SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 21, 2025--
SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN), a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, today announced that it will be working with Tencent Intelligent Mobility, which is part of Tencent’s Cloud and Smart Industries Group (CSIG) business, to bring its world-class voice and conversational AI capabilities to Tencent Intelligent Mobility's cloud-based solutions for the automotive industry. The collaboration will enable Tencent Intelligent Mobility to deliver dynamic, localized user experiences to automotive players across geographies that are looking to provide end users with seamless handsfree access to a range of in-vehicle applications.
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Tencent Intelligent Mobility is working on integrating SoundHound Chat AI Automotive, the most advanced in-vehicle voice assistant on the market, to give drivers and passengers access to a range of apps, car controls, and entertainment domains (including major audiovisual streaming services) – as well as LLM-powered generative AI responses – just through natural speech.
SoundHound’s conversational voice intelligence is capable of handling complex conversational questions and intelligently filtering responses to ensure the user gets relevant, useful responses – whether they are asking for flight times, navigation, sports scores, or more detailed information like travel recommendations or local history. The company’s proprietary arbitration technology also works to help automakers eliminate the risk associated with AI hallucinations and LLM-generated misinformation.
Users can ask detailed questions and continue the conversation, seamlessly interacting with external knowledge sources and in-vehicle controls interchangeably. For example:
“We’re excited to be working with Tencent Intelligent Mobility to bring their vision for a dynamic, intuitive infotainment platform to life,”said Tom Park, Vice President of Business Development, Asia at SoundHound AI.“Our voice AI will play a critical role in giving drivers safe, hands-free access to a vast range of voice-activated content, changing the way that drivers and passengers interact with their vehicles and creating the intelligent in-vehicle experience of the future.”
“We’re thrilled to explore new user experience in the intelligent cockpit leveraging SoundHound AI’s sophisticated in-vehicle voice assistant powered by LLM,”said Dr. Pei Shen, General Manager of Strategy at Tencent Intelligent Mobility.“We share the vision of SoundHound AI to bring digital content and digital services to drivers and passengers in a safe and intuitive way.”
This partnership between SoundHound AI and Tencent Intelligent Mobility demonstrates the commitment on behalf of both companies to providing localized, high-quality voice AI solutions for a vast range of global markets. Currently, SoundHound provides solutions to a range of automakers globally in over 25 languages.
SoundHound will participate in the 2025 TIME DAY, Tencent Intelligent Mobility Ecosystem Day, on April 22, 2025. Tom Park, the company’s VP of Asia-Pacific Business Development, Automotive, will join the “Globalization Deep-dive” Sub-forum panel to discuss how building local ecosystems can drive global growth.
In addition, Park will deliver a keynote at the forum “Navigating the AI Frontier: Opportunities and Challenges for the Automotive Industry in the AI Era,” co-hosted by the Shanghai Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT Shanghai) and Tencent Cloud. His talk, titled “Voice AI Empowering Intelligent Mobility: How Voice AI Can Enhance Mobility Services and the User Experience,” will take place on April 23 from 15:45 to 15:55.
Learn more about SoundHound AI’s Automotive solutions: www.soundhound.com/voice-ai-solutions/automotive/.
About SoundHound AI
SoundHound (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in conversational intelligence, offers voice and conversational AI solutions that let businesses offer incredible experiences to their customers. Built on proprietary technology, SoundHound’s voice AI delivers best-in-class speed and accuracy in numerous languages to product creators and service providers across retail, financial services, healthcare, automotive, smart devices, and restaurants via groundbreaking AI-driven products like Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive-Thru, and Amelia AI Agents. Along with SoundHound Chat AI, a powerful voice assistant with integrated Generative AI, SoundHound powers millions of products and services, and processes billions of interactions each year for world class businesses.
SoundHound AI will be working with Tencent Intelligent Mobility to bring its world-class voice and conversational AI capabilities to its cloud-based solutions for the automotive industry.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders Saturday by announcing that he wants to retire at the end of the year.
Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Greg Abel should become CEO at the end of the year.
"I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the Chief Executive office of the company at year end,” Buffett said.
Abel has been Buffett's designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire's noninsurance businesses. But it was always assumed he wouldn't take over until after Buffett's death. Previously, the 94-year-old Buffett has always said he has no plans to retire.
Buffett announced the news at the end of a five-hour question and answer period and didn't take any questions about it. He said the only board members who knew this was coming were his two children, Howard and Susie Buffett. Abel, who was sitting next to Buffett on stage, had no warning.
Many investors have said they believe Abel will do a good job running Berkshire, but it remains to be seen how good he will be at investing Berkshire's cash. Buffett also endorsed him Saturday by pledging to keep his fortune invested in the company.
“I have no intention — zero — of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually,” Buffett said. “The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine.”
Thousands of investors in the Omaha arena gave Buffett a prolonged standing ovation after his announcement in recognition of his 60 years leading the company.
CFRA research analyst Cathy Seifert said it had to be hard for Buffett to reach this decision to step down.
“This was probably a very tough decision for him, but better to leave on your own terms,” Seifert said. “I think there will be an effort at maintaining a ‘business as usual’ environment at Berkshire. That is still to be determined.”
Earlier, Buffett warned Saturday about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump's tariffs while telling the thousands of investors gathered at his annual meeting that “trade should not be a weapon” but "there's no question that trade can be an act of war.”
Buffett said Trump's trade policies have raised the risk of global instability by angering the rest of the world.
“It’s a big mistake in my view when you have 7.5 billion people who don’t like you very well, and you have 300 million who are crowing about how they have done,” Buffett said as he addressed the topic on everyone's mind at the start of the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting.
While Buffett said it is best for trade to be balanced between countries, he doesn't think Trump is going about it the right way with his widespread tariffs. He said the world will be safer if more countries are prosperous.
“We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best,” he said.
America has been going through revolutionary changes ever since its birth and the promise of equality for all, which wasn't fulfilled until years later, Buffett said. But nothing that is going on today has changed his long-term optimism about the country.
“If I were being born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they said, ‘You could be in the United States,’” Buffett said.
Buffett said he just doesn't see many attractively priced investments that he understands these days, so Berkshire is sitting on $347.7 billion in cash, but he predicted that one day Berkshire will be “bombarded with opportunities that we will be glad we have the cash for.”
Buffett said the recent turmoil in the markets that generated headlines after Trump's tariff announcement last month “is really nothing.” He dismissed the recent drop in the market because he's seen three periods in the last 60 years of managing Berkshire when his company's stock was halved. He cited when the Dow Jones industrial average went from 240 on the day he was born in 1930 down to 41 during the Great Depression as a truly significant drop in the markets. Currently the Dow Jones Industrial Average sits at $41,317.43.
“This has not been a dramatic bear market or anything of the sort," he said.
Buffett said he hasn't bought back any of Berkshire's shares this year either because they don't seem to be a bargain either.
Investor Chris Bloomstran, who is president of Semper Augustus Investments Group, told the Gabelli investment conference Friday that a financial crisis might be the best thing for Berkshire because it would create opportunities to invest at attractive prices.
“I’m sure he’s praying that the trade war gets worse. He won’t say that publicly, but Berkshire needs a crisis. I mean Berkshire thrives in crisis,” Bloomstran said.
The meeting attracts some 40,000 people every year who want to hear from Buffett, including some celebrities and well-known investors. This year, Hillary Rodham Clinton also attended. Clinton was the last candidate Buffett backed publicly because he has shied away from politics and any controversial topic in recent years for fear of hurting Berkshire’s businesses.
Haibo Liu even camped out overnight outside the arena to be first in line Saturday morning. Liu said he worries that this year could be Buffett’s last meeting since he is 94, so he made it a priority to attend his second meeting.
“He has helped me a lot,” said Liu who traveled from China to attend. “I really want to express my thanks to him."
Shareholder Linda Smith, 73, first learned about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway when she rented a room from his sister, Doris, while she was a graduate student in Washington D.C. Smith said Doris came home from an annual meeting not long after Berkshire bought See’s Candy and told her she had to buy the stock.
Smith couldn’t buy it immediately because the price of a single share was selling for about $3,400 and that was equal to her income as a grad student. But as soon as she got a job after college, she took her friend’s advice and began saving up to buy some of the stock that now sells for $809,350.
Over the years, Smith estimates she has probably attended about 20 annual meetings -- often bringing a friend.
“I really like to listen to Warren Buffett -- particularly this year with everything that has happened,” Smith said.
Buffett has long said he has no plans to retire because he enjoys figuring out where to invest Berkshire’s money too much. He plans to continue working until he dies or becomes incapacitated. But he remains in good health even though he does use a cane, and he shortened the meeting’s question and answer period this year by a couple of hours.
“I think even if he dies, these businesses will retain their value,” Smith said while looking around the 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall filled with booths from Berkshire companies like BNSF railroad, Geico insurance, Pilot truck stops, Duracell batteries and many others. “I anticipate my stock going down for a while but good businesses and good people will come back,” she said.
But Smith and thousands of others will definitely miss hearing Buffett’s voice of reason after he is gone. Buffett has now been leading Berkshire for 60 years.
Buffett has said that Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who already oversees all of Berkshire's non-insurance businesses, will take over as CEO when he is gone.
Shareholders like Steven Check, who runs Check Capital Management, aren't especially worried about succession because Abel is proven and Berkshire's businesses largely run themselves. Buffett has said that Abel might even be a more hands-on manager than he is and get more out of Berkshire's companies.
“I think we’ll get a more hands-on manager and that could be that a good thing,” Check said. But he said Abel also knows that those managers enjoy the freedom to run their businesses and Abel isn't going to do anything to turn them off.
FILE - Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel is seen at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb., on May 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
FILE - Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett speaks during an interview with Liz Claman on Fox Business Network's "Countdown to the Closing Bell," May 7, 2018, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
Nicolas Bustamante of San Francisco, CEO of fintool.com, holds a sign reading, "We miss Charlie Munger," alongside several others as shareholders arrive outside CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Sean DeFendi of Virginia Beach, left, watches over the GEICO Gecko as he uses the Flight Safety International flight simulator in CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Kevin Gao of San Francisco sorts through his bag of Squishmallows from the Jazwares booth in CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Marcy Gomez of Pasadena, Cal., does yoga with fellow See's Candies employees before doors open to shareholders at CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Boxes of See's Candies featuring an image of Warren Buffett at a campsite with See's Candies' namesake Mrs. See in CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Squishmallows in the likeness of Warren Buffett, left, and Charlie Munger sit on display and for sale in the Jazwares booth at CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholders arrive outside CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Shareholders wait in line outside CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
From front, shareholders Haibo Liu, Liyang Jiang and Cheng Guo of China rest in sleeping bags outside CHI Health Center Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. The group arrived at 11 p.m. the night before to retain a spot at the front of the line. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
