Asia's Tech News, Weekly: July 19th 2025

Indian quantum, China's lithium, Japan's startup partnerships, ASEAN semiconductor opportunity, Vietnam & 5G, subsea cables for PNG, Singapore's QuikBot and FedEx, New Zealand VC ne...

Jul 19, 2025

• Japan's Mitsubishi Research Institute inks startup partnerships with Startup Island Taiwan, Thailand's DEPA, Thailand's TechSauce, and Vietnam's innolabAsia and MRIV / full item

• UAE's Autocraft inks MoU with China's Shanghai TCab electric vertical takeoff and landing - eVTOL - maker to purchase 350 E20 eVTOL aircraft in $1BN deal / full item

• India: QpiAI secures $32M Series A with quantum-driven AI, focusing on improvements in areas including finance, logistics, healthcare and materials science / full item

• Korea-ASEAN AI Youth Festa 2025 applications are open, seeking artificial intelligence-driven solutions addressing sustainable development goals / full item

• A quick intro to 10 of New Zealand's high-performing cybersecurity startups / full item

• China: Geological teams have identified a 490 million ton lithium ore deposit in Hunan Province, with the potential for global supply chain impacts / full item

"As the global semiconductor market heads toward a projected US$1 trillion valuation by 2029, ASEAN stands at the crossroads of a historic opportunity." / full item

• Australia's FERA partners China's Envision Energy multinational green hydrogen manufacturer for large-scale hybrid renewable energy projects / full item

• South Korea’s Hana Micron unveils Vietnam expansion plans, committing to investing over $930M through 2026 to boost its memory chip packaging operations / full item

• Australia and Papua New Guinea have held talks on potential construction of 3 new subsea cables to meet the Pacific Island nation's growing demand for digital connectivity / full item

• Uber and China's Baidu are to partner on deployment of thousands of Baidu Apollo Go autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform across markets beyond the US and China / full item

• Malaysia: Tenaga Nasional Bhd launches 100kW floating solar pilot project at Kenyir Lake, aiming to scale up to 2.2 GW of capacity using 10% of the lake's surface, 3,690 hectares / full item

• Vietnam: Government has mandated that telecom providers deploy at least 68,457 5G base stations by the end of 2025 in a major push to advance national digital infrastructure / full item

TechSauce Global Summit 2025: Thailand, August 4-6

• China's WeRide launches SE Asia's first fully driverless 'robobus' service at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore, following approval from the Land Transport Authority / full item

• New Zealand: "...Icehouse Ventures' latest $30 million seed fund raised half its target in just one month, signaling strong investor appetite for early-stage Kiwi companies." / full item

• Japan's Astellas Pharma inks MoU with Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development to identify and develop Korean drug-discovery startups / full item

• India: Ananth Technologies secures authorisation from India's space regulator to offer satellite-delivered broadband internet services from 2028 / full item

• Japan: SoftBank has begun field trials of 7GHz spectrum, testing one of the most likely sources of future 6G spectrum, partnering with Nokia in central Tokyo / full item

• Australia: Industry-government consortium led by Optus telco is to build a low-Earth orbit satellite, with potential for a future constellation of sovereign satellites / full item

"After a two-year suspension, China Unicom is the first Chinese telco to return to the eSIM market, targeting IoT and wearables – but not smartphones." / full item

• 'FedEx Collaborates with QuikBot to Revolutionise Last-Mile Deliveries in Singapore' / full item

• China's BYD EV giant plans major Saudi expansion following market entry of Tesla, with Saudi Arabia eyeing status as a regional electric vehicles hub / full item

• The Philippines' CoinsPH partners Hong Kong's HashKey Exchange to create a regulated, 24/7 channel for moving funds between the Philippines and Hong Kong / full item

• Taiwan's TSMC is reportedly to break ground on 2 advanced chip packaging plants in the US in 2028 / full item

• 'Malaysia's data centre dreams hit by tariffs, chip ban fears, trade tensions' but overall picture remains upbeat / full item

• 'Japan and the European Union (EU) will jointly build a large-scale satellite network.' / full item

Mayani agri-tech: Smallholder farmers and fisherfolk

• Japan: IBM looks to a long-term partnership with Japan's Rapidus to develop sub-1nm chips, building on 2nm chip collaboration / full item

• Philippines: Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission believes more than 9,000 former Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) workers remain at large in the country / full item

• "Vietnam may begin controlled pilot deployment of Starlink's satellite internet service as early as Q4 2025, pending regulatory approval..." / full item

• 'China lifts rare earth concentrate prices by 14% for 3Q25, escalating supply chain tensions' / full item

• NVIDIA gains approval to resume H20 AI chip sales in China, accompanied by a new US regulations-compliant GPU, the RTX PRO / full item

• Philippines: Mayani agri-tech firm and Bayan Family of Foundations secure HSBC Philippines philanthropic funding supporting smallholder farmers and fisherfolk in adapting to climate change / full item

"Huawei Technologies is attempting to export small amounts of AI chips to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, as it looks to establish itself in markets dominated by US chip designer Nvidia..." / full item

• Southeast Asia & EVs: "Vietnam led the way with nearly 90,000 electric cars sold, accounting for 17.6 percent of the country’s car market. Thailand followed closely with..." / full item

• "France has projected €18 million... in funding for the world's first Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (SMART) submarine cable connecting Vanuatu and New Caledonia" / full item

• The inaugural edition of Data Center Asia Indonesia 2025 conference is set for September, co-locating with Electric & Power Indonesia event / full item

• Philippines: Startup QC Program opens applications, offers up to P1 million in equity-free grants, mentoring, guidance, and access to a network of investors, incubators, and more / full item

• "Chinese companies are preparing to equip 39 new AI data centers — mostly in Xinjiang and Qinghai — with over 115,000 high-performance Nvidia Hopper GPUs..." / full item

• Available now via Patreon: Indo-Pacific Insight Weekly to July 12th - 25 items, linked & QR'd, key info, at a glance, digital, and ready to print / full item

"By 2035, there could be 13 million robot members of society, and the cost of owning one could be around $10,000 a year..." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» OpenAI is preparing to release an 'open-weight' AI model, allowing companies and entities to run the model themselves / full item

» "Morgan Stanley Research estimates the humanoids market is likely to reach $5 trillion by 2050, plus related supply chains as well as repair, maintenance and support..." / full item

» AWS is launching an AI agent marketplace with Anthropic as a partner / full item

Researchers identify critical vulnerabilities in automotive Bluetooth systems used by companies including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Skoda / full item