Asia's Tech News, Weekly: June 14th 2025

China & quantum, Australian spaceport, N Korean digital assets, $1BN Thai data center, Singapore versus crypto, ASEAN's undersea cables, TSMC-UTokyo Lab launches...

Jun 15, 2025

• China Telecom Quantum Group has launched a commercial-grade distributed cryptography system integrating quantum key distribution with post-quantum cryptography / full item

• Singapore-based DayOne Data Centers secures Sg$4.6BN in green financing to develop Johor data centres in Malaysia / full item

• US Department of Justice files civil forfeiture complaint over $7.74M in frozen digital assets linked to North Korean fake IT worker schemes / full item

• Taiwan's TSMC has opened a joint research lab with the University of Tokyo, TSMC-UTokyo Lab, TSMC's first collaboration with an academic institute outside of Taiwan / full item

• Australia: Space Machines Company and partner, University of Technology Sydney, announce 'Australia's largest industrial-scale spacecraft manufacturing facility' / full item

"By weakening cryptography, quantum computing would present a serious threat to our everyday cybersecurity. So is a quantum-cryptography apocalypse imminent?" / full item

• India: Defence R&D Organisation formally opens Quantum Technology Research Centre to advance indigenous capabilities for defense and strategic applications / full item

• China's leading science institution unveils AI-driven chip design system with potential to significantly accelerate semiconductor development, and replace human programmers / full item

• 'Samsung's grasp on foundry market's No. 2 spot grows precarious as SMIC plays catchup' / full item

• China claims world-first with large-scale application of non-binary AI chips, delivered using proprietary 'hybrid computing' tech / full item

• South Korea: Parliament may approve a draft tokenized securities bill, enabling domestic firms to launch blockchain-based 'coins' tied to real estate, raw materials, livestock, and beyond / full item

Video: 'Australia's next space port emerging in North Queensland', an interview-based overview from Space Centre Australia / on YouTube

• Thailand's B Grimm Power and Singapore's Digital Edge are to invest $1BN in a jointly-constructed 100-megawatt Thai data centre / full item

• China: Rednote social media platform releases open-source AI LLM in both domestic and international competitive move / full item

• Download: 'Going Global - Status of Japanese Startups', a 2025 research report from the Japan Investment Corporation / full item

• South Korea: Samsung Electronics is to adopt an AI coding assistant service, Cline, in July in a bid to boost productivity of software development employees / full item

• Hong Kong edition of Data Center Asia 2025 conference & expo is set for July 15-17 - details here / full item

"Monetary Authority of Singapore has effectively banned most crypto firms from serving only foreign clients by requiring a license, which it says it will 'generally not issue'." / full item

• Hong Kong: Government partners Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to test cross-border transactions between permissioned and permissionless blockchains, and more / full item

• Japan: Parliament enacts bill revising payment services law, now enabling the prevention of crypto asset outlflows from investors in Japan when overseas crypto exchanges go bust / full item

• Crypto: "With jurisdictions like Singapore, Thailand, Dubai, Hong Kong and others tightening oversight and closing gaps, there's simply no escaping the global push for compliance." / full item

• Download: 'Technology Convergence Report' from the World Economic Forum / full item

• Malaysia: LEVEL UP Accelerator by MDEC and Agora Gaming Partners is open for applications from startups to mid-sized game studios - deadline is June 17th / full item

Undersea cables: "...there are no sovereign repair capabilities within any ASEAN state. The 16 specialist ships homeported in the Indo-Pacific are owned by nine foreign-owned companies..." / full item

• Call for Proposals: One ASEAN Startup Award 2025 2nd pre-event in Bangkok seeks startups working on AI and Zero Emission tech for sustainable development in Thailand, Brunei, Philippines / full item

• Download: 'Transforming Global Payments - The Role of Tokenized Money & Funds in Cross-Border Transactions - Interim Report: e-HKD Pilot Programme Phase 2' from Visa (pdf link) / full item

• China's EV price war: "...Geely managed to outsell BYD in China with its own cheap take on BYD's Seagull. The response? BYD cut the price of the already sub-$10,000 Seagull to under $8,000..." / full item

• Download: 'Asset Tokenization in Financial Markets: The Next Generation of Value Exchange' from the World Economic Forum / full item

• Asia's Tech News, Last Week: China & fusion, Tonga gov-tech, Hanoi & EVs, AI & Islam, crypto ATM scams, Singapore & space, Laos energy, Tuvalu digital nation, Philippines disinfo law... / full item

"As Southeast Asia's largest digital economy, valued at US$90 billion and projected to quadruple by 2030, Indonesia is focusing on three national priorities..." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» US Commercial Space Federation launches Space Supply Chain Council - S2C2 - aiming to define industry priorities, recommend policy, and update on member impacts / full item

» The European Union has launched the DNS4EU domain name resolution service in bid to enable citizens to rely less on major firms like Cloudflare and Google / full item

» Construction Startup Competition 2025 is open for applications to June 22nd, seeking solutions for green construction, productivity, supply chains, and the industry's future / full item

» Amazon Web Services is doubling down on AI ambitions with $20BN expansion plan to build 2 new data center facilities in Pennsylvania, one adjacent to a nuclear power plant / full item

» US may be set to roll out updated rule providing US allies access to AI chips, based on requirement that chips are run by approved US cloud and data center operators / full item

» Bluesky's challenge: "When a network grows, each new user makes it more valuable to every other user... When the users start leaving, however, those network effects also hasten the decline." / full item

"Amazon is reportedly developing software for humanoid robots that could perform the role of delivery workers and 'spring out' of its vans." / full item