Asia's Tech News, Weekly: November 2nd 2025
South Korea speeds startup growth, China-Thailand payments, digital Hong Kong dollar, Singapore-Switzerland quantum, Philippines-Thailand Tech Corridor, New Zealand NZ$50M VC fund...
• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups unveils new initiatives under Startup Rookie Leap Plan, the ‘Everyone’s Startup Project‘ and Startup One-Stop Support Center / full item
• Japan’s space agency successfully launched its most powerful H3 rocket, carrying an unmanned cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to the International Space Station / full item
• Australia: “AFP [Australian Federal Police] stands up Taskforce Thunder to tackle cyber crime in the Pacific region“ / full item
• Here’s a quick look at recent quantum communications tech developments in Singapore, and in China / full item
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority says the preparatory work on the underpinnings of a digital Hong Kong dollar, or e-HKD, is expected to be completed in H1 2026 / full item
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• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups launches Defense Startup Open Innovation Challenge, connecting tech firms with defense and military agencies / full item
• Australia: Hypersonix Launch Systems gains backing from National Reconstruction Fund Corp’n and Queensland gov’t backing in $46M Series A funding round / full item
• China’s Weixin Pay inks cooperation agreement with National ITMX, operator of Thailand’s national real-time payment system, PromptPay, enabling payment in China’s RMB / full item
• ‘Malaysia launches world’s first RM118m Climate Sukuk blending Islamic finance, carbon credits and digital innovation‘ / full item
• Philippines: Subic Bay Freeport strengthens ‘startup gateway’ credentials with launch of SBMA Business Acceleration Hub and Subic Bay Angel Investor Network / full item
“Mobile satellite competition in Taiwan is intensifying, with Amazon’s Project Kuiper emerging as the preferred partner of the three local telcos...” / full item
• Switzerland’s QAI Ventures VC firm partnered Enterprise Singapore for Asia accelerator and IP-focused venture builder for quantum-AI startups / full item
• Singapore and China ink MoU to establish Singapore-China Green & Digital Shipping Corridor / full item
• “Australian Strategic Materials Ltd. aims to choose a location for its planned US rare earths plant by the end of this year...” / full item
• Philippines–Thailand Technology Corridor: A framework designed to deepen collaboration in digital innovation, technology ecosystems and inclusive economic growth / full item
• Head of Saudi Arabia’s AI firm, Humain, is confident US will clear sale of advanced chips to the firm, following guarantee that the firm will not buy tech from China’s Huawei / full item
• Philippine Startup Week 2025 is set for November 10-14 - details here: / full item
• South Korea: NVIDIA partners VC firms and gov’t to form the Korea Physical AI Startup Alliance to focus on robotics, drones, and humanoid innovations / full item
• Hong Kong’s Stellerus is to deploy its Feilian Constellation, world’s first 3D wind data satellite system, in partnership with China’s Chang Guang satellite firm / full item
• Taiwan: “The nation needs to reconceptualize how it approaches AI, not as a static fortress, but one that offers a mobile, living strategy: adaptive, global and resilient.” / full item
• Thailand: Regulator steps up enforcement of ‘cell radius’ tech, tightening service contracts to block mobile signals used by cross-border crime syndicates / full item
• China’s Neolix autonomous delivery firm raised $600M, led by UAE’s Stone Venture, as the race to put self-driving ‘robovans’ on the road heats up / full item
“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken a significant step in India’s digital finance journey with the launch of the offline digital rupee...” / full item
• New Zealand: NZVC is to invest in 50-60 Australia & New Zealand early-stage founders with its new NZ$50 million Fund II / full item
• Taiwan’s Foxconn, AI server manufacturing partner of NVIDIA, unveils plans for $1.4 billion spend to procure equipment for an AI-focused data center / full item
• Cambodia’s ABA Bank has successfully integrated ABA PayWay with Shopify, making it the first Cambodian payment gateway available on the platform / full item
• Australia: Breakthrough Victoria is to invest Au$75M into 5 VC funds to support early-stage companies and accelerate commercialisation of research / full item
• China: XPeng is poised to overtake Li Auto as China’s most valuable ‘new energy vehicles’ firm - “...now has a HK$165.73 billion valuation, just slightly above Li Auto‘s HK$165.368 billion.” / full item
• Consensus Hong Kong - ‘Crypto’s Most Influential Event‘ - is set for February 2026 / full item
• TSMC Q3 2025 results: “...revenue coming at NT$989.92 billion, net income at NT$452.30 billion, and diluted earnings per share at NT$17.44... “ / full item
• “In 2025, Australia surpassed the United Kingdom to become the third-largest market for utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) globally...” / full item
• Sri Lanka: Japan’s Rakuten Symphony and Sri Lanka’s SLT-Mobitel telecoms services provider prep for pilot project to build an open RAN network of 4G and 5G sites in Sri Lanka / full item
• “Australia has earmarked A$83.5 million ($54.4 million) to build cyber-security capacity across the Indo-Pacific, saying global cooperation is key...” / full item
• ‘Could China ‘militarise’ cryptocurrencies to sanction-proof its economy?‘ - South China Morning Post / full item
‘While US and South Korean leaders pledge tech cooperation on RAN, 6G and AI, AWS says it will invest another $5 billion in data centers in South Korea.’ / full item
• “SpaceX has deactivated over 2,500 Starlink terminals allegedly used by scam operations in Myanmar...” / full item
» “An artificial intelligence system (AI) apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police...” / full item
In wider-world technology news:
» Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales partner for satellite and space activities in bid to form major European space entity, aiming to be a ‘homegrown’ rival to Starlink / full item
» “...around 0.07% of [ChatGPT] users active in a given week and 0.01% of messages indicate possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania.” / full item
» Uber sets a goal to eventually have a fleet of 100,000 autonomous vehicles powered by NVIDIA tech, aiming for end-to-end robotaxi services / full item
» “NVIDIA has created software and hardware that will pair the interface of future quantum techniques with its technology.” / full item
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And here's the link to the LinkedIn edition of Asia's Tech News, Weekly, for the week to November 2nd, 2025, for those who prefer to do their reading on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-november-2nd-2025-startup-news-asia-nmiac/