Asia's tech news, weekly: November 14th 2023

South Korean satellites, SEA's largest solar farm, e-CNY in Taiwan, Australian ports cyber-attacked, China's cyber patents, Japan's $13BN tech budget, Intel & Vietnam...

• Malaysia: Aphelia wins Startup World Cup regional with wireless charging stations for use in space, impacting on overall satellite launch costs and extending sat lifespans

• Digital yuan enters Taiwan with locally-based firm issuing 'ultra-short-term financing bonds', launched by Xiamen Xiangyu Group and underwritten by China's state-owned Industrial Bank

• Australia and the United Kingdom signed a joint statement to cooperate on quantum technology innovation, research and commercialisation

• Japan: Gov't targets $13.2BN in budget funding for chip production and generative AI tech, planning production, research, design and startup support

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CBDC vs SWIFT? "Assuming it meets its target schedule, mBridge is set to become the first functioning blockchain-based payment platform involving official entities."

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• Vietnam: Intel has reportedly shelved Vietnam chip manufacturing expansion plans, with sources citing excessive local bureaucracy and unstable power supply concerns

• China: iSpace completes China's first reusable rocket test, making a 50-second 'hop', with the first stage of launch vehicle running on methane and liquid oxygen mix

• Australia: Wedgetail Aerospace gains first Civil Aviation Safety Authority approval to run large-scale drones in commercial airspace, sights on mining sector partnerships

• India: Hack sees personal data of 815 million citizens posted for sale on the dark web, raising fears of identity fraud and more

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ASPI: Australian semiconductor manufacturing

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• Japan & cyber-defense: "...home-grown software, developed by private Japanese companies, marks a significant shift towards technological self-sufficiency in the face of mounting cyber threats."

• China: Importers & exporters must now report transactions, orders and shipments of rare earths, oxide products, crude oil, iron ore, copper ore concentrates, potash fertilisers and more

• Australia: Major cyber-attack puts ports at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle out of action

• China to place Queqiao-2 sat in lunar orbit using Long March 8 rocket in early 2024, a 1200kg satellite with 8+year lifespan, to aid future moon mission communications

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Embedded finance vs startups: "In the past decade, Southeast Asia's digital economy was marketplace-driven; the next decade may revolve around digital finance..."

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• South Korea to launch first locally-built surveillance satellite by month-end to better monitor North Korea, with SpaceX as carrier and sights on 4 more launches by 2025

• China: "...firms such as Huawei and Tencent accounted for 6 of the top 10 global patent holdings in the cybersecurity technology sector... registered across 95 countries and regions."

• Hong Kong regulator grants Switzerland's UBS bank approval to offer HK clients 3 cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active, CSOP Bitcoin Futures and CSOP Ether Futures ETFs

• India: Hindustan Petroleum state-run refiner to launch blockchain system to automate purchase order verification, partnering Zupple Labs for digital credentials tech

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KPMG: Future of supply chain

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• China: Space Pioneer commercial launch firm announces new funding round for development of Tianlong-3 rocket, broadly comparable to SpaceX Falcon 9

• Japan: SBI Holdings financial giant to unveil $663M fund for Web3, AI and Metaverse startups, targeting 150-200 firms for backing

• Indonesia: GoTo tech giant's e-motorbike manufacturer, Electrum, unveils own e-scooters, battery packs and swap stations, part of 4-year, $1BN investment in self-run EV ecosystem

• South Korea: Police break international crypto fraud ring, freezing $12M and arresting 49, with activities built on '1.62M pieces of illegally acquired personal information'

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"Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim said that [China's] Geely will invest around $10BN in...Tanjung Malim, in the state of Perak... will transform Tanjung Malim into an 'automotive high-tech valley.'"

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• Australia: Digital Transformation Agency to explore options for whole-of-government approach to the use of generative AI, initially seeing 3 services areas that may benefit

• Cambodia: "Two prominent Chinese government hacking groups are targeting at least 24 Cambodian government organizations through cloud backup services, according to a new report."

• Thunes, Singapore B2B payments major serving Uber, Deliveroo and others inks cross-border digital yuan cooperation deal with China Construction Bank

• PetroChina became first company to complete international crude oil trade using China's CBDC, acquiring 1M barrels with digital yuan, although transaction value and seller were not disclosed

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e-Conomy SEA 2023 report

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• China: Xiaomi launches its own cross-device HyperOS, aiming for a single, unified platform for all products; Huawei continues detaching HarmonyOS from Android

• Singapore: BondbloX secured $6M Series B with blockchain-based digitisation of bond markets

• Japan: Mitsubishi UFJ financial giant to partner Bitbank crypto exchange for stablecoin-powered settlements platform for crypto firms, pegged to Yen and USD

• China: 01AI unveils Yi-34B large language AI model, founded by Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google in China and co-chair of World Economic Forum AI Council

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"Meta Platforms struck a deal with Tencent Holdings to sell a new, low-cost virtual-reality (VR) headset in China in a return to a market where Facebook and Instagram are blocked..."

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• Canada's Telesat sets sights on Taiwan and South Korea with Lightspeed Constellation low Earth orbit satellite project

• Australia: Andromeda Robotics launches trials of prototype companion robot, designed for conversation with aged-care residents and utilizing Chat GPT-4 AI

• Japan: Honda Robotics unveils Uni-One prototype, a hands-free wheelchair steered by shifting body weight, similar to a Segway

• China: Huawei unveils 5.5G router, LampSite X, claiming data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps and with sights on consumer, industrial and business district settings

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SusHi Tech Tokyo Global Startup Program

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• Indonesia unveils $100M Cirata floating solar farm, SE Asia’s largest with 340K panels, on 200-hectare West Java reservoir, aiming to generate electricity for 50K households

• Japan's NTT telecoms to back May Mobility, US startup backed by Toyota Motor, in bid for automated driving system, with current focus on driverless buses and taxis

• Australia's Stone & Chalk tech hub launches Venture Connect, aiming to connect startups with customers and corporations

• The Global Hunt for Crypto’s Most Wanted Man: "When cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna collapsed, it wiped out $40 billion from the crypto market..."

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One of the problems with small satellites: "Miniaturization can only go so far before it comes to a crashing halt against some very fundamental laws of physics."

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• Taiwan: Surglasses raised $6.5M Pre-A with AR medical tech focusing on complex spinal surgeries, allowing real-time 3D overlay on patients during procedures

• Japan's Toyota Motor has commenced Melbourne testing of a hydrogen-powered vehicle on public roads, using a HiAce commercial van fitted with a hydrogen engine

• China's initial roaring successes, and recent mounting challenges, in bitcoin mining

• Singapore: Authentick raised $4M with NFT platform to simplify exploring, purchasing and authenticating digital collectibles without need for a crypto wallet

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SharePass digital security

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• Singapore: A brief intro to the 6 tech startups selected for Singtel Group Future Makers 2023, working in counselling, aged care, budgeting and more

• Australia: A quick intro to 8 Australian startups that collectively raised $94M in the past week, working in venues management, aviation, social media and more

• South Korea: Seongnam City unveils 'Pangyo Contents Street' project for Pangyo Techno Valley, aiming for culture-and-content zones for play, festivals, and relaxation

• Taiwan: An intro to the 8 tech startup teams selected to present at Web Summit 2023 in Portugal later this month

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"...the moment you start using an AI tool as a collaborator — to brainstorm ideas, sketch out alternatives, fill in...blanks, or touch up a final draft — you face tougher questions about provenance and authorship..."

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Technology news beyond the Indo-Pacific:

» Niron Magnetics raised $33M with 'clean Earth magnets' based on iron nitride, removing critical materials and providing cleaner batteries, and less exposed supply chains

» The Rejuvenation Startup Summit 2024 is set for May, running from Berlin and gathering startups, investors and researchers focusing on longevity

» United Kingdom gov't published an update on plans to regulate fiat-backed stablecoins, with focus on facilitating and regulating in UK payment chains

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