Asia's Tech News, Weekly: July 3rd 2024

Huawei & Peru, Australian space-tech, Indo-Singapore subsea cable, China's G60 mega-constellation, Korea's $12BN semiconductor loans, datacenters in Malaysia & Japan, HK-France CBDC...

Jul 03, 2024

• Taiwan's ASE Technology Holding Co, world's biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, to launch new high-end chip testing plant in the US, nearshoring to better serve key US customers

• 17th Australian Space Forum is set for July 24th & 25th in Adelaide Convention Centre

• Philippines: Lawmakers have approved a bill proposing 12% tax on foreign digital services including streaming services like Netflix, aiming to safeguard domestic firms whilst boosting revenue

• Peru inks deal with China's Huawei to train 20,000 Peruvian citizens in new technologies, with a focus on AI tech

• Survey: How has ASEAN Connectivity contributed to the development in the region? What are your aspirations for ASEAN Connectivity beyond 2025?

"The GSMA estimates that mobile technologies and services generated 5 per cent of global GDP in 2022. This equates to $5.2 trillion of economic value." (direct pdf link)

• Australian gov't CSIRO research agency to trial AquaWatch in California, delivering satellite data-driven water quality forecasting in partnership with US universities and gov't

• China: First 18 satellites commencing build-out of China’s G60 Starlink mega-constellation of over 12,000 satellites is set for August 5th

• Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Banque de France ink MoU on collaboration on cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency, and tokenization of real-world assets

• China's Chang'e-6 reentry capsule returned to Earth on June 25th, completing 53-day mission and returning with near 2kg of samples from the moon's far side

• Telkom Indonesia’s int'l arm, Telin, inks MoU with Singtel for new subsea system connecting Singapore and Indonesia, operating under newly-formed consortium

• Nexperia, semiconductor maker owned by China's WingTech, to invest $200M in expanding capacity at main production site in Germany, despite growing scrutiny around subsidies

• Australia's Space Machines Company inks Launch Service Agreement with NewSpace India, government company under Indian Space Research Organisation, for SMC's next sat launch

• Malaysia: Telekom Malaysia and Nxera, regional data centre arm of Singtel's Digital InfraCo, partner for cutting-edge data centre facility in Johor

• Australia: Samsara Eco raises $100M Series A with enzyme-based plastic recycling, with sights on a new commercial facility in SE Asia

• South Korea: Gov't to offer $12.2 billion in loans for semiconductor chipmakers from July, alongside tax breaks for other 'national strategic technologies'

"In addition, smart contract software provides another attack surface for hackers, and the more comprehensive the underlying ledger, the more attractive a target it becomes..."

• Philippines: Global private equity major, KKR & Co, is to invest $400M in telecoms tower operations and expansion in the Philippines, acquiring near 2000 towers in the deal

• Amazon is reportedly to add a discount section to compete with Temu and Shein featuring low-cost goods for shipping from China to overseas consumers

• Japan's Toyota, partnering with China's state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group, looks to launch autonomous driving-enabled EV in China, hoping to recover from sales slump

• Download: 'How China’s Human Capital Impacts Its National Competitiveness', a brief from CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Japan: SoftBank to re-develop soon-to-be-closed LCD panel site in Osaka into large-scale data center, seeing a range of opportunities in hosted services

• South Korea's Innospace secures contracts for $1.5M from Italy's CShark and Thailand's EOS ORBIT to place satellites into orbit

• Indonesia's national data center hit by ransomware, disrupting a number of public services; hackers demanded $8M ransom, which gov't has refused to pay

• 'China's subsea strategy and a new data center for Singapore' from Nikkei Asia and the Financial Times

• OnTime AKA Ruqi Mobility, a ride-hailing firm backed by Tencent, looks to raise $179M in IPO, with trading set for Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July

• China's ByteDance, parent firm of TikTok, is now working with chips firm, Broadcom, on a restrictions-compliant 5 nanometer AI-focused processor design

Generative AI & cybersecurity: "[Accenture] has seen roughly a doubling of ransomware attacks and a 1000% increase in phishing attacks over the past 12 months."

• Australia: National Australia Bank's NAB Ventures backed Zodia Custody, an institution-grade crypto and digital assets safekeeping platform, joining Standard Chartered and others

• China: OpenAI has warned developers in China it will begin blocking access to its tools and software from July, with reasoning not yet provided

• Hong Kong: BeyonCa EV firm, backed by Renault and China's Dongfeng Motor, to site international HQ and plant in HK, marking the territory's first luxury EV brand

• Taiwan's HAOSHi Accelerator launched 7th cohort with 10 selected startups working on food- and agri-tech solutions using satellites, irrigation, recycling and more

• Australia: Tech In Gov Conference is just 3 weeks away, July 23-24 in Canberra - 150+ speakers, 200+ exhibitors, themes across AI, cybersec & more

• India: Ecom Express logistics firm to raise $172M, adding to 3000 existing e-commerce focused facility centers serving over 2700 towns

• Australia: Indigenous-led First Australians Capital hits first close on Catalytic Impact Fund with $20M in commitments

• Startup Sprint 2024 from Buhler India opens applications, seeking food- and agri-tech startups focusing on food processing and related value chains

• Bangladesh: Tiger New Energy gains $3.5M funding in part via ADB Ventures with battery swapping tech focused on the country's 3-wheeled vehicles

• City University of Hong Kong unveils 10 startup winners from the recent HK Tech 300 Southeast Asia Start-up Competition

"...the stolen files include details on future AMD products, datasheets, employee and customer databases, property files, firmware, source code, and financial documentation."

• Australia: Canberra's GRIFFIN Accelerator applications close July 10th, a program connecting ambitious Canberra founders with experienced local mentors

• Australia: 20 startups to share in near $1M funding under first round re-launch of NSW gov't MVP Ventures program

• Taiwan's FinTechSpace and Bahrain FinTech Bay partner for collaboration on resources, business referrals and more

• Australia: Channel Seven YouTube page hacked to play looping video of AI-generated Elon Musk telling viewers to invest in cryptocurrency

• Australia: Government considering options around ensuring Meta platforms continue to publish news content

In wider-world technology news:

» Break-up of defunct Russian satellite creates debris cloud in orbit, forcing ISS astronauts to shelter in other docked spacecraft

» EvolutionaryScale, backed by NVIDIA and Amazon, raised $142M with AI to generate proteins for use in scientific research, drug discovery and medical therapies

» Berlin's Swarm Markets real-world assets platform launches asset-backed digital gold represented by NFTs, each NFT representing ownership of physical bars stored in secure vaults

» Banque de France and Banque centrale du Luxembourg unveil Project Venus results, a test of tokenized bonds and wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency

» European Union's MiCAR legislation - Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation - commences roll-out; the Financial Times provides an overview here

» Etched AI startup raised $120M, focusing on specialised chips for running specific AI models used by OpenAI and Google Gemini, stepping into competition with NVIDIA