Asia's Tech News, Weekly: August 21st 2024
New Huawei chips, Malaysian tech growth, Indian LLMs, Korean semicon growth, India space industry, China's flying cars, Taiwan-Microsoft AI, Australian lithium...
• Malaysia advances value chain bid, opening its first semiconductor integrated circuit design hub in Selangor, with sights on 5 such centers within 5 years / full item
• South Korea: Samsung moves into CXL memory in bid to catch next AI tech wave, with CXL potentially boosting server memory capacity 10-fold / full item
• Malaysia: National Blockchain Infrastructure, MyEG e-gov't services provider and other gov't units partner Worldcoin for ID integration with national systems / full item
• China: Huawei reportedly in testing phase of newest processor, Ascend 910C, with potential clients told that the chip is comparable to NVIDIA H100 / full item
• India: An overview of the current state-of-play in the Indian LLM space, looking at the opportunities and challenges in the country's AI sector / full item
• 2024 Indo-Pacific Space & Earth Conference is set for Perth, Western Australia, in November / full item
"...in India, 31 per cent of working hours will either be automated or augmented by generative AI. It could lead to a 0.6 percentage point increase in GDP growth per year and an additional $675 billion in economic value...." / full item
• South Korea: AI chip-makers Rebellions and Sapeon Korea ink merger agreement, with new entity maintaining Rebellions name / full item
• India: 3rd Small Satellite Launch Vehicle completes launch and assessment, placing satellite in orbit and paving the way for low-cost, fast-turnaround, low-infrastructure launches / full item
• Japan: Sakana AI's 'The AI Scientist' research system found unexpectedly attempting to modify its own code to extend time needed to work on a problem / full item
• Vietnam: "...severe shortages of labor in traditional chip economies like South Korea and Taiwan, as well as the US, mean companies are looking further afield for engineers" / full item
• Australia: Gov't looks at developing Trust Exchange initiative, giving citizens access to and control of ID and credentials already held by government / full item
• SoftBank, SK Networks, LG Electronics, Hanwha Financial and Thai conglomerate join for $130M Alpha Intelligence Fund, focusing on East and SE Asia / full item
Video: The potential of Malaysia's tech scene - Khailee Ng, 500 Global Managing Partner, from the recent Tech in Asia Conference Kuala Lumpur 2024
• India: "The unit in Karnataka will soon become the 2nd-largest Foxconn plant after China's unit. It will create 40,000 direct jobs, especially for middle-level educated individuals..." / full item
• Australia: A look at ElectraLith, extracting and refining lithium to produce battery-grade hydroxide from a range sources using no water or chemicals, and minimal energy / full item
• China's Gotion High-Tech battery manufacturer takes 25% in Slovak batteries R&D firm, InoBat, building on Volkswagen partnership for European markets / full item
• Indonesia: Beleaf Farms agri-tech startup secures $6.9M Series A with platform to monitor weather, seeding, planting, nutrient dosing, farm planning and harvesting / full item
• Australia: DeCarice gains funding with hydrogen tech reducing carbon emissions in heavy-duty diesel engines, capable of replacing 90% of fuel while maintaining power output / full item
• Japan: Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm to establish its first Asia office in Tokyo / full item
"Some South Korean crypto exchange workers are getting paid more than staff in some of the nation’s top commercial banks, new data shows..." / full item
• Taiwan-Japan firms launch CDIB Cross Border Innovation Fund, raising $62M towards $75M-$100M target for investments in tech and lifestyle sectors / full item
• New Zealand: Dawn Aerospace hits milestones with highly-reusable 'spaceplane' achieving Mach 0.92 and altitude of 15000m / full item
• China: AeroHT, electric vertical take-off and landing affiliate of Xpeng EV firm, raised $150M, gaining from the country's low-altitude economy bid / full item
• Download: 'Singapore Venture Funding Landscape 2023', a full-year report from DealStreetAsia, Nikkei Group and EnterpriseSG (pdf link) / full item
• India: Zepto 'instant delivery' startup finalizes $340M funding, valuing the firm at $5BN, racing to take market share in India's fast-growing quick-commerce market / full item
• Innovation Leaders Summit, Asia's largest open innovation matching event, is set for December, matching Japanese firms with businesses and startups / full item
• China's ByteDance debuts new text-to-video AI app, Jimeng AI, with speculation around eventual TikTok integration / full item
• Singapore's TransparentlyAI, using artificial intelligence to identify manipulation and fraud in accounting / full item
• Thailand: "Around 80% of startup funding comes from local corporations and their CVCs, and that number hasn’t changed much over the years. Large corporates dominate every aspect..." / full item
• Japan's Incubate Fund Asia VC firm closes 3rd fund with corpus of $30M, with 80% focus on India's early-stage startups / full item
• China: Digital infrastructure providers told to reduce emissions and energy consumption, plus consider closing small facilities, under new green plan / full item
• Australia: Gov't allocates $39.9M over 5 years for AI policy and capability development to capitalise on potential economic benefits of up to $280BN by 2030 / full item
"15 Japanese companies including Isuzu Motors and trading house Sojitz will receive government funding to create supply chains in Southeast Asia..." with semiconductors a key consideration / full item
• Malaysia: Maxis telco and Huawei enter strategic collaboration on Joint Innovation Center in Malaysia, looking at wide range of cutting-edge technologies / full item
• Singapore-based Antler VC closes 2nd Southeast Asia fund, raising $72M to focus on startups in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia / full item
• China: Country's largest-yet cargo drone completed 20-minute test run with cargo of 2 metric tons / full item
• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs secures $308M from Nat'l Development Fund to invest in AI, partnering with Microsoft for industrialization / full item
• Australia: City of Melbourne has banned rental e-scooters, citing unacceptable safety risks following hundreds of accidents, and public complaints / full item
• India: Coursera e-learning platform rolls out 10 Professional Certificates from Google and IBM which align with the National Skills Qualification Framework / full item
• China: CATL EV batteries major has backed AutoFlight eVTOL firm, moving into the low-altitude economy space / full item
• Japan: Techstars Tokyo accelerator unveils 12 startups selected for the 3-month program, which culminates in a November pitch event / full item
• Available now: Pulse of Fintech H1 2024 report, from KPMG, global edition / full item
• Japan Southeast Asia Innovation Platform and Okinawa Institute of Science & Tech ink MOU to boost startup communities in Okinawa, targeting wider Asia growth / full item
• ASEAN GenAI Startup Report Launch Roadshow from GenAI fund - events in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam / full item
Japan: "VC investment by overseas players totaled 22.5 billion yen ($152 million) in the first half [of 2024], up 69%..." / full item
• South Korea: Obicel Bio gains 500Global backing with microbial fertilizers, boosting rice farm productivity and enhancing farm and soil sustainability / full item
• Malaysia: Cradle Fund and VentureTECH impact investment firm join under gov't Fund Funnel program to streamline startup funding through growth phases / full item
• Aus/NZ: Here's a quick intro to 5 Australian and New Zealand startups that between them raised $38.5M in the past week, working in medtech, fitness and more / full item
• China Energy Engineering Corp inks $972M contract to construct major solar energy plant in Saudi Arabia / full item
• Infographic: 'China 2024 - Metrics of a Rising Power' from BryceTech / full item
• Australia: Tech Ready Women launches in Queensland with Investment Ready Program, aiming to boost funding for local female-founded startups / full item
Video: 90 minutes of the recent SparkLabs Taiwan DemoDay startup presentations, showcasing solutions in social media, call centers tech, drones and more
• India-Australia RISE Accelerator applications close September 15th for startups and SMEs with agri-tech solutions / full item
• GIST ASEAN Training & Pitch Competition applications are open for 3 days Lean Startup training in October / full item
• SWITCH 2024 - Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology - is set for October / full item
• Crypto & Digital Assets Summit Asia is set for December 5th, running online and in-person in Singapore, from The Financial Times / full item
• Thailand's TechSauce Global Summit preps for Indonesia edition, set to run in Bali in September / full item
• Web In Travel Singapore 2024 Conference is set for October, looking at all things travel, from tech to demographics / full item
"In addition to making the chips that power the [AI] boom, the company appeals to many Taiwanese who believe that TSMC’s success will determine the... island’s ability to fend off China" / full item
In wider-world technology news:
» A brief intro to the UK's Polymateria, transforming plastic waste into bio-available wax, returning it to the environment minus microplastics and toxins / full item
» AI Risk Repository: Over 700 potential risks advanced AI systems could pose, issues that could arise from the creation and deployment of these models / full item
» Space Investment Quarterly, Q2 2024 edition, is now available to download, from Space Capital / full item
» US Nat'l Institute of Standards & Tech is to publish 3 approved security algorithms for use in safeguarding against the emerging threat of quantum hacking / full item
» 10 winners unveiled from the recent WebInTravel 2024 Global Startup Pitch event, working on solutions in cargo, visitor operations mgmt and more / full item
» Telegram messaging app launches 'Stars utility token for purchases within the app / full item
» Two US firms enter strategic collaboration to develop small nuclear battery in bid to narrow gap with China's coin-sized Betavolt nuclear battery / full item
» StormWall have expanded their DDoS protection services to companies in the Middle East with a new UAE filter point / full item
"74% of organizations are currently seeing ROI from gen AI investments" - Google Cloud ROI of GenAI survey / full item
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