| | JULY 20238Disney is looking into strategic options for its Star India business, such as a joint venture or a sale, indicating strain at one of the premier properties it acquired from Fox.According to people familiar with the matter, the company has spoken with at least one bank about ways to help the India business grow while sharing some of the costs. The discussions are still in their early stages, and it is unclear which options, if any, Disney may pursue.Disney and many of its competitors are in the midst of a costly shift away from traditional TV businesses and towards streaming. To accomplish this, they spent heavily on deals, content, and technology both at home and abroad, with mixed results.Disney paid $71.3 billion in 2019 for entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox. At the time, Star India was considered one of Fox's crown jewels, and it was an important part of Disney's plan to build out its fledgling streaming business globally. Wipro Ltd, an Indian IT services provider, announced that it would invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next three years. According to an exchange filing, the investments will focus on the expansion of AI, big data, and analytics solutions, as well as the development of new research and development and platforms.This comes almost a week after rival Tata Consultancy Services announced plans to train 25,000 engineers on Microsoft's Azure Open AI.Companies from banks to big tech have increased their AI investments after ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, took the world by storm in late 2022.Wipro ai360, its AI-first innovation ecosystem, was also launched, and the company stated that it would train all of its approximately 250,000 employees on AI over the next 12 months."We expect a fundamental shift ahead, especially with the emergence of generative AI," Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte said. DISNEY SEEKING STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR STAR INDIA BUSINESSWIPRO COMMITS $1 BILLION FOR AI DEVELOPMENTIN FOCUSIN FOCUS
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