Asia's tech news, weekly: December 26th 2023
Singapore's SEA LLM, India & semicon packaging, New Zealand space launches, Cambodian digital currency, China's global CBDC ambitions, Malaysian agri-tech, RISC-V chips growth...
• Singapore: National Multimodal LLM Programme launched, a S$70M initiative to develop the region's first large language model ecosystem for SEA's range of cultures and languages
• India: "Gen AI could boost India's GDP by $359-438 billion by 2030, representing a 5.9-7.2% increase..."
• China: Galactic Energy launch firm secures $154M for development of reusable Pallas-1 rocket, capable of placing 5000kg in low Earth orbit, or 3000kg to 700km sun-synchronous orbit
• Taiwan: More on Foxconn's diversification moves into industries from electric vehicles to satellite technologies
"India is looking at semiconductor packaging as a low-hanging fruit to capture a share of the global semiconductor supply chain... ATMP and OSAT are good starting points..."
• Singapore: Atomionics rolls out 'virtual drill' tech using gravity and AI to define ore bodies, cutting customer costs and development times for mining and minerals projects
• China: Some semiconductor firms reportedly turning to Malaysian chip packaging firms for aspects of high-end chip assembly, hedging against US sanctions risks
• Australia: Ark Energy lithium-iron phosphate battery approved for construction, with Richmond Valley Battery Energy Storage System set to be the largest of its kind globally on completion
• North Korea believed to now have a second nuclear reactor online, raising new concerns over weapons development
• Cambodia: Central bank head claims Bakong CBDC now has 10M users; adds China to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam network; and inks MOUs, including with Solomon Islands
• China: Former central bank governor says China needs to lead the world in CBDC adoption to globalize the currency and transform the yuan into 'the most stable currency'
• New Zealand: Rocket Lab lands $515M contract from a US Gov't client to design, manufacture, deliver and operate 18 space vehicles
• Indonesia: Nusantara, new city set to 'replace' current capital Jakarta, inks MOU with France's Thales for smart city initiatives including digital ID
Quantum tech's future impacts, today: "...a global effort to plunder data is underway so that intercepted messages can be decoded after Q-day in what he described as 'harvest now, decrypt later' attacks..."
• 'Examining China’s Grand Strategy For RISC-V', an analysis from The Jamestown Foundation looking at the open-standard chips architecture as a hedge against US-led tech sanctions
• South Korea: A deep dive into Samsung's challenges with cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing
• Australia: SparkLabs Cultiv8 agri-food-tech accelerator opens applications for 6th cohort, seeking 10 early-stage startups and founders
• Malaysia: Entomal Biotech, using fly larvae to process food and palm oil waste, creating opportunities in food supply and livestock feed, cutting emissions in the process
• India: Accenture opens Generative AI Studio in Bengaluru, part of Accenture’s $3BN global investment in data and artificial intelligence services
• The Philippines' Astro Robotics partners Japan's Telexistence for services around a team based in the Philippines capable of remotely controlling robots based in Japan
• India: A brief intro to InCore, working on semiconductor chip design with a particular focus on RISC-V open-standard architecture
• China: UK's Arm Holdings chip-maker has laid off more than 70 software engineers in China, relocating some roles outside of the country, 'to focus on direct support for local developers'
"Chatbots could one day replace search engines. Here’s why that’s a terrible idea... Language models are mindless mimics that do not understand what they are saying—so why do we pretend they’re experts?"
• Australia's largest grid-forming battery is set for New South Wales' Hunter region, twice initially-planned size and aiming for mid-2026 operation
• China's Nio electric vehicle maker gains $2.2BN from Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings in midst of price war; mulls spinning off its battery production unit
• Japan: Gov't to mandate AI developers and others deploy tech to detect AI-generated content and provenance of info in bid to diminish misinformation impacts
• China to further limit citizen money and time spent on gaming, citing 'game content that endangers national unity' and 'endangers national security or harms national reputation and interests'
• India's Minister of Road Transport & Highways: 'I will never allow driverless cars to come into India', citing jobs risk; and Tesla manufacturing in China for sales in India is not acceptable
• Singapore: Northstar Group private equity and VC firm closes early-stage tech fund with near $140M committed, primarily focusing on Indonesia
• India's semicon challenges: "There is a lack of an ecosystem for deep tech and semiconductor startups which impacts their growth at every step..."
• China: Regulator further limits social media, banning 'incorrect values' including 'the wrong career values' and 'promoting pessimism'
"India witnessed more than 400 million cyber threats across approximately 8.5 million endpoints in 2023, averaging 761 detections per minute..."
• India: CtrlS Datacenters adds Intel next-generation processor R&D lab to Bangalore facility, looking to develop new microprocessor architectures
• Singapore: University researchers and EtaVolt startup presented a device capable of 'patching' wear and tear in solar panel cells, claiming boost to unit life of up to 5 years
• 'How 2023 marked the death of anonymity online in China' from MIT Technology Review
• "India, with its thriving startup ecosystem and growing smartphone and internet penetration, has the potential to position itself as a future crypto hub..."
• China: Gov't bans export of technologies used to create rare earth magnets, adding to export restrictions on minerals graphite and germanium
• US South Pacific Scholarship Program applications close Jan 15 for candidates from Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu
• Japan: An intro to Central Japan Startup Ecosystem, and 5 of the region's tech startups working on solutions in jet engines, e-scooters, drones and more
• Australia division of Japan's Nissan car maker hackers identified as Akira ransomware gang, with group claiming 100GB of data stolen
"Forecasts suggest that by 2024, the number of digital voice assistants will reach 8.4BN – a number higher than the world’s population... There are over 110M virtual assistant users in the US alone..."
• ASEAN startups: Malaysia's MYStartup needs your input to the ASEAN Startup Ecosystem Survey
• Japan: An overview of the Central Japan Startup Ecosystem - the region, its industries, its population and what it offers startups
• Australian Game Developer Survey: "Revenue in the Australian video game industry has risen to $345.5 million, up 21% on FY2022..."
• India: Ola Electric e-scooter maker unveils plans for $662M IPO in 2024
• Download: 'The AIdea of India - Generative AI's potential to accelerate India's digital transformation', from EY (pdf link)
Innocuous gadgets, data & privacy: "Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk."
Tech news beyond Asia & the Indo-Pacific:
» Can CPUs be reconfigured to work in a similar way to GPUs, softening a semiconductors supply crunch in the process?
» Tech majors including Bosch, Infineon and Qualcomm partner to launch Quintauris in Germany to explore and promote global adoption of RISC-V chips open standard for next-gen hardware
» Helicity Space is working on a fusion drive proof-of-concept for space travel, potentially capable of travelling from Earth to Mars in just 2 months
» Kazakhstan to open a startup hub in Saudi Arabia, alongside exploring wider Middle East and North African markets for Kazakh tech firms
» Chile's T-Phite is working on a method to recycle tires using a process that reclaims the graphite they contain, hoping to scale up to create a supply chain for electric vehicles
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