Asia's tech news, weekly: February 20th 2024

South Korea & quantum, a Philippines CBDC, AI & Indonesian elections, BYD targets energy storage, the Quad & Pacific Islands, Techstars to Tokyo, China's hyperloop...

• Japan: Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center gains gov't backing to as much as $300M with sights on 1.4nm chip manufacturing know-how by 2028, in partnership with Rapidus semiconductors firm

• Philippines: Central bank is likely to issue a wholesale CBDC inside 2 years - but without the use of blockchain or digital ledger tech that underpins many virtual assets

• Australia: Diraq quantum firm secures $15M Series A-2 with focus into the future on development of a quantum chip produced via a standard semiconductor foundry

• Seoul National University Center for Quantum Information Science Education and US quantum tech firm, IonQ, ink agreement around developing a quantum workforce

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"Indian ports and maritime industries will see more cyberattacks from adversaries, particularly with antagonizing projects such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor..."

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• Malaysia: An overview of Malaysia's position in terms of quantum technologies

• China: "Embedding software tools with AI tech is allowing some companies to offer better-standardized products and cut back on development costs, potentially serving as a last resort for startups trying to secure backing..."

• An intro to Unifier Ventures, a VC looking to make cross-regional connections between Europe and SE Asia following the first close on its $6.7M first fund

• Australia: Gov't to legislate a ban on 'doxxing' following online publication of nearly 900 pages of private information identifying Jewish individuals

• South Korea: TelePix unveils NVIDIA-based AI processor geared for satellites, running 10 trillion operations per second to analyze large datasets in space in real-time

• China: An overview of BYD's significant and fast-growing presence in energy storage, building on achievements to date in electric vehicles

• Japan component of US Space Forces expected to activate this year, building on activation of South Korea component in December 2022

• Arrest made in Malta of individual allegedly training criminals to use Warzone remote-access trojan software as part of a global cybercrime network targeting Australian citizens

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'Next, Rizal plans to take the platform to India before its general election... "Because Indonesia is before the US and India … this election [Indonesia] is a warm up," he said.'

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• Samsung wins its first 2nm AI chip order from Japan's Preferred Networks Inc in switch from PFN's past TSMC supply of advanced chips

• Malaysia: Kumpulan Wang Persaraan pension fund makes initial investments of $21M, featuring two direct investments in Malaysian startups and commitments to 2 venture capital funds

• China: Gov't initiates national China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform program to dominate solid-state battery supply chains, with 6 of the top 10 global auto battery makers involved

• Taiwan's Sysgration electronics maker preps for Texas manufacturing facility occupancy in nearshoring move to minimize risks to supply chains

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'Indonesia election gives glimpse of AI influence on democracy', a look at the use of AI technologies in the successful Prabowo Subianto presidential campaign

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• 'Bolstering cooperation among Quad and Pacific Islands countries' webinar set for February 28th, a discussion on boosting collaborations with Australia, India, Japan, the US and Pacific Island nations

• Thailand: A snapshot overview of the National Innovation Agency's activities in guiding and growing the Thai startup and entrepreneurship landscape

• Australia: Nickel to be added to critical minerals list in response to global price drops, with mining firms set to gain from funding support boost

• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launched its new H3 rocket, a delivery vehicle with a 6.5 metric ton payload capability

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'Quantum... may open a world of opportunities to researchers, but it will also likely make one of the most common encryption methods obsolete, which is why telcos are racing to secure Europe's communication infrastructures'

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• China: "...Huawei Ascend 910B currently achieves near 80% of the performance level of Nvidia's A100. Data-center service providers consider this chip to be the preferred alternative for domestic companies."

• Australia: Bupa Ventures has rolled out a $20M fund focused on Seed to Series A startups working on solutions in a range of health sectors

• OpenAI terminates accounts believed to be operated by nation-state cyber-threat actors linked to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea

• Hong Kong: "...not known how many surveillance cameras are already installed in public places... The Security Bureau told HKFP...that the government did not maintain the number of CCTV cameras in the city."

• China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp's progress on hyperloop trains, using using magnetic levitation and operating in a vacuum

• South Korea: Indonesia's East Ventures VC introduces first managing partner for $100M East Ventures South Korea fund, formed in partnership with SV Investment

• Thailand: National Innovation Agency, Thai Union food major and Mahidol University ink MOU with Thai division of Nestlé food conglomerate for SPACE-F food innovation collaboration

• Australia: Queensland gov't boosts inaugural VC fund with $55M addition to new $130M total, with 5 participating VC firms unveiled

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"The [Biden re-election] campaign's launch on TikTok is notable given that the app, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, is under review in the US due to potential national security concerns."

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• Indonesia: "In another video that attracted intense criticism, AI-generated children were used by the party in a TV commercial to skirt rules banning children from appearing in political campaigns"

• Thailand: Siam Commercial Bank partners UK's KogoPAY for mobile wallet, PromptPay QR code payments, and ATM services for UK and European tourists visiting Thailand

• Japan: City of Kochi to step into the metaverse for boost via 'virtual tourism' in partnership with Philippines-based Start Lands

• TikTok continues moves into YouTube markets with trials of 30-minute video uploads for users, a significant expansion on the short-form video format in which it dominates

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'How the Philippines is transitioning to a premier investment hub', a discussion from the recent Digital Pilipinas Festival in November 2023

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• India: Dep't of Telecomms launches Sangam Digital Twin initiative to explore future infrastructure planning and design, aiming to leverage emerging and high-impact technologies

• Japan: Techstars to launch 3-month program in Tokyo, selecting 12 startups for mentorship on business models and pitches, with potential for $120K investment

• Online now: 'Fixing Cyber Vulnerabilities - An Agenda for the Quad' from India's Observer Research Foundation

• Ford, US motor giant, to roll out Blue Oval budget-friendly electric vehicles brand, feeling competition from Tesla and China EV brands

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"...then there's the fear of a complete collapse of human knowledge and science as it becomes impossible to know what to believe because so much material is nonsense made up by AI."

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• Malaysia: KL Startup Summit 2024 is set for April 17th in Kuala Lumpur for a one-day gathering of ecosystem stakeholders

• India: Creators United Fest 2024 set for March 15, aiming to be Asia's largest creatives-focused festival by gathering industry experts, brands, publishers and performers in Maharashtra

• Australia: Virescent Ventures and gov't-backed Trailblazer for Recycling & Clean Energy initiative partner to back UNSW Founders Climate 10x Program for climate-tech startups

• India: A brief intro to Physics Wallah and other online test-preparation startups, seeing the industry as an opportunity for Netflix-style subscription models

• Samoa to gain $16M in grant aid from Japan to improve National University of Samoa facilities, boosting connections with the Pacific Islands nation

• Singapore: An intro to Magorium, replacing bitumen in asphalt with depolymerised plastic to recycle waste and minimize incineration of plastics

• Australia: BindiMaps selected by Westpac OpenAir Cinema with digital accessible wayfinding tech providing mapping and directions for the differently-abled

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'CISA and FBI are urging SOHO [small office, home office] router manufacturers to build security into the design, development, and maintenance of SOHO routers...' in part-bid to address cyber-threats

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In wider-world technology news:

» Linux Foundation launches Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance, aiming to advance post-quantum tech around national security-aligned production-ready libraries and packages

» The Transatlantic Tech Policy Tracker from the Center for European Policy Analysis, capturing key tech policy and business developments globally

» NVIDIA chipmaking giant takes third most valuable US company status, overtaking Google parent Alphabet and Amazon, in large part due to ongoing global focus on AI chips

» International companies, governments and tech reps signed up to Pall Mall Process, looking to collaborate to address proliferation and irresponsible use of commercial cyber-intrusion tools and services

» Twitter/X woes continue with the platform potentially violating US sanctions by accepting subscription payments for accounts from terrorist organizations and other banned groups

» Skylo Technologies raised $37M with backers including venture arms of BMW, Samsung and Intel, focusing on direct-to-device satellite connectivity using existing satellite infrastructure

» "The current security models for Bitcoin and Ethereum make 51% and 34% attacks, respectively, 'economically unfeasible,' according to a new research paper..."

» Bugcrowd AI-driven cybersecurity firm raised $102M for crowdsourced security platform development, recognising the increasing sophistication of often AI-driven hacking

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'OpenAI has built a new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, hi-definition film clip up to a minute long'

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