Daily Tech: Strategic AI Deals Signal Growth Momentum

FutureGate | June 30 2025

LCFY Partners with Leading Reputation Platform to Expand AI-Driven Search

Locality Finder Inc. (LCFY), a company developing AI-powered search technology for local discovery, has signed a partnership with a prominent U.S.-based reputation management platform. The collaboration aims to integrate LCFY’s "AI-ready" local search algorithms with real-time sentiment and ratings data to enhance the accuracy and relevance of search results. This partnership will allow LCFY to scale its solutions across enterprise clients in retail, healthcare, and hospitality—segments increasingly focused on hyper-local SEO and consumer trust metrics.

The company plans to use this integration to drive adoption of its platform across North America, leveraging AI tools such as natural language processing (NLP), predictive search intent, and semantic clustering. The move places LCFY in direct competition with Google My Business alternatives, positioning it as a niche, B2B-focused disruptor in the expanding AI search vertical.

Richtech Robotics and Beijing Design Authority Unite for Next-Gen AI Service Robots

Richtech Robotics, a developer of service automation technology, has entered a formal agreement with the Beijing City of Design Development Authority. The partnership is focused on co-developing the next generation of AI-enabled service robots tailored to hospitality, retail, and healthcare environments.

Under the agreement, both parties will collaborate on design, prototyping, and pilot deployment in high-traffic urban zones. The initiative will incorporate AI vision, voice interface systems, and autonomous navigation to deliver scalable human-assistance capabilities. Richtech, already active in U.S. markets with its robotic waitstaff and concierge bots, views the Beijing alliance as a platform to test and scale products within China’s growing "smart city" ecosystem—an area prioritized in Beijing’s national AI development roadmap.

Pony.ai Stock Jumps on Uber-Kalanick Investment Speculation

Autonomous vehicle start-up Pony.ai saw its share price rally following media reports that Uber Technologies may invest in the company—possibly via a deal involving Uber’s co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick. The potential partnership, still unconfirmed, is said to focus on advancing ride-hailing applications of Pony.ai’s Level 4 autonomous driving technology.

If formalized, the alliance would give Pony.ai access to Uber’s vast mobility infrastructure and may accelerate commercialization of its driverless fleet, particularly in U.S. and Chinese markets. Pony.ai already holds testing permits in California and has formed prior alliances with Toyota and Hyundai. The market views this development as a potential vote of confidence from a high-profile industry veteran at a time when AV firms are shifting focus from R&D to monetization.

HPE and Juniper Settle DOJ Investigation, Refocus on AI and Cloud Infrastructure Growth

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks have jointly announced a resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), concluding an investigation into legacy contract practices. While details of the settlement remain confidential, both firms emphasized that the agreement eliminates a legal overhang and allows renewed focus on strategic initiatives.

Post-settlement, both companies plan to intensify efforts in next-generation data infrastructure—particularly in areas of AI compute workloads, edge-cloud integration, and secure networking. HPE’s upcoming AI-native server products and Juniper’s growing traction in AI-driven network management position them well to capture share in a $100B+ global data centre transformation market. Analysts believe this clarity could drive upward earnings revisions in the coming quarters as CapEx cycles in enterprise IT begin to rebound.