Asia's tech news, weekly: May 14th 2024
Taiwan satellites, Malaysia KL Innovation Network, Microsoft AI across SEA, Australian digital ID, China in medium Earth orbit, Alibaba in South Korea, Japanese-language LLM...
• Taiwan Space Agency to launch 6 low Earth orbit satellites from 2026, the first via SpaceX, as part of government bid to boost resilience of the nation's communications
• China's PIX Moving gains public road self-driving vehicle test and operation license in Turin, Italy, with unmanned minibus to soon provide short-range transport services
• Australia: Hysata has raised $111M to scale up its more-efficient method for producing hydrogen
• Malaysia: Microsoft adds to Indonesia and Thailand commitments with $2.2BN investment in Malaysian AI infrastructure and training for 200K Malaysians
"...1 in 5 banks still find it hard to identify customers at any stage of the customer journey despite having global KYC [know your customer] protocols in place.”
• Taiwan: "By the end of 2024, 700 hot spots will be established across the island to allow for satellite communications during emergency situations..."
• Singapore's MetaComp, a digital assets-focused financial tech group, partners Hong Kong's Harvest Global Investments to offer crypto spot ETFs to Singapore's investors
• India: Chandrayaan-4 moon sample mission preparations now underway with Indian Space Research Org'n working on plans for the follow-up to last year's Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing
• Researchers at Melbourne and Manchester universities unveil breakthrough technique for manufacture of highly-purified silicon, critical for quantum computers
• Australia: An intro to RapidGraphite, transforming waste carbon into high-purity graphite, key component of lithium-ion batteries
• Hong Kong central bank forms Project Ensemble Architecture Community from industry and regulators to set tokenization standards, including around use of wholesale CBDCs
• Taiwan: Researchers developed a method to potentially reduce a quantum computer's size by 40%, incorporating TSMC 28nm tech for low-temperature operation
• New Zealand: AgriZeroNZ to invest $9.9M in US agri-biotech startup ArkeaBio work towards a 'methane vaccine', in bid to reduce global emissions
"With an authoritarian government able to pick and choose how it applies safety rules, it’s likely easier for Tesla to test out the practicalities of controlling a car in real-world situations in China...”
• Australia: Government earmarks Au$288M for national digital ID program
• Thailand: Microsoft inks agreements with gov't to build cloud and AI infrastructure in Thailand, and to deliver AI skilling to over 100,000 citizens
• Malaysian Research Accelerator for Tech & Innovation, MRANTI, launches KL Innovation Network of tech hubs in Klang Valley in bid to boost the domestic startup ecosystem
• China's Alibaba to invest $1.1BN in South Korea with $200M for logistics centre, $100M for SME onboarding - and $75M to address antitrust concerns
• India: Mindgrove Technologies semicon startup rolls out India's first commercial high-performance system-on-chip based on RISC-V open-standard architecture
• China launches first satellites for a medium Earth orbit broadband constellation, potentially capable of connecting to low Earth orbit megaconstellations in development
• Indonesia: Microsoft to invest $1.7 billion over 4 years in cloud and AI infrastructure in Indonesia, and also delivering AI-focused skills training for 840K citizens
• South Korea's K-Startup Center opens in Tokyo to help Korean firms expand via partnerships with Japanese firms, adding to KSC presence in Singapore, Vietnam, France and the US
"The International Organization for Migration found that international transfers increased 650% from $128bn... to $831bn... between 2000 and 2022."
• Everex payments firm reportedly presented at ASEAN central bank governor and finance meeting, demonstrating blockchain-based payments between Thailand and Myanmar
• India: More on Mindgrove Technologies, RISC-V firm producing system-on-chip units for mid-level devices
• UTokyo Innovation Platform's 1stRound deep-tech support program inks agreement with Germany's Cyber Valley for mutual startup support between Japan and Europe
• India: Lam Research, a US semicon major, to expand India presence for global semiconductor fabrication equipment supply chains
• Philippines: Switzerland's DFinity Foundation opens launchpad with Isla Camp to identify and grow Filipino Web3 startups with initial $15M operations grant
• South Korea's Perigee Aerospace, a small space launch vehicles startup, partners Swedish Space Corporation to expand operations in Europe
• Australia: H2PowerBox launches mobile, off-grid solar-hydrogen energy system, generating and storing hydrogen via electrolysis in the day and using a fuel cell to convert back to electricity as needed
• Singapore's Rize raised $14M Series A with methane-reducing approach to rice farming, providing price-incentivized farming supplies to boost uptake
• Vietnam's VinCSS and China's GoGoByte ink MoU around development and deployment of cybersecurity solutions for the EV market in line with international regulations
AI & web search: "The business is so vast and lucrative that Google pays Apple over $20BN a year to serve as the default search provider for the iPhone..."
• Vietnam: SKC, chemicals arm of South Korean SK Group conglomerate, breaks ground on biodegradable plastics plant in Vietnam, expected to be the largest in the world
• China: Arrests made of group delivering illegal currency conversion using cryptocurrency, with proceeds of $296 million
• Australia: Firstmac, non-bank lender focusing on mortgage lending, investment management and securitization, hit by data breach of potentially 500GB
• China: US revokes some licenses allowing firms including Intel and Qualcomm to export chips to Huawei for use in laptops and handsets
• Australia: A brief intro to 6 firms selected for South Australia's Growth Ramp space pathway, working in electronics, illegal fishing monitoring, space debris and more
• Taiwan: Ministry of Justice proposes amendments to anti-money laundering regulations focused on cryptocurrency firms, imposing heavy penalties for noncompliance
• Seoul Metro Gov't and Dubai Future Foundation ink collaboration agreements, looking at mutual tech and startup exchange benefits
• Japan's Mitsubishi Electric partners UK's Extend Robotics for VR tech for industrial robotics focusing on incidents and actions outside defined processes
• China's space administration inks MOU with Serbia Ministry of Science, Tech Development & Innovation on cooperation on China's International Lunar Research Station
"Indonesia's rapidly growing digital economy grew by 52 per cent in 2021 with a total of 53 billion US dollars and is projected to exceed 124 billion by the end of 2025."
• PLDT, Philippines' largest telecoms group, now in talks to sell up to 49% of data centre business to Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone in $750M deal
• Australia: MetroElectro secures $680K from Singapore's Wavemaker Impact venture builder to develop mid-sized renewable power plants, looking to unused rooftop solar potential
• Hong Kong's Brinc venture accelerator unveils 9 startups selected for Spring 2024 Web3 and Gaming accelerators, working on crypto accounting, e-commerce, NFTs and more
• Philippines: Anti-Red Tape Authority partners Twala, digital ID startup supported by Dep't of Science & Tech Startup Grant Fund, to ease business activities in the country
• In February, Korea Int'l Trade Assoc'n inaugurated Special Committee on ROK-Japan Cooperation to boost economic and trade collaboration between the two in the private sector
• Australia: A quick intro to 9 startups that collectively raised $233M in the week to May 10th, working in agri-tech, music technology, AI and more
• Bangladesh: An overview of the country's moves to become a digitally-smart nation by 2041, with initiatives in AI, digital ID and biometrics
• Japan: Researchers have developed a large language model trained predominantly in Japanese to serve as a foundation for generative AI, using Japan's Fugaku supercomputer
• A quick look at the impact of the Australian government's Investing in Women program on women-led small businesses in The Philippines
Reserve Bank of India governor: "One of the key features of cash is that it works offline... We are working on making the CBDC transferable in the offline mode also..."
• NTT Startup Challenge from Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp applications open in June for tech startups across Southeast Asia
• Emerging Enterprise 2024 Awards are now open for applications, seeking early-stage businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia
• Taiwan's Mobileheroes Global competition applications open, seeking startups worldwide focused on 5G, IoT and artificial intelligence solutions
• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups unveils strategy and initiatives to foster 3K companies, targeting exports of $1M each by 2027
• Japan: Metaplanet investment firm adopts bitcoin as 'strategic reserve asset' as a hedge against Japan's debt burden and volatility in the yen
Critical minerals: "...there are clear ongoing efforts, including by China's state-owned entities, to extend their nation's monopoly by controlling Australia's rare earths deposits..."
In wider-world technology news:
» Xona Space Systems preps Pulsar low-orbit satellite constellation as a commercial GPS alternative, potentially costing less to operate whilst delivering sharper geolocation data
» Vodafone preps to use blockchain with SIM cards for digital ID in digital wallets on mobile phones
» Mycocycle, using mushrooms to upcycle tires and construction waste made of fossil fuel materials into plastic-like polymers
Crypto money laundering: "...huge increase in the volume of funds sent to cross-chain bridges... substantial increase in funds sent from ransomware to gambling platforms…”
Asia & Indo-Pacific technology news: Other editions
• LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook / Monthly / Substack / Web / Connect
And here's the link to the LinkedIn edition of Asia's Tech News, Weekly, capturing technology news headlines from across the broad Asia / Indo-Pacific region in the week to May 14th 2024:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-may-14th-2024-startup-news-asia-rqwrf/
Past editions of the weekly newsletter are also available, for those looking to catch up on recent developments across Southeast Asia's technology spaces:
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/sna-asia-s-tech-news-6940166562133749760/