Asia's Tech News, Weekly: March 1st 2025
Alibaba's $53BN AI move, huge North Korean crypto hack, India space-tech funding, nuclear energy in The Philippines, Thailand's tokenized bonds, Huawei partners automakers, NZspace propulsion tech...
• India's first 'Made-in-India' semiconductor chip is expected to be launched by September or October this year, jointly developed by Tata Electronics and Taiwan's PSMC / full item
• China: Alibaba plans $53 billion investment in AI infrastructure such as data centers over 3 years, apparently shifting primary focus from its e-commerce base / full item
• Asia Pacific: Proofpoint cybersecurity report finds 88% of Forbes Global 2000 firms have not implemented highest level of email authentication, leaving stakeholders at risk of fraud / full item
• China: Recent policy shift allows companies to record data as assets on balance sheets, a world-first, paving the way for data to be market-traded and capable of boosting valuations / full item
• Australia: Brightwater Care Group launches Tech Innovate Challenge, a hackathon focused on tech solutions for reducing social isolation among older Australians / full item
• North Korea's Lazarus Group found to be responsible for hack of ByBit crypto exchange, the largest crypto hack in history with $1.5 billion in crypto assets stolen / full item
Tuvalu climate crisis & digital statehood: "...seeks to adapt international law to recognize digital sovereignty, allowing the nation to maintain its status and governmental functions in cyberspace" / full item
• Australia: Fleet Space and Koloma natural hydrogen company partner to identify hydrogen-forming geological formations using real-time 3D subsurface imaging from space / full item
• China-Laos Artificial Intelligence Innovation Cooperation Centre establishment agreement has been signed, building on China-ASEAN plan / full item
• New Zealand: Researchers are soon to test a potential game-changer in space propulsion on the International Space Station, combining plasma thrusters and superconducting magnets / full item
• Indian national Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre, IN-SPACe, has launched a $57.58M fund to help early-stage space technologies commercialize and reduce reliance on imports / full item
• Valar Atomics raises $19M, with a pilot small modular reactor site development contract with the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute / full item
• Malaysia: China's Chery auto-maker is to build a RM2.2 billion 'smart auto industrial park' in Hulu Selangor, with initial capacity of 100K vehicles a year, scaling to 300K vehicles / full item
• Australia: Gilmour Space targets mid-March for maiden flight of Eris rocket, potentially to be the first Australia-built rocket to reach orbit, and the first orbital launch from Australia since 1971 / full item
• Thailand: Government is to pilot issuance of tokenised government bonds worth $148M, tho details are yet to be finalized / full item
• China: Beijing tech park established 8 new space-focused 'laboratories' in the city, alongside a new satellite internet industrial park, targeting a regular schedule of 100 launches / full item
• India and US recently unveiled the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance defence initiative, focusing particularly on underwater domain awareness / full item
• Indonesia: East Ventures VC firm unveils IndoBuild AI, a platform for Indonesia's innovators to learn, collaborate, and solve real-world challenges / full item
• Philippines: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas introduces Financial Cyber Resilience Governance Council in bid to boost collaboration in the financial sector around cyber defences / full item
"China exported 235.93 GW of PV panels in 2024, a 13% increase over the previous year. Of this, 68.11 GW of modules were shipped to the Asia-Pacific region, up 26% from 2023." / full item
• China: Cryptography standards body launches 'Next-generation Commercial Cryptographic Algorithms Program', with Chinese Cryptography Standardization Technical Committee oversight / full item
• India: Ministry of Electronics & Info Tech rolls out continuous competitive empanelment for AI cloud service providers under the IndiaAI Mission, allowing firms to apply at any time / full item
• Australia: Department of Home Affairs directs government entities to prevent installation of Kaspersky products and services, citing concerns over Russian government influence and possible control / full item
• Huawei takes the wheel at China's state auto firms: "Now, not only has SAIC teamed up with Huawei, but it has chosen the partnership model that maximizes Huawei's role." / full item
• India-Australia space collaboration is set to grow with the PRISM 2 initiative, building on a range of similar space-focused partnerships / full item
• Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission unveils 'A-S-P-I-Re', a regulatory roadmap focused on Hong Kong's opportunities in the virtual asset market / full item
• Project Pax MoU inked between Progmat, Fairsquarelab, and Korea Digital Asset Custody for proof of concept on Japan-Korea cross-border remittance infrastructure for stablecoins / full item
• China Aerospace Science & Tech Corporation - CASC - confirmed launch and orbit entry of ChinaSat-10R - Zhongxing-10R - communications satellite / full item
• China: DeepSeek introduces discounted off-peak pricing for developers, increasing pressure on domestic and international competitors / full item
• Indo-Pacific Insight, Weekly: Pakistan's Gwadar port, Japan & the Indo-Pacific, Golden Triangle SEZ, $8BN Vietnam-China rail, Australia-Papua New Guinea defence, China oil & gas, ASEAN is ageing, Laos-Thailand issues, Indonesian mining... / full item
"Nearly 2,000 Indians are at present involved in cyber scam operations in Myawaddy...near the Myanmar-Thailand border... Many were reportedly duped by fake job offers..." / full item
• China: EngineAI takes robotics world-first with the first humanoid robot to perform a front flip, seen as a more complicated movement than a backflip / full item
• Japan: High-level group that includes a former PM has proposed that Tesla invest in struggling carmaker, Nissan, following the collapse of Honda merger talks / full item
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team analysis of 20 'smart cities' finds widespread cyber issues including malware infections, botnet attacks, and misconfigurations / full item
• China: Dream Fly, and partners, in January completed test flight of China's first tonne-level hybrid tiltrotor electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen / full item
• New Zealand: Agnition Ventures partners Singapore's Agrifood Futures for 'Land x Launch' accelerator, offering a program for agri-tech startups to launch in New Zealand / full item
• Australia: Goodman Group property and logistics major to raise Au$2.54 billion to fund data centre growth, with plans to issue 119.42 million shares / full item
• The Private Equity and Venture Capital Landscape in the Philippines, 2024 in Review and 2025 Outlook, from PwC / full item
• China: SiliconFlow AI infrastructure firm secures $13.8M pre-A with cloud-based multi-LLM platform, lowering costs and barriers to use / full item
• Malaysia: Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry partners Securities Commission for Strategic Co-Investment Fund with initial allocation of $29M for SMEs and mid-tier firms / full item
• Australia: CDC data centers major commences construction a 150MW data campus outside Melbourne, projecting a $2.7BN local economy boost and creation of thousands of jobs / full item
• Malaysia: ST Telemedia Global Data Centres begins construction in Johor, 15 km from Singapore, targeting a capacity of 16MW and set to be fully operational by year-end 2026 / full item
• Vietnam: Japan's Kyushu semiconductor industry bodies explored Japan-Vietnam partnership opportunities in recent meetings / full item
China: "...since the January launch of the latest [Deepseek] model three major ports in China have already implemented or are planning to adopt the tool for greater efficiency..." / full item
• India's electric aircraft startup, ePlane Company, lands collaboration with Dubai's Empire Aviation Group to integrate business electric vertical take-off and landing solutions / full item
• China's DeepSeek is to open-source five code repositories used in its AI models / full item
• Singapore delivers 2025 fiscal budget and policy speech, pledging increased investment in industries including semiconductors, energy, and aviation / full item
• Australia: ATech cloud hosting and web dev firm opens new round of Boost Incubator Program, seeking 3 tech startups with high growth potential / full item
• India: "...the government received 526 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) applications from Chinese investors, of which 124 were approved, 201 were rejected, and 200 remain pending." / full item
• South Korea: NAVER corporate ventures arm, D2SF, backs whereableAI autonomous driving startup, with the firm testing 10 autonomous indoor vehicles at Incheon Int'l Airport / full item
• India: Uber moves away from commission-based model for 3-wheeled rickshaw drivers, instead charging drivers a daily fee to use the Uber platform to connect to riders / full item
• Philippines: Manny Pacquiao and Manila Ecommerce Centre partner to launch Star Digital Solutions agency, aiming to boost entrepreneurship over the Centre's 16 stories / full item
• New Zealand intro's visitor visa rule changes, integrating digital nomad and remote worker provisions into the existing visa system / full item
• Australia: 2025 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index finds 32.5% of Australians currently own or have previously owned crypto / full item
• 'How vulnerable is the Marshall Islands to a cyber-attack? And how likely is a major hack of Marshall government entities to happen? To start with, it's already happened.' / full item
In wider-world technology news:
» Germany's Proxima Fusion publishes plan for fully-functional fusion power plant, claiming its Stellaris design can operate stably and continuously without issues in other approaches / full item
» PsiQuantum announces photonics solution to quantum computing chips manufacturing capable of achieving volumes needed for commercial viability, partnering GlobalFoundries / full item
» Meta Platforms is reportedly in talks around construction of a new $200 billion data center campus for AI projects in Louisiana, Wyoming or Texas / full item
» Google unveils 'AI co-scientist', aiming to help scientists generate hypotheses and proposals, and accelerate scientific and biomedical discoveries / full item
» PV Circonomy, based in California, launches recycling and treatment service for end-of-life solar panels, claiming tech with a 99.3% recovery rate / full item
» Saudi Arabia's NEOM partners DataVolt to develop a 1.5GW net-zero artificial intelligence data center in its Oxagon industrial zone, with phase 1 investment of $5BN / full item
» 1,000 artists released a silent album to protest UK copyright law changes allowing AI to use their work without artist permission or payments / full item
"...newer AI models can find and exploit weaknesses in cybersecurity on their own, bypassing safeguards and using shortcuts to complete tasks even when not technically allowed to." / full item
And here's the link to the LinkedIn edition of Asia's Tech News, Weekly to March 1st, for those who prefer the LinkedIn newsletter format:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-march-1st-2025-startup-news-asia-lrydc/