Month: January 2026

–Packaging And Crating Technologies Partners with Prestigious Canadian Tech Institute to Deliver Specialized Lithium Battery Safety Education–

WATERTOWN, Conn., Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — According to Clean Energy Canada, a nonprofit organization that accelerates the country’s transition to renewable resources, electric vehicles (EVs) are transforming the automotive industry.  In fact, in 2024, nearly 23% of all new vehicle registrations in British Columbia were zero-emission vehicles – the highest rate in North America.  With over 153,000 EVs on the Canadian highways, the demand for skilled EV technicians is also skyrocketing. To support this growing fleet, the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is offering cutting-edge training to drive the future of sustainable transportation and is using a Connecticut manufacture’s lithium battery safety solutions in all of its automotive courses.  Specifically, BCIT has adopted Packaging And Crating Technologies‘ (PACT) patented Thermo Shield™ line of fire-suppressant paper wrap into its curriculum to ensure protection for the next generation of skilled EV mechanics.

“The BCIT School of Transportation stands as a prominent leader in training learners and business partners across North America for the demands of the dynamic automotive sector,” said Jim Berladyn, Automotive Technologist Instructor at BCIT.  “With the rise of electric vehicles on the road, comes new methods of service and repair that require advanced safety measures and specialized training.”

Berladyn explains that he first encountered PACT’s innovative Thermo Shield™ products at the 2023 National Battery Show in Novi, Michigan, an annual event that attracts 100,000 engineers, business leaders, and innovative thinkers from the battery and EV tech industries.  “I’ve been to a lot of EV shows throughout my career and was immediately impressed with PACT’s hands-on display and powerful videos of how the products both prevent and extinguish lithium battery fires within seconds,” he adds.

PACT Thermo Shield™ was invented in 2019 as a thermal management system for shipping and storing items containing lithium batteries.  It consists of thin, lightweight, paper material coated with proprietary ink.  When a lithium battery goes into thermal runaway and burns, the special ink releases a moisture barrier that creates a vapor cloud to immediately cool the internal contents of the package, which stops a fire entirely, while limiting oxygen around the package to prevent the battery temperature from escalating to 1,500° Fahrenheit, at which point, lethal gases form.

The material has been tested by several independent 3rd party organizations in America and Canada and has been endorsed by the Commercial Relocation Network, the Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials, and the International Association of Movers. It is also a preferred product for the US Department of Defense and has been awarded a special permit from the US Department of Transportation for the shipping of lithium batteries, as well as passed the proposed SAE-G-27 test standard.

Taking the technology one step further, PACT then developed TR Sleeve™, which mitigates thermal runaway propagation between lithium battery cells within electric vehicles, battery packs and renewable energy storage systems.  By individually wrapping each battery cell with the super thin, Thermo Shield™ paper, TR Sleeve™ ensures comprehensive protection without compromising the overall performance of the battery.  Regardless of the cell design, batteries can be tightly pressed or stacked without potting materials or separators, achieving maximum energy density within the battery packs.

“TR Sleeve™ stands at the forefront of safety, sustainability, and efficiency in battery technology,” said Rodger Mort, chief operating officer at Packaging And Crating Technologies.  “Its unique features not only address critical safety concerns but also contribute to a greener and more cost-effective future for EVs, E-buses, E-bikes, E-scooters, and other modern mobility equipment that use lithium batteries.”

Berladyn emphasizes that the TR Sleeve™ will be used as a valuable teaching device in BCIT’s Electric Vehicle Technology and Service course, which prepares Automotive Service Technicians to safely diagnose, service and repair high-voltage electric vehicles systems and develop the knowledge and skills required to confidently work on the majority of EV brands.

He also foresees incorporating PACT’s newest invention- the PACT Lion-X™ Fire Extinguisher, which is still undergoing testing requirements but is targeted to be available by end of the year.  The pre-mixed, water-based solution quenches lithium battery fires upwards of 1,600 degrees within seconds, while eliminating the release of toxic gases into the environment and is the first of its kind on a global scale.

“By partnering with forward-thinking companies like PACT, we are providing our students with valuable knowledge that will prevent accidents and save lives” said Berladyn. 

For more information about PACT Thermo Shield™, visit: www.pactthermoshield.com. For more information on BCIT, visit: www.bcit.ca.

ABOUT PACT^® 
PACT^® is a global leader in manufacturing sustainable, packaging products for the commercial, industrial and military industries. With more than 30 years of experience, the family business was founded by three green packaging professionals and continues to embrace a green future by designing cost-effective, patented, crating solutions like LiftVans and PleatWrap, as well as custom packaging for the aerospace, medical, electronics, tooling, machinery, furniture, fine art and automotive sectors.  The company’s newest innovation is Thermo Shield^™, a sustainable, paper-based packaging material that suppresses and controls lithium-ion battery fires by mitigating thermal runaway.  PACT is a member of the Commercial Relocation Network, the Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials and the International Association of Movers. The company is also a preferred vendor for the US Department of Defense and has been awarded a special permit from the US Department of Transportation for the shipping of lithium-ion batteries, as well as passed the proposed SAE-G-27 test standard.   For a full list PACT^®‘s sustainable, fire-suppressant packaging solutions, visit www.pactww.com.

ABOUT BCIT
For over 60 years, the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) has been delivering flexible, relevant, and future-proof education that prepares learners to lead innovation in their workplaces and communities. As one of British Columbia’s largest post-secondary institutes with five campuses, 300+ programs, and over 40,000 students enrolled each year, BCIT connects education, industry, and government in building an agile workforce. The BCIT curriculum is developed through close consultation with industry and delivered by instructors who have hands-on experience in their fields.

BCIT is the only post-secondary in North America that delivers globally recognized accreditation in all modes of transportation: air, sea, road, and rail. More: www.bcit.ca/.

PHOTO:
The British Columbia Institute of Technology is incorporating Packaging And Crating Technologies‘ (PACT) patented Thermo Shield™ line of fire-suppressant paper wrap into its EV technician training curriculum to prevent lithium battery fires and ensure protection for the next generation of mechanics.

Photo: PACT, LLC

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SOURCE Packaging And Crating Technologies

New Platform Established to Advance, Develop and Operate a 20 GW Portfolio of Utility-Scale Solar and Battery Storage Projects

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fundamental Advisors (“Fundamental”), an established alternative asset manager focused on municipal, public purpose and community assets, today announced the launch of MorningSky Power (“MorningSky” or the “Company”), a renewable energy platform formed to develop and operate utility scale solar and energy storage projects across the U.S.

MorningSky will be headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, and will operate across 27 states with a portfolio comprising 117 development projects. The newly established company will serve as a developer and owner-operator of utility-scale renewable energy and battery storage projects across the United States, leveraging deep industry partnerships and technical expertise to accelerate the delivery of reliable power capacity. MorningSky currently has approximately 20 GW of solar and battery storage capacity under development and will focus on advancing priority utility-scale projects through late-stage development, permitting, interconnection, and financing. As part of the launch, MorningSky has extended employment and consulting offers to 46 highly capable and experienced members of the former Pine Gate development team.

MorningSky launches with a portfolio of solar development assets acquired through an Asset Purchase Agreement with Pine Gate Renewables, LLC (“Pine Gate'”). In conjunction with the launch, Fundamental also announced the sale by Pine Gate of Sunstone Power (“Sunstone”), a 1.2-gigawatt (GW) solar and battery storage project in eastern Oregon, and ACT Power, Pine Gate’s Operations and Maintenance business. In total, Fundamental is expected to receive $88 million in proceeds from the sales. 

“The launch of MorningSky reflects our commitment to disciplined, scalable development at a moment when the nation’s power demands are rising at a faster rate than new capacity can come online,” said Laurence Gottlieb, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fundamental Advisors. “By creating a focused platform with the expertise and flexibility to develop high-quality, utility-scale projects, Fundamental is positioned to help deliver critical renewable power generation for our partners, communities, and the broader economy. As long-term investors in the renewables space, we look forward to the opportunity to accelerate the development and financing of projects that meet our country’s critical energy demand.”

“With MorningSky, we’ve created a focused platform to advance priority projects through late-stage development and deliver reliable power capacity at scale. The sale of Sunstone underscores both the quality of the assets in this portfolio and the strong demand for well-positioned, energy generation assets across the United States,” said Jon Saxon, Chief Executive Officer of MorningSky Power. “As power demand reaches unprecedented levels, we expect the buyer pool for strategic solar and renewable assets to continue expanding. Businesses increasingly view the availability and ready supply of ample energy as a competitive advantage and are now moving to secure generation at the source, engaging earlier and more directly in the development and ownership of infrastructure of this scale.”

Advisors
Fundamental was advised by Sidley Austin LLP, Berkeley Research Group and Guggenheim Securities, LLC.

About Fundamental Advisors
Founded in 2007, Fundamental Advisors is an established alternative investment manager focused on the development and revitalization of municipal, public purpose and community assets. Through both control-oriented and specialty finance strategies, Fundamental pursues asset-based opportunities across essential service sectors, including affordable housing, senior care, renewable energy, and non-traditional infrastructure.

For more information, please visit www.Fundamental.com.

MorningSky Power
MorningSky Power is a renewable energy platform formed by Fundamental Advisors to develop and operate utility scale solar and energy storage projects across the U.S. The company is currently developing a portfolio of approximately 20 GW of solar and battery storage capacity across over 100 projects in 27 states. For more information, please visit www.MorningSkyPower.com.

Contact:
Madeline Jones / Alexander Wolfsohn
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
212-355-4449
Fundamental-JF@joelefrank.com

This press release may contain “forward‑looking statements,” including statements regarding expected transaction proceeds, development plans, project pipeline, and market conditions. Forward‑looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that could cause differences include, among others, completion of post‑closing adjustments, receipt of regulatory and third‑party approvals, development, permitting and interconnection timelines, availability and cost of financing, supply‑chain dynamics, power market conditions, and other risks. Fundamental Advisors undertakes no obligation to update any forward‑looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or interests in any fund or vehicle managed by Fundamental Advisors, nor shall there be any sale of such securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fundamental-advisors-launches-morningsky-power-302675426.html

SOURCE Fundamental Advisors

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today EcoPlum®, a sustainable promotional products company in New York City, announced its national recertification for the sixth consecutive year by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC) Metro New York, a regional partner organization under the WBENC umbrella, conducted the review.

“The EcoPlum Sustainable Swag® business has benefited greatly from opportunities afforded us by our WBENC certification this past six years, including access to new clients and to so many fabulous women experts in their respective fields supporting each other,” said Gia Machlin, Founder and CEO EcoPlum.

The recertification process conducted by WBEC includes a rigorous annual review with validation of financial documents and business operations, including a periodic site review with EcoPlum this week. This prestigious national standard of certification confirms that the business is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women.

WBENC is the largest third-party certifier of majority women-owned businesses in the U.S. The WBENC certification is one of the most widely recognized and respected credentials in the nation, accepted by hundreds of corporations and many federal, state, and local government agencies. Founded in 1997 to develop a women-owned standard accreditation, the nonprofit organization is the nation’s leading advocate for women-owned businesses as suppliers to America’s companies. Throughout the year, WBENC provides business development opportunities for member corporations, government agencies and thousands of certified women-owned businesses at events and other forums. WBENC is also an approved third-party certifier for the United States SBA (Small Business Administration) WOSB (Women-Owned Small Business) Federal Contracting Program.

WBEC Metro NY administers WBENC certification to an active community of over 1,700 certified women-owned businesses in New York, Northern and Central New Jersey, and Southern Connecticut. It is one of 14 WBENC Regional Partner Organizations (RPOs) in the country and its primary mission is to further the success of its local members and build on the partnerships with Fortune 1000 corporations and other WBEs (Women’s Business Enterprises). As an advocate for certified WBEs, WBEC offers resources, information, educational programs, and opportunities for networking and collaboration.

EcoPlum is a nationally Certified B Corporation, has an EcoVadis Bronze Sustainability Rating, and is a Green America Gold Business. The socially responsible business sells unique, innovative, high-quality, best-in-class promotional merchandise that combines both style and function. It’s Shop by Purpose using environmental criteria or event type is located here.

About EcoPlum
EcoPlum is a nationally certified B Corporation that provides branded marketing solutions with its Sustainable Swag® line of promotional products. We curate best-in-class, eco-friendly gift items and customize them for clients with their logos, taglines, or messages. EcoPlum empowers companies to make responsible choices on their branded gifts – a visible symbol of their values – with a goal of reducing plastic and harmful waste in our landfills and oceans. The company upholds rigorous and transparent standards for ecological and social sustainability. Our product sourcing criteria include USDA organic, fair trade, biodegradable, renewable, recycled, reusable, Made-in-the-USA, handcrafted or artisan, and third-party eco-labels. We also seek out suppliers that are certified B Corporations (B Corps), women/minority-owned, socially conscious, and Fair Labor Association (FLA) members. 

Sustainable Swag® solutions at EcoPlum.com, https://ecoplum.com. For more information: info(at)ecoplum(dot)com, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EcoPlum, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecoplum, EcoPlum Biz Blog, Twitter via @ecoplum, and Instagram via @ecoplum.

Contact: 

Marcia Robbins
ecoplum.com
1-888-730-9990 Ext. 3
marcia@ecoplum.com

Gia Machlin
ecoplum.com
1-888-730-9990 Ext. 1
gia@ecoplum.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ecoplum-recertified-for-sixth-year-by-nationally-recognized-wbenc-302675366.html

SOURCE EcoPlum

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today EcoPlum®, a sustainable promotional products company in New York City, announced its national recertification for the sixth consecutive year by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC) Metro New York, a regional partner organization under the WBENC umbrella, conducted the review.

“The EcoPlum Sustainable Swag® business has benefited greatly from opportunities afforded us by our WBENC certification this past six years, including access to new clients and to so many fabulous women experts in their respective fields supporting each other,” said Gia Machlin, Founder and CEO EcoPlum.

The recertification process conducted by WBEC includes a rigorous annual review with validation of financial documents and business operations, including a periodic site review with EcoPlum this week. This prestigious national standard of certification confirms that the business is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women.

WBENC is the largest third-party certifier of majority women-owned businesses in the U.S. The WBENC certification is one of the most widely recognized and respected credentials in the nation, accepted by hundreds of corporations and many federal, state, and local government agencies. Founded in 1997 to develop a women-owned standard accreditation, the nonprofit organization is the nation’s leading advocate for women-owned businesses as suppliers to America’s companies. Throughout the year, WBENC provides business development opportunities for member corporations, government agencies and thousands of certified women-owned businesses at events and other forums. WBENC is also an approved third-party certifier for the United States SBA (Small Business Administration) WOSB (Women-Owned Small Business) Federal Contracting Program.

WBEC Metro NY administers WBENC certification to an active community of over 1,700 certified women-owned businesses in New York, Northern and Central New Jersey, and Southern Connecticut. It is one of 14 WBENC Regional Partner Organizations (RPOs) in the country and its primary mission is to further the success of its local members and build on the partnerships with Fortune 1000 corporations and other WBEs (Women’s Business Enterprises). As an advocate for certified WBEs, WBEC offers resources, information, educational programs, and opportunities for networking and collaboration.

EcoPlum is a nationally Certified B Corporation, has an EcoVadis Bronze Sustainability Rating, and is a Green America Gold Business. The socially responsible business sells unique, innovative, high-quality, best-in-class promotional merchandise that combines both style and function. It’s Shop by Purpose using environmental criteria or event type is located here.

About EcoPlum
EcoPlum is a nationally certified B Corporation that provides branded marketing solutions with its Sustainable Swag® line of promotional products. We curate best-in-class, eco-friendly gift items and customize them for clients with their logos, taglines, or messages. EcoPlum empowers companies to make responsible choices on their branded gifts – a visible symbol of their values – with a goal of reducing plastic and harmful waste in our landfills and oceans. The company upholds rigorous and transparent standards for ecological and social sustainability. Our product sourcing criteria include USDA organic, fair trade, biodegradable, renewable, recycled, reusable, Made-in-the-USA, handcrafted or artisan, and third-party eco-labels. We also seek out suppliers that are certified B Corporations (B Corps), women/minority-owned, socially conscious, and Fair Labor Association (FLA) members. 

Sustainable Swag® solutions at EcoPlum.com, https://ecoplum.com. For more information: info(at)ecoplum(dot)com, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EcoPlum, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecoplum, EcoPlum Biz Blog, Twitter via @ecoplum, and Instagram via @ecoplum.

Contact: 

Marcia Robbins
ecoplum.com
1-888-730-9990 Ext. 3
marcia@ecoplum.com

Gia Machlin
ecoplum.com
1-888-730-9990 Ext. 1
gia@ecoplum.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ecoplum-recertified-for-sixth-year-by-nationally-recognized-wbenc-302675366.html

SOURCE EcoPlum

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The California Lawyers Association (CLA), consistent with its mission to promote fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law, expresses serious concern regarding federal law enforcement actions that raise constitutional and other legal questions.

Recent federal immigration enforcement operations in locations including Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Maine have raised questions about adherence to constitutional principles and the rule of law. Reports of warrantless home entries, detention practices without adequate judicial oversight, restrictions on access to legal counsel, and the use of force against individuals have prompted concern across the legal community about fundamental protections guaranteed to all persons under the United States Constitution.

CLA affirms that constitutional protections apply to all persons and are not negotiable in the pursuit of any policy objective. The Fourth Amendment prohibits warrantless entries into private homes and requires probable cause for arrests and detention. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to legal counsel. The First Amendment protects the right to peacefully protest and to record law enforcement activity in public spaces. These constitutional safeguards form the bedrock of our democracy and must be upheld by all law enforcement agencies, regardless of their mission or jurisdiction.

In California, pursuant to California Rule of Court 9.7, as amended effective October 1, 2025, every attorney must annually reaffirm their oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. This requirement underscores that our obligation to uphold constitutional principles is not merely aspirational; it is a recurring professional commitment that California attorneys renew each year. When government actions raise serious questions about constitutional compliance, attorneys have a heightened responsibility to ensure that the rule of law prevails.

CLA stands in solidarity with legal organizations nationwide in affirming that all law enforcement activity must be conducted within lawful authority, with transparency, accountability, and full respect for constitutional protections, including due process and equal justice under the law.

CLA calls on courts and oversight institutions to ensure independent review of actions that implicate civil liberties and due process. As lawyers and officers of the court, we have a duty to speak out when the rule of law is threatened and to affirm that constitutional limits on government power are essential to liberty, safety, justice, and the functioning of our democracy. CLA reaffirms the role of lawyers and legal institutions in maintaining public confidence in the justice system and the rule of law.

The California Lawyers Association (CLA) is a member-driven, mission-focused organization dedicated to the professional advancement of attorneys practicing in the state of California.

Established in 2018, CLA is a nonprofit, voluntary bar association serving thousands of licensed attorneys throughout California. We are the premier statewide voice for the legal community, advocating on behalf of our members before the Legislature, the Judiciary, the Executive Branch, and the State Bar of California, which is the licensing and disciplinary regulator of our industry.

Contact: Alicia Pilmore, Marketing and Communications Department Head
communications@calawyers.org

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-lawyers-association-statement-on-upholding-constitutional-principles-and-rule-of-law-in-federal-immigration-enforcement-302675337.html

SOURCE California Lawyers Association

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The California Lawyers Association (CLA), consistent with its mission to promote fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law, expresses serious concern regarding federal law enforcement actions that raise constitutional and other legal questions.

Recent federal immigration enforcement operations in locations including Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Maine have raised questions about adherence to constitutional principles and the rule of law. Reports of warrantless home entries, detention practices without adequate judicial oversight, restrictions on access to legal counsel, and the use of force against individuals have prompted concern across the legal community about fundamental protections guaranteed to all persons under the United States Constitution.

CLA affirms that constitutional protections apply to all persons and are not negotiable in the pursuit of any policy objective. The Fourth Amendment prohibits warrantless entries into private homes and requires probable cause for arrests and detention. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to legal counsel. The First Amendment protects the right to peacefully protest and to record law enforcement activity in public spaces. These constitutional safeguards form the bedrock of our democracy and must be upheld by all law enforcement agencies, regardless of their mission or jurisdiction.

In California, pursuant to California Rule of Court 9.7, as amended effective October 1, 2025, every attorney must annually reaffirm their oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. This requirement underscores that our obligation to uphold constitutional principles is not merely aspirational; it is a recurring professional commitment that California attorneys renew each year. When government actions raise serious questions about constitutional compliance, attorneys have a heightened responsibility to ensure that the rule of law prevails.

CLA stands in solidarity with legal organizations nationwide in affirming that all law enforcement activity must be conducted within lawful authority, with transparency, accountability, and full respect for constitutional protections, including due process and equal justice under the law.

CLA calls on courts and oversight institutions to ensure independent review of actions that implicate civil liberties and due process. As lawyers and officers of the court, we have a duty to speak out when the rule of law is threatened and to affirm that constitutional limits on government power are essential to liberty, safety, justice, and the functioning of our democracy. CLA reaffirms the role of lawyers and legal institutions in maintaining public confidence in the justice system and the rule of law.

The California Lawyers Association (CLA) is a member-driven, mission-focused organization dedicated to the professional advancement of attorneys practicing in the state of California.

Established in 2018, CLA is a nonprofit, voluntary bar association serving thousands of licensed attorneys throughout California. We are the premier statewide voice for the legal community, advocating on behalf of our members before the Legislature, the Judiciary, the Executive Branch, and the State Bar of California, which is the licensing and disciplinary regulator of our industry.

Contact: Alicia Pilmore, Marketing and Communications Department Head
communications@calawyers.org

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-lawyers-association-statement-on-upholding-constitutional-principles-and-rule-of-law-in-federal-immigration-enforcement-302675337.html

SOURCE California Lawyers Association

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Zilliz, the company behind the leading open-source vector database Milvus, today announced the open-source release of its Bilingual Semantic Highlighting Model, an industry-first AI model designed to dramatically reduce token usage and improve answer quality in production RAG-powered AI applications.

This highlighting model introduces sentence-level relevance filtering, enabling AI developers to remove low-signal context before sending prompts to large language models. This approach directly addresses rising inference costs and accuracy issues caused by oversized context windows in enterprise RAG and RAG-powered AI deployments.

“As RAG systems move into production, teams are running into very real cost and quality limits,” said James Luan, VP of Engineering at Zilliz. “This model gives developers a practical way to reduce prompt size and improve answer accuracy without reworking their existing pipelines.”

Key Innovations and Technical Breakthroughs

• Bilingual relevance by design: Optimized for both English and Chinese, the model addresses cross-lingual relevance challenges common in global RAG deployments. It is built on the MiniCPM-2B architecture, enabling low-latency, production-ready performance.
• Sentence-level context filtering: Rather than scoring entire document chunks, the model evaluates relevance at the sentence level and retains only content that directly supports a user query before sending it to the LLM.
• Lower token usage, higher answer quality: Zilliz reports that sentence-level filtering significantly compresses prompt size while improving downstream response quality, helping teams reduce inference costs and improve generation speed in production environments.

Availability

The Bilingual Semantic Highlighting Model is available today as an open-source release. To learn more about the training methodology and performance benchmarks, visit the Zilliz Technical Blog.

Download: : zilliz/semantic-highlight-bilingual-v1

About Zilliz

Zilliz is the company behind Milvus, the world’s most widely adopted open-source vector database. Zilliz Cloud brings that performance to production with a fully managed, cloud-native platform built for scalable, low-latency vector search and hybrid retrieval. It supports billion-scale workloads with sub-10ms latency, auto-scaling, and optimized indexes for GenAI use cases like semantic search and RAG.

Zilliz is built to make AI not just possible—but practical. With a focus on performance and cost-efficiency, it helps engineering teams move from prototype to production without overprovisioning or complex infrastructure. Over 10,000 organizations worldwide rely on Zilliz to build intelligent applications at scale.

Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Zilliz is backed by leading investors, including Aramco’s Prosperity 7 Ventures, Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, Hillhouse Capital, 5Y Capital, Yunqi Partners, Trustbridge Partners, and others. Learn more at  Zilliz.com.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zilliz-open-sources-industry-first-bilingual-semantic-highlighting-model-to-slash-rag-token-costs-and-boost-accuracy-302675291.html

SOURCE Zilliz

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Zilliz, the company behind the leading open-source vector database Milvus, today announced the open-source release of its Bilingual Semantic Highlighting Model, an industry-first AI model designed to dramatically reduce token usage and improve answer quality in production RAG-powered AI applications.

This highlighting model introduces sentence-level relevance filtering, enabling AI developers to remove low-signal context before sending prompts to large language models. This approach directly addresses rising inference costs and accuracy issues caused by oversized context windows in enterprise RAG and RAG-powered AI deployments.

“As RAG systems move into production, teams are running into very real cost and quality limits,” said James Luan, VP of Engineering at Zilliz. “This model gives developers a practical way to reduce prompt size and improve answer accuracy without reworking their existing pipelines.”

Key Innovations and Technical Breakthroughs

• Bilingual relevance by design: Optimized for both English and Chinese, the model addresses cross-lingual relevance challenges common in global RAG deployments. It is built on the MiniCPM-2B architecture, enabling low-latency, production-ready performance.
• Sentence-level context filtering: Rather than scoring entire document chunks, the model evaluates relevance at the sentence level and retains only content that directly supports a user query before sending it to the LLM.
• Lower token usage, higher answer quality: Zilliz reports that sentence-level filtering significantly compresses prompt size while improving downstream response quality, helping teams reduce inference costs and improve generation speed in production environments.

Availability

The Bilingual Semantic Highlighting Model is available today as an open-source release. To learn more about the training methodology and performance benchmarks, visit the Zilliz Technical Blog.

Download: : zilliz/semantic-highlight-bilingual-v1

About Zilliz

Zilliz is the company behind Milvus, the world’s most widely adopted open-source vector database. Zilliz Cloud brings that performance to production with a fully managed, cloud-native platform built for scalable, low-latency vector search and hybrid retrieval. It supports billion-scale workloads with sub-10ms latency, auto-scaling, and optimized indexes for GenAI use cases like semantic search and RAG.

Zilliz is built to make AI not just possible—but practical. With a focus on performance and cost-efficiency, it helps engineering teams move from prototype to production without overprovisioning or complex infrastructure. Over 10,000 organizations worldwide rely on Zilliz to build intelligent applications at scale.

Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Zilliz is backed by leading investors, including Aramco’s Prosperity 7 Ventures, Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, Hillhouse Capital, 5Y Capital, Yunqi Partners, Trustbridge Partners, and others. Learn more at  Zilliz.com.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zilliz-open-sources-industry-first-bilingual-semantic-highlighting-model-to-slash-rag-token-costs-and-boost-accuracy-302675291.html

SOURCE Zilliz