Asia's Tech News, Weekly: November 23rd 2024

Taiwan-EU semiconductors, China's reusable spaceplane, Korea's new startup cities, 10 new TSMC fabs, China & floating solar, Indian space station, Malay LLM for GenAI...

Nov 25, 2024

• Taiwan proposes economic partnership agreement with the European Union, looking at participation under the European Chips Act / full item

• European and Japanese space agencies issue joint statement on boosting cooperation on areas including planetary defense, moon exploration, Mars missions and more / full item

• China: Beijing and state enterprises and funds are to establish a $4.6BN 12-inch wafer fabrication facility, further boosting domestic semiconductor production / full item

• Australia: Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator awards over $60M in R&D contracts to 21 projects spanning quantum, defence tech, universities and the CSIRO / full item

• South Korea: Samsung Electronics commences gear installation at new NRD-K R&D complex, looking at future product development across all semiconductor fields / full item

• Asia's Tech News Podcast 003: China's green hydrogen, India's e-Plane eVTOL, Baidu & AI, Japan tech funds, world-largest wind turbine, Animoca Brands Mocaverse, Hyundai & HaomoAI for DriveGPT... / full item

India's data centers: "The future expansion of DC industry till 2026 will require approximately 7.3 million sqft of real estate and a capital investment of $3.8 billion..." / full item

• China: Space Transportation, aka Lingkong Tianxing Technology, targets H2 2025 for first test of Mach 4-capable Cuantianhou near-space reusable spaceplane prototype / full item

• New Zealand: Dawn Hypersonics, part of Dawn Aerospace, achieved supersonic flight with prototype, completing a 66,000 foot ascent in just 118.6 seconds / full item

• India: PierSight preps Varuna satellite for in-orbit demonstration, aiming for 24/7 all-weather maritime surveillance / full item

• China: Xingyun IC gains backing with alternative approach to next-gen high-performance GPU chips for AI, looking to general x86 servers rather than proprietary AI hardware / full item

• Taiwan: TSMC plans to establish 10 new factories worldwide in 2025, covering demand for 2nm processes and advanced semiconductor packaging, in part driven by AI growth / full item

• 5x5 Asia: 5 headlines in 5 minutes - India's space station ambitions, palm payments in Singapore, Asia's data centers, nuclear in Malaysia, and Japan-China EVs / full item

• South Korea: Startups Ministry proposes plan to create 4 cities by 2030 that will rank in the best 100 cities worldwide in which to start a new business / full item

• Philippines: Locad logistics-tech firm hits $9M in fresh funding with sights on UAE and Saudi Arabia expansion, providing 3rd-party e-commerce storage-to-delivery services / full item

• Australia: 'Dare to Venture - Startups and the innovation ecosystem in Western Australia' is available to download, from BankWest and Curtin University / full item

• India: Addverb Technologies moves into robotics, unveiling 2025 plans for AI-driven, 5G-enabled humanoid robots for use in defense, retail, space and more / full item

• SpaceX launched its first mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation, delivering a 4700kg satellite to orbit in the 3rd scheduled SpaceX launch in 24 hours / full item

• South Korea: SK Telecom expects AI-focused data centers to be its first major revenue source in AI business streams, seeing 80% of Korean centers under construction already leased / full item

"For others like the Philippines with its 7,100 islands and Indonesia with 16,000, satellites offer one of the most cost-effective approaches to addressing digital exclusion..." / full item

• Samsung is reportedly to curb supply of chips 7nm and smaller to China firms, aligning with US limitations on tech access, with Intel likely next to cut supply / full item

• Visa and China's Tencent partner to trial pay-by-palm tech in Singapore, with Visa cardholders from banks including DBS, OCBC, and UOB eligible for the pilot programme / full item

• Philippines: Government is to launch GBonds via the GCash fintech app in bid to boost citizens' uptake of government securities / full item

• Thailand: Japan's Toshiba and Naturenix partner for SCiB lithium-ion battery brand in Thailand, manufacturing units for subscription packages to 2-wheeled e-bike users / full item

• China: State-owned CHN Energy now generates electricity at 1GW offshore floating solar park, capable of supplying 2.6M city residents annually / full item

• Biden administration confirms $6.6BN subsidy for Taiwan's TSMC, alongside up to $5BN in loans, marking the first instance of a major US CHIPS Act award reaching this stage / full item

• China: Construction begins in Ningxia on first of 3 large-scale green hydrogen facilities, targeting 16,500 tonnes annually for transportation, green ammonia and methanol / full item

• Japan: STATION Ai is now open in Nagoya City, Japan's largest open innovation hub with offerings including accelerators, financial support, partnerships outside Japan and more / full item

• Australia: Nourish Ingredients partners China's Cabio Biotech to produce and distribute precision-fermented 'designer fat' alternatives in China / full item

• Vietnam: Vingroup conglomerate announces establishment of VinRobotics with a charter capital of near $41M, aiming to add to the nation's high-tech footprint / full item

• Download: 'Skyways to the Future - Operational Concepts for Advanced Air Mobility in India' from the World Economic Forum / full item

• India is now planning to build a moon-orbiting space station by 2040 as part of roadmap to establish a long-term Indian presence beyond Earth orbit / full item

"The Asia-Pacific market stands to be a major player in the cleantech investment boom as companies across the region look to play their part in the new energy economy." / full item

• Malaysia: Putrajaya is planning to develop its own Malay large language model for use by generative artificial intelligence / full item

• India Venture Debt Report 2024 is available now: 'Silent Bloom - Venture Debt's Growing Influence' / full item

• China Aerospace Science & Tech Corporation unveils concept for fully-reusable heavy-lift rockets, targeting 100-ton delivery to low Earth orbit and 50 tons to lunar transfer orbit / full item

• New Zealand: Airwallex, Australian-founded financial platform, is launching 'Airwallex for Startups' program in NZ / full item

• Taiwan: An intro to the TAcc+ International SpaceTech Startup Supporting Program and some of the participating firms / full item

• India's Tata Group seals JV with Taiwan's Pegatron to boost Tata's iPhone manufacturing, with Tata taking 60% and adding to Tata's Karnataka and Tamil Nadu plants / full item

Video: The Startupbootcamp FoodTech Tasmania 2023 Demo Day, showcasing 10 early stage food-focused startups / on YouTube

• China Mobile is in talks to acquire HKBN, a major Hong Kong fibre and enterprise connectivity provider / full item

• Singapore's Portcast has raised $6.5M Series A with data-driven transportation and logistics management, with plans to integrate GenAI for real-time analytics and prediction / full item

• Millennium Hotels & Resorts boosts Aiello partnership for in-room, AI-powered voice assistant tech across six MHR properties in Singapore and Thailand / full item

• Australia: Government has introduced a bill in parliament that aims to ban social media for children under 16, with fines up to Au$49.5M for social platforms for systemic breaches / full item

• Singapore-HQ'd Wavemaker Partners VC raised $30M in first close of new Wavemaker Growth Opportunities Fund, targeting SEA enterprise, deep tech and sustainability investments / full item

• Australia: Privacy Commissioner rules against Bunnings Group over use of facial recognition tech deployed in 63 stores between 2018 and 2021 / full item

"Online shopping spend accounted for around a fifth of all retail spending in Australia in 2021... E-commerce revenue in Oceania is projected to... [grow] to US$67.10 billion by 2029." / full item

• India: Kratos Gamer Network raised $10M, taking valuation to $500M, with Web3 solutions for gaming companies / full item

• China: Rokid augmented reality firm unveils new lightweight smart glasses driven by Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen LLMs / full item

• Australia: Scalare Partners early-stage tech accelerator and fund commences trading on the ASX, looking to expand Tech Ready Women initiative, and establish US office / full item

• Japan: TechGala 2025 is set for February in Nagoya, delivering 3 days of inspiration, information and connections / full item

• South Korea: Meta was fined over $15M following unauthorised collection of of near 980,000 users' data for advertisers including on religion, political views and sexuality / full item

• Japan: A quick intro to the Kansai Startup Mashups initiative, and 6 firms from the program working on smart homes tech, AI for business, and other deep-tech solutions / full item

• India: Airbound drone delivery startup raises $1.7M, initially focusing on medical deliveries, and with sights on later expanding into sectors including food and groceries / full item

• Asia's Tech News Last Week: China & Samsung chips, Japan semicon bid, NZ fusion energy, India cyber issues, Bakong Tourist app, Malaysia & nuclear, Korea-Thai spacetech, Japan-Peru minerals... / full item

"It’s not something I think machines can do — and yet, in recent years, we’ve seen more and more artificial intelligence creep into our hospitals." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» Mastercard sets sights on e-commerce verification using on-device biometrics and tokenization by 2030, phasing out passwords and card number entry / full item

» APEXE Nations Report has been launched by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network, ranking countries' innovation and startup potential and effectiveness / full item

» Shipfinex raised $1.5M seed to bring blockchain-based fractional ownership to the maritime sector, looking to build a secure, compliant platform to tokenise maritime assets / full item

"The Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimated that 25.5% of the world’s population were impacted by cyber-enabled fraud in 2023..." / full item

» Google appears to working on an email forwarding alias system, 'Shielded Email', a mail forwarding system to hide your main email address from apps that demand one / full item

» YouTube is running a limited test of a new feature allowing creators to use AI to 'restyle' licensed songs for Shorts, delivering a 30-second reworked version / full item

» Germany's Ubitium secures $3.7M seed funding for universal RISC-V processor that eliminates the need for specialized chips, enabling advanced AI at no additional cost / full item

Video: The Exploration Company's NYX vehicle, a European competitor to SpaceX's Dragon, targeting cargo services to the Int'l Space Station, and human space transport / full item

» "[Promise] said it was developing a production software for artists called Muse, which will integrate GenAI throughout the process of producing movies and shows." / full item

» Meta's Project Aria Research Kit opens call for applications to develop solutions for AI-powered augmented reality eyewear / full item

"...an AI-generated 'scambaiter' tool... Daisy, mimics the voice of an elderly woman and performs one simple task: talk to fraudsters and 'waste as much of their time as possible" / full item