• Acquisition will expand Cognizant’s AI builder technology stack with production-grade AI operations capabilities

• Astreya, a specialist in AI infrastructure and data center services with deep expertise in data center and managed workplace services, to join Cognizant amid the largest data center infrastructure buildout in history

TEANECK, N.J., April 29, 2026  /PRNewswire/ — Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Astreya, a leading platform-led, global AI-first IT managed services and solutions provider headquartered in San Jose, California, for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to advance Cognizant’s transformation as an AI builder and to meaningfully expand Cognizant’s AI infrastructure foundation capabilities by harnessing Astreya’s extensive managed services capabilities for enterprise clients at scale.

Founded in 2001 and operating across more than thirty-five countries, Astreya brings a 25-year track record as a trusted partner to the world’s largest technology companies, including long-term, outcome-based managed services relationships with six of the “Magnificent Seven” hyperscalers. Its proprietary AI OpsHub platform, with modules for readiness assessment, signal intelligence, analytics, and agentic automation and Tech Innovation Office are expected to deepen Cognizant’s AI talent pool and strengthen its production-grade AI delivery capabilities, translating broad AI potential into specific business outcomes and enterprise-ready platforms tailored to individual client contexts. Combined with Cognizant’s hybrid-by-design AI infrastructure strategy, Astreya’s differentiated expertise in designing, building, and managing AI infrastructure across the full value chain is expected to help support and accelerate customers’ transformation journeys. Astreya’s bespoke client AI solutions and its ecosystem partnerships anchored by Google Cloud Platform and ServiceNow will become key assets within Cognizant’s global delivery infrastructure.

“Between 2025 and 2030 there is a projected $6.7 trillion AI data center infrastructure buildout currently reshaping the global technology landscape, with global capacity expected to double in five years. The five largest hyperscalers are expected to spend nearly $700 billion on infrastructure in 2026 alone. By acquiring Astreya and its proprietary AI tooling and production-grade infrastructure platform, which is complementary to Cognizant’s AI builder stack, we will be even better-positioned to help clients architect their platform-led AI systems and operationalize them at scale,” said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S.

Surya Gummadi, President of Cognizant Americas added, “AI data center investment is a critical path for future economic and job growth, especially in the U.S., where data centers and related high-tech investment activities were estimated to account for 80% of private domestic demand growth in the first half of 2025, and hyperscaler capital spending is now nearing $400 billion annually, with each direct data center job supporting more than six jobs elsewhere in the economy. Effective and credible scaling of AI infrastructure, including data centers, requires deep context and AI builder expertise. We expect the acquisition of Astreya will meaningfully expand Cognizant’s AI Infrastructure capabilities and enhance our powerful ‘Magnificent Seven’ hyperscaler relationships.”

Astreya’s AI OpsHub, with modules for readiness assessment, signal intelligence, analytics, and agentic automation, gives Cognizant a ready-built operations engine already generating measurable results. In addition to the Tech Innovation Office, Astreya’s bespoke client AI solutions, extensive managed services capabilities and its ecosystem partnerships anchored by Google Cloud Platform and ServiceNow will become key assets within Cognizant’s global delivery infrastructure.

“Astreya has redefined what it means to be a trusted partner in the AI era, embedding intelligence into every solution, without losing the human connection that drives real results. Joining Cognizant is the natural next chapter for the Astreya global team and importantly, the clients who have trusted us to operate their most critical technology environments. We have spent the last several years making deliberate, disciplined investments in AI: building platforms, training specialists and fundamentally redesigning how managed services are delivered. We look forward to attacking the AI infrastructure era as a part of Cognizant!” said Romil Bahl, President and CEO, Astreya. 

The acquisition directly accelerates Cognizant’s transition into an AI builder, where the company is helping enterprises bridge the gap between AI infrastructure investment and business value by operationalizing and deploying interdisciplinary talent capable of operating AI systems at scale. Astreya is an operational managed services provider already providing managed services within environments operated by six of the hyperscalers, managing data center infrastructure, AI lab environments, enterprise networks, and workplace technology at hyperscaler scale, with nearly a decade of consecutive outcomes-based managed services delivery.

For Cognizant’s existing clients, the acquisition is expected to deliver proven AI operations capabilities – accelerators, platform IP and hyperscaler-hardened talent – that can be deployed immediately. For Astreya’s existing clients, Cognizant’s global scale and industry breadth is expected to unlock meaningfully expanded service capacity and accelerate the commercialization of emerging Enterprise AI Ops capabilities at a pace not achievable as a standalone managed service provider.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About Cognizant:
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is an AI builder and technology services provider, building the bridge between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, realize tangible returns and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.

About Astreya:
Astreya is a global IT Managed Services provider that powers enterprises by designing, deploying, and managing complex technology environments. We deliver end-to-end solutions across hybrid cloud, data centers, network infrastructure, and the digital workplace. Intelligent automation and AI run through everything we build to drive efficiency, accelerate service delivery, and clear barriers to growth for our customers.

Advisors
Mayer Brown served as legal advisor to Cognizant. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Latham & Watkins and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP served as legal advisors to Astreya.

For more information, contact:

• Tyler Scott SVP, Investor Relations: tyler.scott@cognizant.com
• Jeff DeMarrais SVP, Chief Communications Officer:  jeff.demarrais@cognizant.com 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied forward-looking statements relating to the business of Astreya, including the expected growth; the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, including anticipated benefits relating to synergies, new business opportunities, and growth; the expected timing of the transaction closing; the combined company’s plans, objectives, expectations, and intentions; projected AI data center investment; anticipated hyperscaler capital spending; and other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include the risk that the expected benefits from the transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer than anticipated to be realized; disruption to the parties’ businesses as a result of the announcement and pendency of the transaction; the ability to obtain required approvals of the transaction on the timeline expected, or at all, and the risk that such approvals may result in the imposition of conditions that could adversely affect us after the closing of the transaction or adversely affect the expected benefits of the transaction; reputational risk and the reaction of each company’s customers, suppliers, employees or other business partners to the transaction; the failure of the closing conditions in the transaction agreement to be satisfied, or any unexpected delay in closing the transaction or the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the transaction agreement; the possibility that the transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; risks related to management and oversight of the expanded business and operations of Cognizant following the transaction; the risk that combining Astreya’s business and operations into Cognizant will be more costly or difficult than expected, or that we are otherwise unable to successfully integrate Astreya’s businesses with our own, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; and general competitive, economic, political and market conditions and other factors that may affect our future results or that of Astreya, including general economic conditions, the competitive and rapidly changing nature of the markets we compete in, the competitive marketplace for talent and its impact on employee recruitment and retention, our ability to successfully use AI-based technologies, legal, reputational and financial risks resulting from cyberattacks, changes in the regulatory environment, including with respect to immigration and taxes. Additional factors which could affect future results are discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.

Four research capabilities position Agentic AI as a trustworthy decision partner for enterprises

SINGAPORE, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As AI systems become more capable of answering questions and executing tasks, the central question for enterprises has shifted from whether AI can be used to whether it can be trusted. Many AI systems continue to deliver confident responses even when uncertain—an issue that, in business contexts, can escalate from a poor user experience into operational risk.

Appier, an AI-native Agentic AI as a Service (AaaS) company, today announced new research from its global AI team focused on a critical capability: AI self-awareness. The research enables AI to ask more precisely, assess risk, and recognize the limits of its own knowledge. These capabilities are embedded across its Ad Cloud, Personalization Cloud, and Data Cloud—accelerating the transition from usable AI to trustworthy AI, and positioning AI as a reliable decision partner for enterprises.

Enterprise AI risk is no longer hypothetical. From customer service errors to content hallucinations, a consistent pattern has emerged across the industry: AI frequently fails to recognize when it should not respond at all. “As AI agents increasingly connect people, tools, and software into more complex systems, the true source of enterprise advantage will be whether AI can be trusted to make decisions,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Appier. “Through our proprietary data, domain expertise, industry-specific models, and frontier research, Appier is bringing trustworthy Agentic AI into real-world business scenarios and enabling enterprises to make decisions alongside AI with confidence.”

Appier has long invested in academic–industry collaboration and frontier research, publishing over 400 papers in leading international journals and conferences. Its recent work on trustworthy Agentic AI has been recognized at top-tier venues including NeurIPS, ACL, and EMNLP.

Appier has identified four key barriers to enterprise AI adoption: Models lose previously learned capabilities after fine-tuning, AI either guesses without sufficient information, or asks too many clarifying questions when faced with ambiguity. Systems lack the risk awareness required to determine when to respond. Traditional benchmarks fail to measure whether AI can actually solve a given task.

To address these challenges, Appier has developed four corresponding capabilities that enable AI to ask precisely, evaluate risk, retain prior knowledge, and accurately assess its own limits.

For precise inquiry, Appier’s research found that internal model judgment alone is insufficient. By incorporating verifiable external feedback and cross-model validation prior to responding, AI can ask more relevant questions and improve the balance between task accuracy and user experience by over 30%.

For risk assessment, Appier applies a “skill decomposition” approach that separates problem-solving, confidence estimation, and expected-value decision-making—allowing AI to act more rationally under uncertainty and reduce high-risk expected loss by 60–70%.

For capability calibration, Appier has introduced a novel mechanism that predicts the probability of a correct answer before responding, providing clearer visibility into capability boundaries at near-zero inference cost (less than one token).

To address catastrophic forgetting, Appier developed a fine-tuning method that identifies and avoids high-perplexity tokens, preserving prior reasoning and instruction-following abilities. This approach reduces performance degradation on non-target tasks to near zero, with a preprocessing time of approximately eight minutes—enabling more stable and efficient deployment in enterprise environments.

These research advances are already integrated into Appier’s AI Agent workflows. In consumer-facing scenarios, a beauty brand’s AI agent without self-awareness might respond to a Mother’s Day restaurant inquiry with off-brand content, fabricate product details, or over-promote its offerings—damaging brand trust.

By contrast, Appier’s Sales and Service Agents understand their boundaries, decline to answer beyond their expertise, clarify ambiguous queries before responding, and recommend products only when appropriate, reducing the risk of misinformation and inappropriate interactions.

The same principle applies in enterprise operations. When a marketer requests an audience of over 100,000 users spanning five years for a Mother’s Day campaign — but the system has access to only one year of data — Appier’s Audience Agent does not fabricate a response. Instead, it flags the data limitation, clarifies the requirement, and proposes viable alternatives with a clear explanation of the trade-offs, reducing operational decision risk. In current deployments, Appier AI Agents block 80%^[1] of risky responses for enterprise users, with performance continuing to improve as data evolves.

The future of enterprise AI will be defined not by capability alone, but by trust. As AI evolves from a tool into an “AI colleague,” enterprises require agents that know when to answer, when to ask, and when to decline. By integrating research, technology, and product innovation, Appier is closing this critical gap—transforming AI into a trustworthy partner that delivers measurable, sustainable business outcomes.

About Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is an AI-native Agentic AI as a Service (AaaS) company that empowers business decision-making with cutting-edge AdTech and MarTech solutions. Founded in 2012 with the vision of “Making AI Easy by making software intelligent,” Appier endeavors to help businesses turn AI into ROI with its Ad Cloud, Personalization Cloud, and Data Cloud solutions. Now Appier has 17 offices across APAC, the US and EMEA, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit www.appier.com for more company information, and visit ir.appier.com/en/ for more IR information.

CONTACT: pr@appier.com

DUBAI, UAE, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has announced the launch of its “Master Trader’s Showtime: TradFi vs Crypto,” a multi-round global trading competition designed to highlight performance across traditional finance and cryptocurrency strategies, with a total prize pool of 200,000 USDT.

The competition will take place over two independent rounds. Round 1 is active now and will run until May 13, 2026, at 10:00 UTC, followed by Round 2 from May 18, 2026, at 10:00 UTC to June 2, 2026, at 10:00 UTC. Each round will feature its own leaderboard and prize pool of 100,000 USDT.

Participants will compete as Master Traders on Bybit Copy Trading, selecting either a Classic or TradFi trading category at registration. Rankings will be determined by a combination of total team trading volume and profit and loss performance, factoring in both Master Traders and their Followers. Followers are automatically enrolled upon copying a registered Master Trader.

To qualify for leaderboard placement, participants must meet minimum trading volume thresholds. Classic traders are required to reach at least 75,000 USDT in total Copy Trading volume, while TradFi participants must achieve at least 1,500,000 USDx. Each Master Trader must also maintain a minimum of 20 active Followers.

The competition will reward the top 50 Master Traders in each round. The first-place team will receive 25,000 USDT, followed by 12,000 USDT for second place and 8,000 USDT for third. Additional rewards will be distributed across lower-ranked positions, with payouts shared between Master Traders and their Followers. Master Traders receive 50 percent of total rewards, while the remaining portion is distributed proportionally among Followers based on trading volume.

In addition to leaderboard rewards, the event includes engagement-based incentives. During the first week of each round, users may allocate “likes” to Master Traders. If a liked trader finishes within the top three, eligible participants may share in a 1,000 USDT reward pool. Additional boosted rewards are available for users who both like and continue copying a Master Trader throughout the round.

Leaderboard standings will be updated daily on a T+1 basis, with final rankings verified following internal compliance and data reviews. Rewards will be distributed as USDT airdrops to eligible participants within 14 working days after the conclusion of each round.

Participation is subject to eligibility requirements, including identity verification and geographic restrictions. The event is not available to users residing in the European Economic Area. Institutional users and market makers are also excluded.

The tournament is designed to encourage competitive trading while reinforcing transparency and fairness across its Copy Trading ecosystem.

#Bybit / #NewFinancialPlatform

About Bybit

Bybit is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 80 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for everyone. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit partners strategically with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, empowering builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com.

For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press
For media inquiries, please contact: media@bybit.com
For updates, please follow: Bybit’s Communities and Social Media

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BEIJING, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On April 24, iQIYI, China’s leading online entertainment platform, launched “Voices of Youth”, a brand-new variety show bringing together 25 young artists spanning vocalists, idol artists, crossover actors, and emerging musicians to form China’s first pop performance choral show. Before its premiere, the show topped the Most Anticipated Variety Shows chart on Weibo, China’s leading social media platform, multiple times and debuted simultaneously on iQIYI International across markets to strong reception.

“Voices of Youth” introduces a first-of-its-kind “pop performance choral” format, moving beyond both traditional choral conventions and domestic idol competition shows. Integrating SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) four-part professional choral arrangements with dance and theatrical staging, the show uses mixed-voice ensembles to enrich the musical texture and elevate the visual impact, delivering an immersive audiovisual experience that bridges choral artistry and popular culture. Grounded in the creative energy of today’s Chinese youth, the format speaks a musical language familiar to international audiences.

The show follows 25 young artists through intensive training, competitive stage performance, and international cultural exchange, chronicling their journey from strangers into a unified ensemble and capturing the passion and camaraderie that define the experience of youth.

In its song selection and arrangements, the show is closely attuned to the aesthetic preferences of younger audiences, bringing choral music out of the concert hall and into the mainstream. The production team applies a world-class choral training framework across varieties of full-scale stage productions this season, holding every performance to rigorous artistic standards. Beyond the stage, the show serves as a platform for international cultural exchange, bringing together leading choral ensembles from China and abroad to showcase the musical talent and spirit of today’s Chinese youth, and to build genuine connections between young artists across cultures.

“Voices of Youth” is the latest example of iQIYI’s investment in original variety show, developing new formats that go beyond existing IP. By pairing a universally accessible art form, the series is part of iQIYI’s broader effort to bring Chinese creative talent to a global audience.

CONTACT: iQIYI Press
press@qiyi.com