Asia's Tech News, Weekly: August 28th 2024

India's space infra, Taiwan's AI funds, Aus-SG solar power, NVIDIA & Japan, Singapore-China blockchain finance, Thailand digital banks, quantum in India, crypto in Laos...

• Tamil Nadu's Space Zone India launches Rhumi-1, the country's first reusable liquid-solid fuel rocket, from a mobile platform, delivering 3 cube-sats and 50 PICO-sats under 1kg / full item

• Singapore's Equatorial Space rocket firm secured $1.5M pre-A led by Singapore's Farquhar VC, with Australia’s Paspalis participating / full item

• Taiwan: Ministry of Digital Affairs announces plan to invest $313M in domestic AI startups over 10 years, looking to boost Taiwan's capabilities in computational power, data, talent & funding / full item

• China: "...[with] Trump saying he wants Bitcoin to be 'mined, minted and made' in the US, upstart rivals see an opportunity to finally wrest business from Bitmain..." / full item

• Australia's Sun Cable project, potentially to become the world's biggest renewable energy project, mulls technology options as it works towards final commitment on $35BN project / full item

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"Fintech investment in the ASPAC region dropped from $4.6 billion in H2’23 to $3.7 billion in H1’24..." from the Asia Pacific overview of KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H1 2024 report / full item

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• China: Shein gains approval for phase 1 construction on a $514M supply chain hub in Guangzhou, set to span at least 800,000 square metres / full item

• Australia: Gov't research body, CSIRO, and Google partner to aid critical infrastructure operators in addressing vulnerabilities in commonly-used software / full item

• NVIDIA rolls out 4 Japan-focused microservices, enabling developers to build and deploy high-performing generative AI applications based on local languages and culture / full item

• China: Mission proposed to launch an exoplanet observatory in 2028, aiming to detect a potential 'second Earth' for the first time / full item

• Australia: New South Wales gov't has approved the Goulburn River solar farm, a 450MW project featuring battery storage, set to deliver electricity to 191,000 homes annually / full item

The Economic Impact of Generative AI

• Japan: Silicon Valley's 500 Global VC rolls out Cohort 2 of bespoke Venture Capital Unlocked program for Japanese VCs, partnering with Tokyo Metro Gov't & JETRO trade organization / full item

• Singapore's DBS Bank and partner, China's Ant International, roll out blockchain-based instant and multicurrency treasury and liquidity management solution, DBS Treasury Tokens / full item

• China: Shein-Temu rivalry hits new low with Temu accused of being an 'unlawful enterprise built on counterfeiting, theft of trade secrets, infringement of IP rights, and fraud' / full item

• Thailand: Five consortiums are so far under consideration for 3 virtual banking licenses to be issued by Bank of Thailand / full item

• 'Central Bank Digital Currency - Strategic Design Insights Dossier' from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Accenture / full item

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Podcast: Kickstart Ventures senior representatives share insights on what’s fueling growth for tech and fintech entrepreneurs in The Philippines / full item

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• India: PhonePe digital payments major rolls out Credit Line on UPI service, linking users credit lines to the national Unified Payments Interface / full item

• Singapore's Transcelestial deployed its proprietary laser-based wireless tech at Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals, delivering 5G services to T-Mobile users / full item

• Japan: Isuzu Motors partners software firm, Applied Intuition, to jointly develop self-driving trucks capable of full automation, targeting Japanese highways for 2027 / full item

• South Korea: Coupang e-commerce giant partners US Dep't of State on innovation and economic security, aiming for youth up-skilling, leadership development, entrepreneurship growth and more / full item

• Laos: State-owned Électricité du Laos to suspend supply to crypto miners in part due to difficulty generating power in drought conditions affecting the nation / full item

• China: UAV test flight successfully carries near 3.2 tons of cargo, completing 40-minute flight with potential altitude claimed of 7300 metres and 2200km range / full item

• Australia to export energy to Singapore with Au$30BN solar & battery Sun Cable project, based in remote north and featuring solar arrays, batteries and 4300km subsea cable / full item

• India: Country's first small-scale quantum computer nears completion, feeding into National Quantum Mission with plans for 24-qubit computer in 3 years and 100-qubit system within 5 / full item

• NZ & GenAI: "...while New Zealand workers are the third fastest adopters of generative AI tools globally... This has resulted in a 'BYO AI' situation..." / full item

• Malaysia: "...has lost as much as RM3.4 billion from 2018 to last year due to the theft of electricity supplies for cryptocurrency mining..." / full item

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"India is set to become a global leader in the semiconductor industry, with demand projected to cross $80 billion by 2026 and $110 billion by 2030" - US International Trade Administration / full item

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• China: Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area - Beijing E-Town - to focus on key segments of industrial applications chains, with flagship robotics & automation projects / full item

• DBS pilots programmable grant disbursements with partners to improve governance and efficiency of gov't payouts, building on Project Orchid digital Singapore dollar work / full item

• Japan's Toshiba to make corporate VC investment in Europe-US Quantonation II fund, aiming to boost R&D and development of quantum-based services / full item

• Taiwan: Here's a deep-dive recap of the recent Asia Blockchain Summit which brought together over 13000 participants from 30 countries / full item

PwC: The Indian Payments Handbook 2024-2029

• Australia: Metakosmos space and extreme environments suit startup gains $2M Pre-Seed funding from Saudi Arabia's Alzadhar Al-Sanai / full item

• Japan: Gov't to apply foreign trade regulations to wide range of technologies, including chip-making equipment, in bid to secure stable supply chains into the future / full item

• Vietnam's FPT expands in Japan with $200M for cloud AI services and solutions for businesses, looking to launch in 2025 and building on NVIDIA partnership / full item

• China: Avatr, EV JV between state-owned Changan Automobile and CATL battery-maker, takes 10% share in Huawei's auto subsidiary, Yinwang, looking at full-stack tech integration / full item

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"Australians overwhelmingly support regulating social media and censoring harmful content, with 6 in 10 people polled backing an unproven proposal to ban access to children..." / full item

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• Taiwan's Foxconn preps to construct battery energy storage systems unit in India, potentially leading to a tie-in to Foxconn's 3+3 focus on EVs, digital health and robotics / full item

• China: Honor smartphone maker, former Huawei unit, gains undisclosed investment from China Mobile parent firm in preparation for IPO / full item

• India's T-Hub startup incubator inks MOA with Malaysia's Beyond4 accelerator ecosystem, targeting cross-border innovation and market access opportunities / full item

• Japan: "...workforce re-engagement of just 10% of the economically inactive hikikomori group through the metaverse could add at least $240 billion to the Japanese economy by 2050..." / full item

• Available now: 'Horizon, A Perspective of Malaysia's Digital Economy' - insight on trends & opportunities and the primary reference for stakeholders / full item

• TSMC has broken ground on construction of its first European plant in Germany, an $11BN facility also backed by state subsidies of near half of total expenditure / full item

• Pacific Islands: An overview of the challenges faced by Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service in the region / full item

• Australian Securities & Investment Commission service targeting investment scams, including crypto, has taken down over 7300 websites in its first year / full item

• Philippines: 3 Filipino tech startups featured in Forbes Asia’s 2024 '100 to Watch' list, working in fintech, financial services and electric trucks / full item

• Download: 'Harnessing the Power of (Gen)AI in Indonesian Financial Services', from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, AC Ventures, BCG and BCG X / full item

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"The survey found that nearly 80 per cent of the business leaders expected the global technology industry to split into 'two separate supply chains to serve the respective US and mainland Chinese markets'." / full item

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• New Zealand's Ruminant BioTech gains $3.5M Australian Gov't grant with feed additive potentially reducing cattle methane output by over 80% / full item

• Indonesia: Lisk, an Ethereum Layer-2 solution, partners government-run Gerakan Nasional 1000 Startup Digital initiative for Ignit3 Web3 program / full item

• Australia: Employees now have the right to ignore work emails, texts and calls after hours under 'right to disconnect' legislation, with employers facing heavy fines for breaches / full item

• Download: 'Say Watt Now? Can Bitcoin mining accelerate the rollout of renewable energy in Japan?' from Yuri Group / full item

• Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge unveils three season 4 finalists working in conversational AI, wearable devices and electric 2-wheel vehicles / full item

• Australia: "The report also found customers picked up the financial burden of being scammed in 96 per cent of losses, and 4 per cent were reimbursed or compensated" / full item

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"Already, the number of drones licensed to operate in Australia is greater than the number of existing airspace users combined..." / full item

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• The GenAI opportunity for SMEs and startups: "...I've never seen students make the kind of progress that they made this year." / full item

• Australia: ARENA & Innovation Bay Renewable Startup Showcase 2024 applications are open for early-stage renewables, clean-tech and climate-tech startups / full item

• Canberra: 'Creative Connect - Strategic Marketing for Creative Sectors' panel discussion, Q&A, and networking event is set for September 5th / full item

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"...a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search... a coming sea change in how the US, Europe, and the world at large will consume power..." / full item

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In wider-world technology news:

» University of Edinburgh researchers are working on bacteria to extract lithium, cobalt and other minerals from old batteries and waste electronics / full item

» Quantum security: "...a nefarious individual could potentially download and store encrypted data today, and decrypt it once a large enough quantum computer comes online." / full item

» Cerebras Systems' Wafer Scale Engine, iPad-sized processors claiming to run generative AI programs up to 20 times faster but at 1/5 the cost of NVIDIA GPUs / full item

» Tether digital asset and crypto giant to develop new stablecoin pegged to United Arab Emirates Dirham / full item

» 'Can AI Scaling Continue Through 2030?' A deep dive into the scalability of AI training runs, recognising electric power, chip manufacturing, data and latency as primary constraints / full item

» XMC-2400 µCooling chip from xMEMS may be set to keep smartphones cooled, and at just 0.7cm square in area and 1mm thick it won't compromise device dimensions / full item

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"AI-generated images on Facebook, X, and VKontakte typically serve as supplementary content... while AI-generated images and videos constitute the core content on TikTok" / full item

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