Asia's tech news, weekly: May 28th 2024

China's space facilities, Starlink for Fiji, Japan Ethereum trading, India's no-silicon chips, Alibaba's LLM price cut, Korea's $7.3BN semicon boost, Japan-ASEAN EV strategy...

• India: NoPo Nanotechnologies boosts production of advanced material that can replace silicon in semiconductors and batteries, with samples supplied to chipmakers in Japan and Taiwan

• China’s experimental reusable spacecraft released an unknown object into orbit during its third mission, with authorities releasing no images, description or acknowledgement

• Japan and ASEAN to create joint strategy on auto production and sales in bid to address China's fast-growing presence in the region's electric vehicles market

• India's AI-led data centre growth set to fuel 'demand for 10 million square feet of real estate space, attracting investments of $5.7 billion'

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"Australia has the chance to resolve the problems the AUKUS partners and their friends and allies have with critical minerals, particularly with rare earths..."

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• Pacific Islands: Starlink, Elon Musk-led satellite internet provider, is now live across 300-plus islands in the Republic of Fiji, marking the 99th territory globally

• Australia: Ice Cube hip-hop and film star partners MyPremo to help artists better monetise their digital and online work

• China: SMIC and others now asking customers and developers to screen for and adopt domestic supplies of all inputs, to both localize supply chains and end foreign presence

• Japan: Mercari e-commerce giant launches Ethereum trading services on its app, adding to crypto exchange integration and acceptance of Bitcoin in payments

• A brief overview of China's space launch facility expansion plans, boosting Hainan commercial spaceport with 2 new launch pads, and possibly plans for 10

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Video: 'US–India relations and the Indo-Pacific', a Chatham House discussion

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• Biden administration to reimpose tariffs on hundreds of goods imported from China, from items of strategic importance to foodstuffs

• Alibaba Cloud to launch first Mexico region, and to establish new data centers in markets including Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea over 3 years

• Tesla is reportedly requesting suppliers to begin manufacturing outside of China and Taiwan as early as 2025, citing rising geopolitical risks to supply chains

• South Korea: $7.3 billion support program unveiled to boost semiconductor-related facility investment and R&D

• Podcast: 'EU security and strategic stability in the Indo-Pacific' from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute

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"Among China’s new fleet of satellites are several 'fast movers': satellites that roam the GEO [geosynchronous Earth orbit] belt, drifting back and forth among the 'stationary' ones."

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• Australia: Gov't endorses ban on children registering social media accounts until age of 16, saying too much online engagement at a young age damages mental health

• China: Alibaba and Baidu slash prices - up to 97% - on use of large-language models for generative AI products as cloud computing price war heats up

• New Zealand: Jooules raises NZ$1M with alternative proteins process using fermentation to 'feed' on CO2, producing food whilst helping the climate

• AI+ Taipei Startup Pitch Contest 2024 applications are open until June 28th, aiming to connect Taipei's innovators with international talents and entrepreneurs

• A look at the Bank of Thailand's PromptPay platform, providing digital payments via mobile, or simply National ID number

• China: A look at moves by China's major tech firms into the on-premises 'AI-in-a-box' sector, providing all infrastructure to run private cloud services locally

• Singapore's SquareX takes Most Promising Startup for Best Overall Performance at Cyber Entrepreneurship Summit in US with browser-native 'last-mile attack' cybersecurity

• Crypto & Digital Assets Summit Asia set for December 5th in Singapore, delivered by The Financial Times

• India: Gov't establishes inter-ministerial committee of law and intelligence agencies to tackle increase in SEA transnational cybercrime affecting Indian citizens

• Hydrogen Systems Australia and The Desert Springs Group, an Indigenous Australian business group, ink MOU to work on hydrogen development and production

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"India’s elections are a glimpse of the AI-driven future of democracy. Politicians are using audio and video deepfakes of themselves to reach voters..."

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• China: AI LLM price war expands with Tencent and iFlytek cutting usage prices on large-language models, feeling heat from Alibaba and Baidu moves

• Singapore: XSQUARE raised $7.78M Series A with intelligent warehousing automation, addressing issues ranging from operations optimization to labor shortages

• Hong Kong privacy regulator finds Worldcoin, backed by OpenAI's Altman, contravened local privacy laws, requiring Worldcoin Foundation to now cease all operations in the jurisdiction

• Australia: SpatialAI raised Au$5.1M with AI-boosted efficiency in construction and space design across architecture, education, healthcare, retail and beyond

• An overview of the issues surrounding the Line messaging app data leak, given its 50-50 ownership by Japanese and South Korean firms

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Video: 'Undersea Cables and Geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific', a discussion from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

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• Australia: An overview of the government's $36M Critical Technologies Challenge Program, looking at national challenges from medical imaging to quantum tech

• Taiwan's Ranictek showcases its 5G/6G base station chips, satellite communication chips, and medium-to-large O-RAN base stations at Viva Tech 2024 in Paris

• Malaysian gov't to again allow foreign ships to repair undersea cables, reinstating exemptions in bid to boost digital industry growth

• South Korea: An overview of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Cluster Agency, a key part of the country's bid for global AI innovation hub status

• China: A dive into the capabilities, and shortcomings, of SenseTime's SenseChat V5 AI chatbot, potential challenger to ChatGPT

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China & AI-in-a-box: "Huawei has signed up more than a dozen AI start-ups to bundle and market their large language models with its AI processors and other hardware..."

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• South Korea: Financial Services Commission unveils comprehensive $11.36BN plan to boost support for early-stage companies

• One ASEAN Startup Award 2024 opens applications for Malaysia event on June 25th, seeking solutions for ASEAN-wide issues

• Tokyo Metro Gov't inks MOU with Startup Island TAIWAN and Thailand's Nat'l Innovation Agency during SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024, aiming to boost startup ecosystem collaborations

• Australia: Western Sydney University discloses data breach, notifying 7500 'impacted individuals'

• Indonesia: Elon Musk and Health Minister launched SpaceX satellite internet service, aiming to improve access to health services in remote areas

• Google in January unveiled the Pacific Connect initiative to deliver 2 new intra-Pacific cables, Bulikula & Halaihai, adding to South Pacific Connect initiative for central Pacific

• Vietnam's Bootloader Studio, combining AI and spatial computing to create responsive 'digital pets' for the Apple Vision Pro

• Japan's SusHi Tech Challenge concludes with Fermenstation taking 10M yen prize for most innovative startup, with circular approach to use of otherwise wasted resources

• Visa unveils 5 startups selected for 2024 Visa Accelerator Program in Asia Pacific, working on solutions in agri-tech, account validation and beyond

• Cambodia: Techo Startup Centre and Wing Bank conclude Turing Hackathon Cycle 6, selecting 5 tech startup winners focusing on social impact

• Thailand: Local startups hope to boost digital commerce as a result of PM's digital baht giveaway scheme

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AI, deepfakes & news: "It does not need to be perfect... If a user is just scrolling through X or TikTok, they are not picking up little nuances on a smaller screen..."

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In wider-world technology news:

» The Exploration Company, a French-German firm, looks to develop Europe's first reusable space capsule to deliver cargo to space stations, delivering payloads up to 4000kg

» UK's Orca AI raises new $23M round with autonomous maritime navigation tech delivering fuel cost and shipping time savings

» Families of children killed in 2022 Uvalde shooting filed wrongful death lawsuits accusing Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense of enabling the massacre

» "[NVIDIA] The company's main revenue driver, data center products, reached a record $22.6 billion, up 427% on the year."

» Elon Musk AI firm, xAI, plans supercomputer to power Grok chatbot's next version, possibly partnering Oracle for a machine with 4 times the size of today's largest GPU clusters

» US Securities & Exchange Commission approves rule changes moving towards allowing exchange traded funds tied to Ethereum

» The Submarine Cable Map 2023, 529 cable systems and 1444 landings either currently active or under construction

» Elon Musk’s AI firm, XAI Corp, set to complete a June funding round potentially valuing the company at over $24BN

» Mastercard Start Path startup incubator program expands with launch of Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets Program

» 5 ways in which cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence

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"China's presence in subsea cable networks is fading rapidly. Three international cables to connect Hong Kong are due for completion in 2025, but no undersea projects are scheduled for the country thereafter."

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