Asia's tech news, weekly: April 16th 2024
TSMC's $6.6BN Arizona subsidy, China's BRI blockchain, Indonesian bank cybersec, Korea AI funding, Thai digital baht giveaway, Japan-NASA partnership, critical tech...
• China: Gov't reportedly to launch 'Ultra-Large-Scale Blockchain Infrastructure Platform for the Belt & Road Initiative', focusing on cross-border BRI-based projects
• 2024 International SpaceTech Startup Supporting Program from Taiwan Accelerator Plus applications close May 10, seeking firms focused on Asia-Pacific
• March 2024 round-up of critical and emerging tech news is now online, covering space tech, critical minerals, semiconductors, supply chains and more
• India: More on the €100M partnership between Indian Institute of Technology Madras and France's Starburst Accelerator, aiming to boost India's aviation, space and defense ecosystems
Indonesia: "We put our money in the [Bank Rakyat Indonesia] for security. But if hackers can get in so easily and find all our data, BRI must have a big problem with their security."
• China: Nationwide computing power network moves forward, targeting operation in 2025 and aiming to widen access both to computing resources and the energy requirements underpinning them
• Taiwan Semiconductor's US unit to gain with $6.6BN subsidy for advanced production in Arizona, and up to $5BN in low-cost US gov't loans, targeting 2nm process in 2028
• Asian Development Bank to launch ASEAN Climate Finance Policy Platform, looking to strengthen the region's economic and fiscal policies
• Bank for International Settlements and 7 central banks, including Japan and Korea, partner for Project Agorá, exploring tokenization of bank deposits via 'unified ledger'
• India's Tata Group conglomerate heading to Taiwan in high-level tech talent hunt, looking initially at growth in the consumer electronics semiconductor sector
• People's Bank of China to establish 're-lending' program of near $70BN to boost innovation and project upgrades in the science and tech sectors, available to SMEs via 21 banks
• Japan to participate in AUKUS Pillar 2 component, joining Australia, the US and the UK in collaboration on defence tech across fields including quantum and artificial intelligence
• Monetary Authority of Singapore and Mastercard ink MOU to boost cooperation in cybersecurity, specifically around cyber-resilience in Singapore’s financial services sector
"To transform from a heavy consumer to a global innovator, Indonesia needs to focus on developing five strategic sectors identified in the 'Digital Indonesia Vision 2045'..."
• Japan: Semiconductor materials maker, Shin-Etsu Chemical, to invest near $550M in new plant, targeting production in 2026
• Malaysia: KL20 Startup Summit is set for April 22-23 in Kuala Lumpur, delivered by the Ministry of Digital MyDIGITAL Corp
• Japan's Toyota reportedly to use 'smart drive' tech developed with China's Huawei and Momenta for global EV models
• China: General Motors to invest $300M in Momenta autonomous driving firm for self-driving tech in future GM China-market models
• Critical minerals: "International prices for gallium are now more than double where they were when Beijing’s new export curbs were announced..."
• South Korea to chair UN Security Council meeting focusing on cybersecurity, looking at issues including North Korea's cyberspace activities
• Australia: Westpac is in talks with Amazon for Project Kuiper satellite system use to make banking more accessible, particularly for remote Indigenous communities
• South Korea to invest near $7BN in AI by 2027 in bid to retain global position in global semiconductor industry
• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs partners Chunghwa Telecom to use UK-HQ's Eutelsat OneWeb for low-Earth orbit satellites in communications around disaster response
Hong Kong: "Residents spend billions of dollars on trades in unregulated markets, forcing authorities to propose tightening rules while simultaneously trying to build the city’s status as a respected and open market."
• China: ByteDance Singapore affiliate, Picoheart, invests in InnoStar Semiconductor's licensable IP for system-on-chip tech, with use cases including in AI datacenters
• Thailand: PM announces much-delayed election-pledge digital wallet scheme, with 50 million citizens able to register in Q3 for 10,000 baht giveaway wired to accounts in Q4
• Australian Federal Police and US FBI join for arrest of individuals believed to be behind development and distribution of Firebird/Hive remote access malware
• Japan and NASA partner for lunar exploration with Japan to develop rover vehicle for crewed and uncrewed use, and NASA providing launch and delivery
• Download: 2024 Cyber Security Report from Check Point Software, near 100 pages looking at emerging risks (pdf link)
• China: Origin Wukong quantum computer boosts data security with implementation of post-quantum cryptography
• Hong Kong regulators likely to approve the first set of spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds, with trading potentially commencing this month
• Philippines: SUSI Asia Energy Transition Fund partners Alba Renewables for development, construction and operation of utility-scale renewables platform featuring solar and onshore wind projects
• More on the recent collaboration MOU between the Korean Positioning System and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite system, aiming for autonomous positioning services
• Download: 'Tokenization - Realizing the vision of a future financial ecosystem' from Deloitte
'South Korea has successfully launched its second military reconnaissance satellite, days after North Korea reiterated its intention to launch multiple spy satellites this year.'
• Vietnam: Viettel, part of Military Industry & Telecoms Group, set to play larger role in the country's moves to develop a domestic semiconductor chip industry
• Singapore's Temasek state-owned investment firm opens Paris office, building on London and Brussels, aiming to boost investment and partnership opportunities across European Union and broader EMEA regions
• Australia: Vudoo selected by Amazon Web Services Partner Network with shoppable video tech, turning content and ads into directly-shoppable on-screen assets
• March 2024's collected tech summaries from across Asia and the Indo-Pacific
• Online now: 'The Limits of DeFi for Financial Inclusion - Lessons from ASEAN'
• China: Didi ride-hail major's self-driving unit inks JV with GAC Aion EV maker, gaining license for mass production of fully self-driving electric robotaxis
• Australia: Space Machines Company reportedly struggling to establish and hold communications with Optimus spacecraft, following launch of on-orbit satellite inspection, servicing and protection vehicle
• Singapore's Peptobiotics raises $6.2M with antimicrobial peptide tech as alternative to over-use of antibiotics in the aquaculture sector
• South Korea's Rebellions AI semiconductors firm partners Arteris on system-on-chip integration to boost chip energy and efficiency and performance
• Future of work: Cashiers are Zooming in from the Philippines to take orders at a US fried chicken joint
Malaysia: "The government reported nearly 52K cases of harmful content on various social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and TikTok, in the first 3 months of 2024, compared with 43K for the whole of 2023."
• Australia: Gap Drone secures partnerships to develop drone delivery capabilities for remote and regional communities, targeting payloads of 60-90kg at speeds of 120km/h and a range of 1100km
• Thailand’s National Innovation Agency inks MOU with Korea Tourism Organisation around travel-tech, aiming to boost startups in the sector and shared ecosystems
• Australia: UK's Founders Factory Nature & Biodiversity Tech Accelerator sets up in Perth, with $7.2M, 3-year WA gov't support, and Rio Tinto lined up for separate mining-tech accelerator
• South Korea, New Zealand and Canada now also considered for possible participation in advanced capability projects of AUKUS security partnership, building on consideration of Japan for inclusion
• Vietnam: Tech in Asia's Saigon Summit to feature Startup Showcase for Vietnam tech startups - applications close April 22nd
• Thailand: AIS The StartUp digital infra provider, Stock Exchange of Thailand, National Innovation Agency and Thai Startup Association join for ESG education programme
• Japan: A brief intro to the tech startups selected for OIST Innovation Accelerator working on GenAI and LLMs, advanced prosthetics and more
• Australia: BHP and Rio Tinto piloting electric smelting that may reduce steel industry gas pollution in first-of-its-kind move in Australia, potentially cutting blast furnace C02 by 80%
Deepfakes: "If you tell somebody they're looking at a deepfake before they watch it, the social psychology of watching that video is so powerful that they will still reference it as if it was fact."
In wider-world technology news:
» 7 open source foundations join for common specifications and standards for the Europe Cyber Resilience Act, which aims to mandate cybersecurity best practices for EU-sold hardware and software
» The Internet Archive is now hosting Caribbean island of Aruba's entire formal history, making over 100,000 of the nation's historic materials available for all, online
» A brief intro to Astranis satellite internet operator, potentially a StarLink competitor but placing sats in orbit at 22000 miles rather than low-Earth orbit at 340 miles
AI's jailbreak headaches: "People could use the hack to force LLMs to produce dangerous responses, the study concluded — even though such systems are trained to prevent this."
Indo-Pacific tech news: Other editions
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Note: Due to Twitter/X's ongoing devolution, our mobile app news updates are on hold. We'll relaunch our mobile app, upgraded and revamped, in late Q2 2024.
For those who prefer to read on LinkedIn, the Asia Tech News Weekly newsletter covering the week to April 16th 2024 is available at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-april-16th-2024-startup-news-asia-lqlec/
And for past LinkedIn editions of the newsletter, head on over to:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/sna-asia-s-tech-news-6940166562133749760/