Asia's tech news, weekly: May 16th 2023
Cybersec in Japan, Australian rare earths, semiconductors in India, China's space moves, Korean NFT TV, Bhutan & crypto mining, food-tech in Taiwan, Web3 in Sri Lanka...
• Australia: The Supporting Australian Critical Minerals initiative preps to provide 4 years of support to grow and consolidate opportunities for the domestic critical minerals industry
• Japan: NTT to roll out service to protect small auto parts manufacturers from supply chain freezing cyberattacks, with recent survey finding 72% have yet to prepare
• China: Reusable uncrewed space vehicle returned to Earth after 276 days in orbit, with complete absence of photos and technical data raising questions over intentions
"Around 1 billion voters will head to polls in 2024 across the US, India, the European Union, the UK and Indonesia...but neither AI companies nor governments have put matching election protections in place."
• China gave 190 chip firms $1.75BN in subsidies in 2022 in move toward self-sufficiency in semiconductor supply, with leading foundry SMIC receiving the largest share at $282M
• South Korea: SK Hynix chip maker rolls back plans to upgrade memory chip-making tech at China facility in Jiangsu province over sanctions concerns
• Indo-Pacific: Papua New Guinea to enter defence and surveillance access agreements with US, with formal signing to take place during Biden visit
• China: Supreme Court releases crypto-related dispute guidelines, stating that settling a debt using a small amount of digital assets would be considered legal if both parties agree
• Bhutan: Bitdeer Technologies and the Kingdom's investment arm to seek investors for $500M fund to further develop green crypto mining
• Singapore: SquareX raises $6M seed funding with cybersecurity focusing on browser-based cloud SaaS tools, providing 'disposable' headless browsers
AI, authorship and outright theft: "From product reviews to recipes to blog posts and press releases, human authorship of online material is on track to become the exception rather than the norm."
• China: Alibaba cancels CTO role, resulting in business groups including cloud, Taobao-Tmall, logistics, global digital commerce potentially needing to apply for or purchase new spun-off services
• India: Cisco telecom and networking equipment giant aiming for $1BN in domestic production and exports from new manufacturing unit set for Tamil Nadu
• Taiwan's Infinio Capital and Netherlands' Space Infrastructures Ventures jointly invest in 'Orbital Outpost Asia', focusing on low-earth orbit satellite market in materials, education, assembly and more
• Digital India Act first draft may be available by July, with consultations to begin this week with the final version to entirely replace the Information Technology Act of 2000
• Hong Kong: Artifact Labs NFT & digital asset firm gains $3.25M in part from Animoca Ventures, with minting on multiple chains and sights on developing its own blockchain-based market infrastructure
• China: Baidu Xiaodu unit to launch smartphone, maybe featuring AI-driven Ernie Bot
"The Metaverse is now headed to the tech industry's graveyard of failed ideas. But the short life and ignominious death of the Metaverse offers a glaring indictment of the tech industry that birthed it."
• China: Tongchuan rocket engine 'test stand' unveiled in Shaanxi, Asia's largest for testing liquid-propellant engines, constructed in a cut in a hillside and featuring water deluge cooling
• Malaysia: MYStartup NXT micro-conferences prep for roll-out, scheduled for events in Cyberjaya, Sarawak, Penang and Sabah
• South Korea: LG Electronics files patent application for TV tech stack allowing users to trade NFTs on their television, expanding on LG Art Lab
• China: Preparations underway for 2024 launch of Queqiao 2 satellite to relay communications to and from the moon, supporting Chang'e 6, 7 & 8 robotic lunar missions
• CyberSecMalaysia Conference 2023 is set for May 24-25, running from Kuala Lumpur and looking at Malaysia's digital landscape
• India: High Court upholds crime agency seizure of $676M from Xiaomi, seeing evidence of years of remittance payments to foreign entities
"...Twitter's encrypted messaging feature...seems almost like a laundry list of the most serious flaws in every existing end-to-end encrypted messaging app, now all combined into one product..."
• Taiwan: Foodland Ventures VC firm launches 3rd accelerator cohort intake for globally-focused agri-tech and food-related startups
• An overview of Startup Cambodia's events, activities and programs growth in 2022
• China: Alibaba Cloud unveils CloudVerse 'metaverse launchpad', end-to-end platform for companies to customize metaverse spaces, using Avalanche smart contracts-focused blockchain
• China: Long March 7 rocket with upgraded robotic Tianzhou 6 cargo freighter lifts off from Hainan Island, heading for Tiangong space station on resupply mission
• India: InCore Semiconductors gains $3M investment from Sequoia Capital India
• Taiwan's ProLogium Technology battery maker to commence production of next-gen electric vehicles energy cells in France from 2027, part of $5.7BN investment
The proposed European Union AI Act “…aims to establish a framework for assessing the relative riskiness of different kinds of AI systems, dividing them into four tiers..."
• Australia: Defence 10x Accelerator applications close May 29th for Australian startups building to enhance the country's sovereign defence capabilities
• China: Oppo smartphone maker to close Zeku chip design division, ditching internal System-on-Chip design aspirations in global smartphone sales slump
• New Zealand: 5 startups selected for Global innovation launchpad for NZ aquaculture, working in oyster cultivation, packaging and transport, and more
• Sri Lanka: HyperGlade Web3 and blockchain firm raises $350K from Draper Associates, helping businesses transition from Web2 to decentralised Web3
• Philippines: Gov't awards Blueleaf Energy and SunAsia Energy contracts to construct and manage world's largest floating solar project, with capacity of 610.5 MW
• Singapore: Integra Partners Fund II LP closes at $90M, looking at pre-A to Series B startups in fintech, insurance-tech, and digital health in South & SE Asia
Musk, Twitter and micropayments: "After all, who would news companies rather trust their revenue to than the guy who calls them a 'relentless hatestream'?"
• Japan: Genesia Ventures VC raises $110M for 3rd fund with broad investment thesis, spanning as-a-service solutions, media and entertainment, robotics and more
• Australia: An intro to the 10 startups selected for Curtin University's Accelerate program, working in healthcare, construction, mining and more
In other news…
» Destinus hypersonic plane startup looks at Europe-to-Australia flights in just 4 hours as it preps for 3rd test flight
» NUVIEW proposes LiDAR-based satellite constellation to 3D map the planet's terrain, claiming $1.2BN in place in contracts with prospective customers
» Microsoft backs BuilderAI, no-code startup featuring 'reusable lego-like features' to allow users to build apps, seeing later integration with MS Azure products
» Uber unveils new feature in the UK, allowing users to book flights directly via Uber app, with functionality provided by online travel agent Hopper
» 3 terminal designs customers might use to connect with Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite internet program
» Israeli authorities since 2021 have seized around 190 Binance accounts with alleged ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas, Daesh
"Dfinity is introducing a new standard, which it calls the internet computer protocol (ICP). These new rules let developers move software around the internet as well as data."
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