Asia's tech news, weekly: April 23rd 2024

Thai digital baht, Huawei $1.7BN tech bid, Taiwan AI hackathon, Hong Kong bitcoin ETFs, Samsung in Texas, Korean CBDC, Malaysia's KL20 Action Plan, European lithium...

• 'Breakthrough Energy Fellows - SE Asia' launches focusing on early-stage climate-tech, an initiative by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy, Temasek, and Enterprise Singapore

• 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

• China: Huawei now building massive Shanghai semiconductor R&D center, hiring globally-experienced personnel in bid to develop home-grown industry, de-fang tech restrictions, and gain global market advantage

• South Korea: Korea AeroSpace Administration, the country's NASA equivalent, preps for formal May launch with recruiting drive to secure the strongest talent pool

• Australian Federal Police arrests 5 in EuroPol-coordinated global raid on cyber-criminal gang linked to industrial-scale phishing believed to have impacted 94,000 citizens in Australia alone

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"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'..."

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• China: ByteDance Singapore affiliate, Picoheart, invests in InnoStar Semiconductor's licensable IP for system-on-chip tech, with use cases including in AI datacenters

• Taiwan Generative AI Applications Hackathon set for May 18-19 with components including AWS and Anthropic's Claude 3 LLM, and corporations including Trend Micro and Hitachi

• Malaysia's Sarawak Microelectronics Design Semiconductor recently inked MOUs with 2 UK firms, one in the chips space, the other in blockchain and web3

• Japan to increase penalties for monopolistic practices by tech firms to 20% or more of applicable nationwide sales, more than tripling the current antitrust law penalty

• China's NETA Auto enters mass production in Thailand, targeting output of 20,000 EVs annually

Video: 'The power of fully driverless taxis in China' from Nikkei Asia

• India: Digantara's Space Domain Awareness Command & Control Centre, aiming for multi-domain activities from satellite assembly to space object monitoring

• China: Origin Wukong quantum computer boosts data security with implementation of post-quantum cryptography

• Trends in North Korea's illegal cyber activities, drawn from the Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report 2024

• Hong Kong has approved trading of Bitcoin and Ether Spot Exchange-Traded Funds, allowing HK traders to invest in BTC and ETH via traditional stock markets, eliminating the need for crypto exchanges

• China-South Korea researchers publish on potential semiconductor breakthrough, with tellurium-based approach to materials

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"Wind parks in five EU member states – Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria – will undergo scrutiny to determine whether illegal subsidies have been granted to Chinese wind turbine producers..."

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• Samsung Texas arm to gain $6.4Bn Chips Act funding to create full ecosystem for development and production of US-based chips

• India: Tesla inks deal with Tata Electronics to procure semiconductor chips for worldwide operations

• Australia: Jumar Bioincubator opens doors, unveiling 16 early-stage firms taking residency in Melbourne Biomedical Precinct

• India: Space-tech firms set to meet with Elon Musk on sidelines of the billionaire's upcoming visit for discussions around Tesla and StarLink services

• South Korea: Central bank to speed up CBDC project, aiming to pilot the 'digital won' with a group of 100,000 citizens later in 2024

• Thailand PM reportedly in talks with Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam around a Schengen-style scheme allowing visa-free travel within the 6-country bloc

• China: A little more on Huawei's $1.66 billion R&D facility in Shanghai, which includes a remit to develop lithography technologies for home-grown semiconductors

• China: Former CEO of Arm China reportedly launching firm which will directly compete with Arm, developing chips under the RISC-V architecture

• Singapore's SLINGSHOT 2024 competition applications are open to July 1st, seeking startups working on solutions in 5 key domains

• China-owned Nexperia, semiconductor-related firm HQ'd in the Netherlands, acknowledges ransomware hack, with confidential documents uploaded to darknet extortion site

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Australia: "Holding social media companies accountable for seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation on their platforms has never been more important..."

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• China to leverage fast-evolving commercial space sector to speed mega-constellation ambitions, allowing state-owned firms to focus on civil and military programs

• India: Hewlett Packard Enterprise rolls out 'Made in India' servers, part of supply chain diversification move

• India: Tata Group reportedly taking majority stake in Taiwan's Pegatron's India operations, looking at iPhone manufacturing and facilities construction, and building on Tata's recent Wistron deal

• Japan: Oracle to invest $8BN in AI infrastructure in Japan over 10 years, projecting growing demand for cloud computing

• Malaysia: MYStartup accelerator and NEXEA VC launch Cohort 3, selecting 25 startups from over 900

ORF: Development as Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific

• Malaysia: KL20 Action Plan available to download, 'Unleashing the Full Potential of Malaysia's Startup Ecosystem'

• China: Shanghai city gov't to merge 2 major state-owned investment firms, creating an $18BN entity to boost innovation and tech firms

• Philippines: Gov't inks agreement with Plug&Play for development of national innovation platform to grow startups, aiming to develop 40 firms annually

• Malaysia: Gov't to build SE Asia's largest circuit design park, offering tax breaks, subsidies and visa fee exemptions to draw firms and investors in bid to break into high-end tech manufacturing

• National Australia Bank partners CrowdStrike global cybersecurity firm to provide eligible small businesses with free cybersecurity protection for 12 months

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"As more than 2 billion people in 50 countries head to the polls this year, artificial intelligence-generated content is now widely being used to spread misinformation, as well as to confuse and entertain voters..."

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• Japan: Gov't to fund 5 major technology companies to a total of $470M in bid to develop sovereign artificial intelligence capabilities

• Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono partners Singapore's SGInnovate for internships, providing NZ STEM students with the chance to live and work in Singapore

• A brief overview of the emerging competition in the wearable 'smart rings' market, with offerings from South Korea, China and India

• Australia: Billionaire and philanthropist accuses Facebook parent of 'blatantly refusing' to take action against crypto scam ads using his likeness

Surfshark: Global data breach map 2024

• Philippines: BillEase buy-now-pay-later firm raised $11M in new funding, with key service differentiation allowing customers to build formal credit records

• Hong Kong: Brinc venture accelerator launches IGNIT3, a bespoke full-service token advisory program, to aid blockchain startups through the lifecycle of a token offering

• Taiwan: Foxconn institutes rotating chief executive and chairperson system, aiming to nurture successors and develop management talent

• Indonesia: Jago raises $6M with hyperlocal mobile café delivery, backed by fully-electric mobile café carts, a tech stack to streamline operations and a cloud kitchen approach to supply depots

• Australia: First Australians Capital gains $2M investment from Visa Foundation for its FAC Catalytic Impact Fund, focusing on Indigenous business development

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"Careless speech is a new type of harm created by large language models...that poses cumulative, long-term risks to science, education and the development of shared social truths in democratic societies"

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In wider-world technology news:

» Europe sees production of the region's first lithium with Vulcan Energy Resources set to address portions of the battery supply chains for electric vehicles

» US chips firm, Rivos, raised $250M to manufacture its first server-grade chip geared for artificial intelligence work, built on RISC-V open-standard architecture

» 'Several' US states are reportedly discussing a blockchain-based voting platform with Cardano Foundation in bid to boost transparency and integrity of electoral processes

» A brief intro to Astranis satellite internet operator, potentially a StarLink competitor but placing sats in orbit at at 22000 miles rather than low-Earth orbit at 340 miles

» An intro to Paris' Dark and its Interceptor space vehicle, low-impact tech to de-orbit space debris without creating new debris fields

» So, what exactly is Bitcoin halving, and how does it work?

» Web3 moves in the fashion and beauty sector with VR/AR news from Estee Lauder, Harrods and Cartier

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"In the connected vehicle alone, there are 12 different areas of attack, which in turn potentially have multiple entry points."

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