Asia's tech news, weekly: February 6th 2024
Taiwan & solid-state batteries, Hong Kong deepfakes, Google ASEAN AI, Geely's auto satellites, Aus-US crime data-sharing, Samoa stops Starlink, eVTOLs & the Philippines...
• Indian Space Research Organization sets sights on minimum of 12 space missions through 2024, with NASA satellite collaboration and Venus study mission in development
• Multinational loses $25.6M after Hong Kong branch employees were fooled by deepfake tech, partly featuring a digitally-recreated version of its CFO ordering money transfers in a video call
• Taiwan: Prologium opens giga-scale lithium-ceramic battery factory in Taoyuan, aiming to supply solid-state batteries for up to 26000 electric vehicles; also planning giga-factory in France
• Google published 'AI Opportunity Agenda for ASEAN', a whitepaper outlining policy recommendations to ASEAN member states with suggestions on how to make the most of artificial intelligence
"Prices of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090... are soaring across Asian markets as people are willing to pay hefty sums of cash for them and then resell them in China or Hong Kong at a higher price..."
• India: BluSmart EV ride-hail & charging firm backed to $25M by Switzerland's responsAbility impact investor, with vertically-integrated tech stack claiming savings of circa 26K tons of CO2 to date
• China: Geely automaker launched 11 satellites with aim of providing more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles, with 72 planned to be in orbit by 2025 and a final constellation of 240
• Uni of South Australia Innovation & Collab Centre and Aus Centre for Business Growth partner to launch fully-funded 6-month Growth Ramp scaleup program for space startups, backed by SA Gov't
• Taiwan's Gogoro e-scooter and battery-swap company to enter Latin America market in Q2, partnering with Copec energy major for Chile and Colombia entry
• Australia-US CLOUD Act now in place, streamlining law enforcement data access for agencies in order to detect, prevent, investigate and prosecute serious crime, and safeguard national security
• Taiwan: Taipower assigns land in Hsinchu for EV hub partnership with US's Nuuve, to host chargers including vehicle-to-grid, allowing unused swap batteries to act as grid components
• South Korea: Rebellions Inc raised $124M to ramp up development of next-generation artificial intelligence chips
• Samoa: Starlink ordered to halt services and installations by gov't regulator claiming 'a risk to public safety, national security, and the integrity of Samoa's telecommunications infrastructure'
"With delivery robots now allowed to use sidewalks in South Korea, companies are racing to resolve issues related to the last mile of delivery to bring goods to the customer's door."
• Australia: An intro to Bodd, 3D body scanning and data insights company customising apparel based on an individual's measurements, with particular relevance for multi-item businesses and services
• Taiwan is building its own 'Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine' AI model as part of $555M plan to both bolster identity and influence in the face of disinformation, and to expand into software development
• Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Tech raised $943M for low Earth orbit mega-constellation of 12000 satellites, with Shanghai gov't aiming for end-to-end space ecosystem
• Australian Space Agency seeks expressions of interest for discussions on niche Australian technology capabilities, with submissions closing February 14th
• Aus-NZ tech startup, Aquila, completes successful test of ground-based photonics system for wireless drones charging potentially paving the way for non-stop flight
• The Philippines to host development of US firm's LuftCar hydrogen-powered eVTOL - electric vertical takeoff and landing - vehicle via partnership with eFrancisco Motor Corporation
• South Korea: Customs busts 3-year chip smuggling operation focused on China market, impounding 53,000 dual-use chips worth $11.6M
• Taiwan announces plans for first lunar mission, with Deep Space Radiation Probe potentially to launch in Q4 aboard Japanese lander
"The projections of Philippine-based fintech startup Mochi suggest that 67% of retail payments in the country will be digital [in] 2024..."
• Samoa: Starlink ordered to halt services and installations by gov't regulator claiming 'a risk to public safety, national security, and the integrity of Samoa's telecommunications infrastructure'
• Vietnam: BlokID secures $1.25M with blockchain-based privacy solutions for users in the digital advertising industry
• ASEAN Foundation and Microsoft launch 'AI TEACH for ASEAN' program to help to prepare the region's workforce for the challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence
• Singapore: Mesh Bio health-tech startup raised $3.5M Series A with 'digital twins' technology, using wide-angle data to model and personalize patient health treatments
• Download: 'The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific - Policy Recommendations' from the Stockholm-based Institute for Security & Development Policy
• China: Jielong-3, or Smart Dragon-3, vehicle launched from a mobile sea platform, delivering 9 satellites into orbit
• Intel, Japan's NTT and South Korea's SK Hynix partner on next-gen photonics chips, allowing communication using light instead of using electrons, with sights on semiconductor integration
• Download: 'Assessing the Global and Local Landscape of Critical Technologies' from India's Takshashila Institution (direct pdf link)
"TikTok’s tactics... use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans..."
• China: NVIDIA is reportedly now taking distributor pre-orders for its new China-specific artificial intelligence chip, priced on par with more powerful Huawei rival product
• ASEAN Digital Awards 2024 winners announced February 1st during ASEAN Digital Ministers' Conference in Singapore - an intro to Vietnam's award winners
• An overview of the bitcoin ETF space, focusing on readiness in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates
• Overseas Cambodian Investment Corp'n sets sights on Innovation Center featuring startup accelerator and SME business centre, drawing on inspiration from France's high-performing innovation drivers
• South Korea: Elice gains $15M backing with AI-driven education platform focusing on institutional clients and technical knowledge
• TikTok Shop rolls out test feature that scans and identifies products in videos on the platform, and then generates a link to 'Find similar items on TikTok Shop'
• Australia: An intro to 5 of the country's startups that collectively raised over $38 million in the week to February 2nd
• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups moves to bolster venture investment landscape uncertainty with allocation of $684M into investment projects for fiscal year's first quarter
"...China’s leading chipmaker, predicted a 'global supply glut' in the types of semiconductors his company produces. Simultaneously, he announced a $7.5bn increase in capital expenditure..."
• Japan: "In June 2023, an obscure semiconductor materials supplier announced that it was set to be taken over by an investment fund in a $6.4bn deal...."
• Startup India initiative saw major cutbacks in 2024 Union Budget, with Fund of Funds Scheme and Credit Guarantee scheme allocations cut, and overall program budget cut
• Singapore-HQ'd Antler global early-stage VC announced its largest pre-seed investment round, committing $5.1M to 37 startups across Southeast Asia
• Australia: Government's Medical Research Future Fund backs 4 digital health startups with solutions featuring AI, wearable health tech and data analysis
• China: More on the recent, first, instance of money laundering using China's digital yuan and cryptocurrency, including a Shanghai court's verdict on the case
• Thailand Securities & Exchange Commission updates crypto regulatory framework, removes retail investor limits for asset-backed tokens, creates new rules for custodians and boosts role in digital asset monitoring
• NK Insider: News, informed analysis, and op-eds curated and presented by North Koreans themselves
"A survey of more than 1000 UK undergraduates, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute, found 53% were using AI to generate material for work they would be marked on"
• Taiwan's Wistron Corp'n inks MOU with India's Karnataka government for electronics manufacturing plant in the state, set to produce laptops, IoT items and EV components
• Hong Kong: China's Harvest Global asset-management firm applies for spot-bitcoin exchange-traded fund with HK Securities & Futures Commission; in discussions around HK stablecoins sandbox
• Philippines: Vietnam's Vingroup conglomerate to invest in the Philippines, initially with VinFast EV brand establishing electric vehicles dealerships, and the Philippines positioned to step into battery tech
"Space-based solar power offers tantalizing possibilities for sustainable energy – in the future, orbital collection systems could harvest energy in space, and beam it wirelessly back to Earth."
In wider-world technology news:
» 15 space-technology startups from across the European Union, working on laser communications, space debris removal, data management and more
» 17 Russian banks formally join phase 2 of 'Digital Ruble' pilot project, bringing total to 30 and deepening indications the CBDC is intended to power international trade deals
» Sweden's ConScience AB unveils 'Qubit-in-a-box 0' device, capable of simple quantum processes and of calibrating and verifying performance of quantum computing test setups
» Light Bio US startup gains regulator approval for launch of genetically-modified bioluminescent plants that glow in the dark
» Google's Messages AI upgrade found to pose serious privacy risk, with Bard AI able to read and analyze private messages, and with this falling outside end-to-end encryption provisions
» UK's Metropolitan Police seized over £1.4BN in bitcoin derived from huge investment fraud committed in China between 2014 and 2017
» PayPal invests $5M in Mesh, an embedded finance startup for cryptocurrency-based payments, using its own PYUSD stablecoin, the first time the company has used the stablecoin for investment purposes
» Visa Accelerator Program invites applications for 4th edition from growth-stage startups, with submissions closing March 8th
Indo-Pacific tech news: Other editions
• LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook / Monthly / Substack / Web / Connect
Note: Due to Twitter/X's ongoing devolution, our mobile app updates are on hold. We'll relaunch our mobile app, upgraded and revamped, in late Q1 2024.