Yes, actually. They are not strangers to hype as well, to say the least, but like it or hate it, this part of the quote from the Reuters article you are referencing is accurate:
Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy CEO of Sberbank, which is evolving from a major lender into an AI-focused technology conglomerate
Sberbank is, indeed, a strong, well-funded player (I do expect them to have both problems with compute due to sanctions and efficiency problems due to “ways of doing business typical for Russian Federation”, but this is not the first time we are hearing about their AI efforts, and there are no reasons to ignore or dismiss them).
In general, the standard attempts to formulate the situation as the USA-China race are misleading. A number of countries are very strong players, they might be slightly behind at the moment, but this can easily change (especially if some alternatives to Transformers start overtaking the current paradigm, or if there are other reasons for the leaders to experience a bit of a slowdown). This is very much a multilateral situation.
Yes, actually. They are not strangers to hype as well, to say the least, but like it or hate it, this part of the quote from the Reuters article you are referencing is accurate:
Sberbank is, indeed, a strong, well-funded player (I do expect them to have both problems with compute due to sanctions and efficiency problems due to “ways of doing business typical for Russian Federation”, but this is not the first time we are hearing about their AI efforts, and there are no reasons to ignore or dismiss them).
In general, the standard attempts to formulate the situation as the USA-China race are misleading. A number of countries are very strong players, they might be slightly behind at the moment, but this can easily change (especially if some alternatives to Transformers start overtaking the current paradigm, or if there are other reasons for the leaders to experience a bit of a slowdown). This is very much a multilateral situation.