual revenue. Boeing will also take a strategic stake in Archer, enhancing its position in autonomous aviation. Despite reporting a Q2 loss, investors focused on the company's strategic expansion, stronger-than-expected revenue, and operational progress toward eVTOL commercialization.

Nvidia is reportedly in discussions with major Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, to finance the next phase of AI infrastructure development, potentially freeing up over $500 billion. The strategy involves treating AI data centers as revenue-generating infrastructure that can be financed with long-term assets. Nvidia may also underwrite up to 25% of qualifying loans to help clients access funding, addressing a potential bottleneck for demand for its chips.

Intuitive Surgical's stock has declined over 30% year-to-date, but the company demonstrates strong underlying growth, with its da Vinci system fleet expanding and recurring revenue now forming 85% of total revenue. The new da Vinci 5 platform is expected to drive long-term growth, and the company maintains a strong balance sheet. Despite some challenges like tariff risks, analysts view ISRG as a durable investment with significant future value potential.

Rekor Systems, Inc. announced it has been selected by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) for a statewide traffic monitoring contract. This seven-year contract has a potential value exceeding $22 million and involves Rekor maintaining, upgrading, and modernizing SCDOT's traffic and weigh-in-motion sites using roadside systems. The agreement allows for cooperative purchasing by local South Carolina agencies, potentially increasing its total value.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has completed the proteomic analysis of approximately 5,500 research samples from The Michael J. Fox Foundation's Parkinson's Precision Medicine Initiative (PPMI). This collaboration expands the PPMI proteomic data resource, making the data available to the global research community to better understand Parkinson's disease biology, identify patient subtypes, and develop biomarkers and targeted therapies. The project aims to advance precision medicine approaches for Parkinson's by providing deeper proteomic insights.

Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Autodesk (ADSK) with a Neutral rating and a $260 price target. The investment bank views Autodesk as a strong franchise in the construction software sector. Shares of Autodesk saw little movement in premarket trading following the news.

Cisco has launched its 40 Communities (40C) Initiative in Johannesburg, South Africa, marking its first site in Africa. This initiative, named Masibambisane, involves a multi-year collaboration with Jozi My Jozi to focus on digital education, connected safety, smart mobility, and responsible giving. Cisco aims to leverage its technology expertise and resources to drive community-led transformation, building on three decades of engagement in South Africa.

Abbott has announced a multi-year partnership with Google Health to integrate insights from Abbott's Lingo continuous glucose monitor with Google's AI and consumer technology. This collaboration aims to provide personalized metabolic insights through the Google Health app, offering AI-powered guidance on nutrition, activity, sleep, and recovery. The partnership also includes a large-scale real-world study to understand the connections between various health metrics and metabolic health, informing future AI coaching and Lingo features.