Asia's Tech News, Weekly: January 4th 2025

Covering 15/12/2024 to January 4th 2025: China in space, TSMC in Japan, Vietnam & blockchain, Philippines clean energy, Singapore & quantum, Tesla Shanghai, Taiwan & Project Kuiper, Indonesian CBDC...

Jan 05, 2025

• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups unveils $2.23BN startups support plan for 2025, spanning 429 startup support programs led by 101 organizations / full item

• China: An overview of new-generation Long March rockets, commercially-developed launch vehicles, and others, that are expected to see their first flights in 2025 / full item

• Download: 'Digital Japan 2025 - Five Trends To Look Out For' from Yuri Group "Under the startup development plan, Tokyo wants to more than double foreign direct investment..." / full item

• Australia: A look at Kapture, collecting carbon emissions from exhaust fumes and embedding them in concrete, a sustainability win for the emissions-heavy cement industry / full item

• Thailand: Foxconn subsidiary UNIQUE Integrated Technology gained approval for a $306M factory build to export semiconductor machinery and equipment / full item

• Japan: TSMC commences production at Kumamoto Prefecture plant, manufacturing 12-28nm chips for cars and image sensors, with Governor proposing a third TSMC plant / full item

• '3D Real-Scene China' is in development, real-time model of the physical world, dovetailing with 'new quality productive forces' and in part with sights on the low-altitude economy / full item

"...the Philippines has been deemed the second most attractive emerging market for clean power investments, even beating economic powerhouse China." / full item

• China: Nio EV maker breaks 30K monthly milestone, claiming 31,138 vehicles delivered in December, up 72.87% from December 2023 / full item

• Vietnam: Social media users now have 90 days to authenticate accounts, tied to mobile numbers, with parents 'responsible for monitoring and managing the content their children post and share' / full item

• Taiwan: Foxconn subsidiary Fii Holdings USA takes equity stakes in 8 US companies in $344M investment, part of ongoing moves to diversify supply chains / full item

• South Korea: Samsung Electronics to become largest shareholder in Rainbow Robotics, looking to add Samsung's AI and software expertise to intelligent, advanced humanoid robots / full item

• Japan: An intro to ArkEdge Space, a low-cost micro and nano-satellite firm working on issues including disaster recovery and relief, sustainable development and more / full item

• India successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in part to test docking tech needed for future space missions / full item

• Vietnam boosts focus on opportunities in Web3 with National Strategy for the Development and Application of Blockchain Technology - here's an overview / full item

Indo-Pacific Insight // LinkedIn & Bluesky

• India: SEMI is planning an Indian Semiconductor Academy to further boost the country's chip ambitions, looking to partner technical institutes and universities for curricula and training / full item

• China: Shanghai Gesi Aerospace Technology, aka Genesat, raised $137M to further develop manufacturing for the 14000-sat G60 Starlink mega-constellation, aka Qianfan and Thousand Sails / full item

• New Zealand: Wellington City Council preps to deploy 400 Pay by Plate parking machines in selected districts, automating payments and timekeeping / full item

• China: Tesla Shanghai Energy Storage Super Factory project passes inspection, just 7 months from start of construction, targeting 10K commercial storage batteries annually / full item

• Vietnam: "...remittances were among the key factors contributing to the development of Vietnam [in 2024], along with 421 foreign direct invested projects..." / full item

• India Accelerator has launched Cohort'25 with up to $10M in funding commitments, looking to accelerate 30-35 startups across emerging tech sectors / full item

• Singapore: University-developed AQSolotl startup launches to commercialize quantum technologies that facilitate communications between traditional and quantum systems / full item

The Asia Cable: Asia Daily & Silk Road Monthly

• China beats 2024 space launch milestone with 68th 2024 launch, but Kinetica-1 solid rocket failed in later launch stage / full item

• Vietnam: Ministry of Finance reportedly preps for citizen ID numbers to be used as personal tax codes from July 2025, to streamline tax data for national database on population / full item

• A brief overview of how the recent Honda-Nissan deal may be a key move in responding to the explosive growth of China's BYD / full item

• Taiwan: An overview of Taoyuan municipality's moves towards becoming a new global innovation hub, building on 12000 factories and industrial output over $122BN / full item

• 'Singapore forged ahead with efforts to formulate a digital-assets hub in 2024, while rival financial center Hong Kong has struggled to gain traction.' / full item

• Taiwan opposition parties used parliamentary majority to push legislation redirecting funding, potentially cutting tech-related activities by $609M / full item

• Vietnam: Bac Ninh province targets site prep for Nam Son-Hap Linh Industrial Park before February's Lunar NY holiday to speed investment by China's Goertek electronics giant / full item

"India's chip market is projected to grow 17% annually and reach approximately $80BN by 2028... lagging behind Taiwan, China and South Korea, but remarkable considering India's starting point..." / full item

• Taiwan is to construct a large UAV testing facility in Chiayi County, looking to boost its drone manufacturing capabilities and gain a larger presence in global markets / full item

• China: Alibaba Cloud cuts AI model pricing by up to 85% in response to ongoing price wars in the domestic AI services market / full item

• China: 'Legacy' chips used in everyday goods are set to face additional US tariffs in a bid to protect market-driven producers from heavily state-subsidised competition / full item

• South Korea: Stock Exchange is now exploring approval of cryptocurrency exchange-traded spot ETFs / full item

• Techstars Tokyo opens applications for 2nd cohort of its 3-month accelerator, looking for 12 seed-stage startups from Japan and around the world / full item

• China: Agibot, aka Zhiyuan Robotics, showcases manufacturing facility with sights on 1000 units produced by the end of 2024 / full item

• Japan's Toyota and Vietnam's Vin Phuc province ink MOU to boost collaboration and investment in key sectors including manufacturing, automotive, and electric vehicles / full item

India tech startups — Inc42 Datalabs: Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2024

• China's AgiBot releases large-scale AgiBot World Alpha dataset for humanoid robotics developers, providing foundational models, standardized benchmarks and more / full item

• Taiwan delegation meets with Oman representatives around support and participation in Oman's 3+7 year semiconductor program / full item

• China: Landspace secures $123 million in state investment to speed development of reusable, methane-liquid oxygen launch vehicles / full item

• Samsung Electronics inks agreement for TV manufacturing in Kazakhstan to better supply growing demand in Kazakhstan and Central Asia / full item

• Vietnam's Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province launches feasibility survey for $1.37BN 'super data center', and undersea fiber optic cable landing project in the country's southeast / full item

• Cambodia sets sights on lifting digital skills base to 100,000 by 2030, alongside boosting basic digital literacy and rolling out broadband access to 1600 communities by 2027 / full item

• Taiwan is in talks with Amazon around use of Project Kuiper satellite system for emergency communications; and potentially other providers as additional redundancy / full item

"Vietnam has emerged as a burgeoning hub for the semiconductor industry, now home to 174 foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital of nearly 11.6 billion USD..." / full item

• China: 'Laser Diamond Constellation' test satellites enter orbit, looking at inter-satellite communications most likely in the context of mega-constellation sat plans / full item

• Singapore and Hong Kong ranked as the most blockchain-friendly regions based on patents, jobs, and crypto exchanges in an ApeX Protocol study / full item

• India: Mindgrove Technologies fabless semiconductor design firm raised $8M Series A, targeting sales of its first chip and following Secure IoT system-on-chip launch / full item

• China's CATL batteries giant to seek Hong Kong IPO, pending regulator approval: "CATL, world's top battery maker, has a global market share of roughly 37% in [EV] batteries..." / full item

• Vietnam: '46.15% of agencies and businesses reported... at least one cyberattack in the past year, with 6.77% facing frequently. The total number...is estimated to exceed 659K' / full item

• Taiwan is to launch the 'Chip Team Taiwan' initiative for robotics, drones and space industry supply chains to decrease external supply chain dependencies / full item

• Singapore: Nanyang Technological University unveils 3D concrete printing method that captures and stores carbon dioxide, cutting the carbon footprint of cement / full item

"Ji Yue's collapse is not a standalone incident in China's EV sector. Other manufacturers, including Enovate and Bordrin, have faced comparable financial crises, underscoring the precarious state of the industry's funding ecosystem." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» France's Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor is now online and connected to the national grid, with electricity production set to develop in line with testing and safety protocols / full item

» Halliburton oilfield services giant enters bitcoin mining, backing 360 Energy, a startup utilizing unused natural gas to mine bitcoin via modular data centers / full item

» SpaceX is petitioning Texas authorities to incorporate its Starbase launch site and HQ as a city / full item

» United Kingdom becomes the first European nation to join the Indo-Pacific's Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc / full item

» Nokia deepens blockchain and crypto moves with 'device method and computer program' patent filing security of digital assets in the blockchain ecosystem / full item

» Texas officially filed a bill to establish Texas Bitcoin Reserve, aiming to make Texas a leader in BTC innovation, improve the state's financial stability / full item

"The [Generative AI] hype is fading, and people are asking what generative artificial intelligence is really good for. So far, no one has a decent answer." / full item