Asia's Tech News, Weekly: June 21st 2025
Huawei's AI chiplets, Vietnam's crypto law, $2.3BN Indonesia data centre, ASEAN's digital economy, China's photonic chips, Amazon data centre for Australia, India cuts rare earths...
• China: Patent reveals Huawei's AI-accelerator quad-chiplet, a rival for NVIDIA's Rubin AI GPUs, could use packaging technology on a par with TSMC / full item
• Vietnam has passed 'Law on Digital Technology', formally recognizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as digital assets, set to come into effect January 1st, 2026 / full item
• Indonesia: Dubai-HQ'd EDGNEX Data Centers unveils plans for $2.3BN next-gen AI-powered data center in Jakarta, set to be one of SEA's largest AI-focused infrastructure projects / full item
• South Korea: China's Alibaba Cloud is to activate a 2nd data center in South Korea in response to demand for AI services, with associated opportunity to push the company's own AI models / full item
• Malaysia's Pahang state government is to establish a dedicated high technology zone in Kuantan in a bid to attract major players in the artificial intelligence industry / full item
"Chinese automakers... are reportedly preparing to launch vehicles equipped entirely with domestically produced chips, with at least 2 brands targeting mass production as early as 2026" / full item
• Taiwan: Hon Hai Research Institute unveils critical AI server single-chip integrated circuit tech, and power management, in Japan, capable of chip operation above 150 degrees Celsius / full item
• Thailand: Digital Economy Promotion Agency calls for budget of $24M to create a national digital trade platform to support exports / full item
• Tesla may be preparing for production of its new AI5 FSD computer, featuring performance target of 2K to 2.5K TOPS - Trillion Operations Per Second - using Samsung and TSMC for manufacturing / full item
• China: MiniMax AI firm launches M1 model, claiming higher benchmark test scores than DeepSeek's latest R1-0528 model / full item
• Malaysia is to convene a special ASEAN Economic Ministerial meeting in late July to speed progress on the Digital Economy Framework Agreement / full item
• "Hong Kong police allege a mobile game... advocates armed revolution and promotes secessionist agendas, saying those who publish it or share it... risk violating national security laws." / full item
• Taiwan: "...the new rule means that Taiwanese companies can no longer freely export advanced chips, technologies, or manufacturing services to Huawei and SMIC. Instead..." / full item
• China: Shanghai Jiao Tong University-affiliated institute is now producing photonic chips, marking a milestone in China's semiconductor and quantum computing capabilities / full item
• Taiwan: TSMC will start 2nm chips production at Baoshan and Kaohsiung facilities in H2 2025, with 2nm process seeing the first use of GAA - Gate All-Around - tech at scale / full item
• "Battery makers in America have started to feel the pinch from China’s ban of exports of the critical mineral antimony, to the point of seeing the shortage as a national emergency." / full item
Robotics: "By 2050, about 90% of humanoids... will likely be used for repetitive, simple, and structured work—primarily industrial and commercial purposes. China is likely to have the highest number..." / full item
• Amazon is to invest $13BN in Australia's data center infrastructure over 5 years, the company's 'largest global technology commitment in Australia' / full item
• South Korea's LG Energy Solution secures agreement to supply 46-series cylindrical batteries to China's Chery Automobile, the first time a Korean company will power Chinese EVs / full item
• Singapore looks to push self-driving vehicles over the next five years, aiming to strengthen the public transport network in light of manpower issues / full item
• ASEAN Technology Management Hub's formal launch is set for October, in Malaysia, aiming to bridge the gap between university research and the private sector, region-wide / full item
• Vietnam: Qualcomm formally opened a new AI R&D centre in Vietnam in June / full item
• China has launched a second seismo-electromagnetic satellite for detecting precursors to natural disasters such as earthquakes, in collaborative launch with Italy and Austria / full item
• Japan: EVONET payments infrastructure provider launches cross-border mobile wallet interoperability with partners, enabling WeChat Pay transactions via QR code across Japan / full item
• Cambodia Startup Launchpad launches training program aiming to fast-track the Kingdom's most promising early-stage startups toward market fit and commercial success / full item
• China: "...the G7 comes in two variants: the Max edition with dual NVIDIA Orin-X chips, and the Ultra edition, which debuts XPeng's self-designed Turing AI chip across three units..." / full item
• India: "...asked state-run miner IREL to suspend a 13-year-old agreement on rare earth exports to Japan and to safeguard supplies for domestic needs... to reduce India's dependence on China" / full item
Data centres: "Most Asia-Pacific countries are 'significantly underserved,' despite stratospheric growth in investment and capacity in recent years..." / full item
• Japan: Ripple is providing up to $200K in grants for projects being built with XRP Ledger in Japan, under the $1BN XRP Fund and backed by players in Japan's public and private sectors / full item
• "China's GAC has started taking pre-orders for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi, the GOVY AirCab, at a price tag of RMB 1.68 million ($234,000)." / full item
• Philippines: AIR Summit - Artificial Intelligence Revolution - is set for Manila, October 30th, featuring over 100 organizations, and 8+ hours of networking / full item
• Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur moves up to 18th place in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 rankings from Startup Genome / full item
• "The head of China's central bank pledged to expand the international use of the digital yuan and called for the development of a multi-polar global currency system..." / full item
• When Grok is wrong: The risks of AI chatbots spreading misinformation in a crisis' / "...in response to one X user’s speculation that the May 12 event was due to an Indian missile attack..." / full item
• "While China's cable sector, as elsewhere, is being hollowed out by smart TVs and the streaming revolution, it carries the additional burden of being small and fragmented." / full item
• AirAsia offers 50% discount to 12,000 accredited media personnel to travel to 57 destinations across ASEAN's 10 member states / full item
• US chip giant NVIDIA is to attend the China International Supply Chain Expo for the first time in July / full item
• "In recent years, interest in coliving, a shared living space with private rooms and common areas such as a kitchen, living room, and workspace, has grown significantly in Hong Kong." / full item
• "YouTube, the world's largest video platform, appears to have changed its moderation policies to allow more content that violates its own rules to remain online." / full item
European Space Agency targets $1 billion in investment for European Resilience from Space (ERS) program, available for both civil and military uses / full item
In wider-world technology news:
» "In less than three months’ time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in [Germany's] Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft’s ubiquitous programs at work." / full item
» Brazil's top court votes to hold social media platforms accountable for user posts, although details have yet to be resolved / full item
» "Rapid advances in large language models (LLMs) and autonomous agents now let influence campaigns reach unprecedented scale and precision..." / PDF link
» NVIDIA is to build its first AI cloud system for industrial applications in Germany, at times combining AI with robotics / full item
» US Senate passes stablecoin bill in milestone for crypto industry / full item
» "French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that France must gain mastery over advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes in the 2 to 10-nanometer range..." / full item
New York lawmakers pass RAISE Act to prevent frontier AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic from contributing to disaster scenarios, resulting in $1 billion in damages if liable / full item
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