Asia's Tech News, Weekly: November 30th 2024

Taiwan & quantum, Indian space data, Tuvalu metaverse, Singapore QR payments, Huawei AI chips, China-Brazil satellite 'net, TSMC & 2nm, NZ crypto, Indian quantum...

Nov 30, 2024

• India: TakeMe2Space preps India's first AI lab for orbit in December, aiming to demonstrate real-time data processing in orbit, making research more affordable and accessible / full item

• Australia: Norway's KSAT partners WA's Starsite to host, maintain and operate a new lunar mission-focused site in WA, featuring a 20M antenna / full item

• Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute completes procurement of its first full-stack quantum computer from Finland's IQM, set for installation in Q2 2025 / full item

• China: A deep dive look at the 'Eastern Data, Western Computing' project, its component parts, considerations and dovetail projects / full item

• The Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge, an ASEAN-wide competition that focused on coastal cities in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, and Cambodia / full item

• Tuvalu Future Now project: "...Te Afualiku is expected to be the first part of the country that could be lost to climate change [and] became the first to be recreated digitally." / full item

"Facing erasure due to climate change, the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu is digitally backing up everything from its houses to its trees as it endeavours to save whatever it can." / full item

• China: Huawei is preparing to launch its first smartphone equipped with a fully-homegrown operating system, HarmonyOS Next / full item

• India: Central bank is to launch a 2025 trial, offering cloud data storage to financial firms at affordable prices via domestic hosts, in bid to counter dominance of global firms / full item

• Singapore: An overview of the recently-launched SGQR+ payment scheme, potentially a game-changer for digital banks, e-wallets, and financial institutions / full item

• China's Huawei reportedly plans mass-production of its most advanced AI chip in Q1 2025, partly in bid to reach commercially-viable 70% functionality of chips produced / full item

• Australia: ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Suncorp Bank, and Westpac have joined BioCatch network for fraud and scams intelligence-sharing / full item

• 2025 AWE Asia Start-up Pitch applications are now open, seeking XR and metaverse startups for August event in Singapore / full item

• Hong Kong: Government raises $288M in spectrum auction, with China Mobile spending $137M, Hutchison Telecom spending $79M, and HKT and SmarTone also featuring / full item

• Australia: Kapture unveils solution collecting emissions from exhaust fumes and embedding carbon in concrete, creating high-quality replacement for cement ingredients / full item

• TSMC looks to mass produce chips on its N2 - 2 nanometer class - technology in late 2025, and A16 - 1.6nm class - process in late 2026 / full item

• China's SpaceSail inks MoU with Telebras, Brazil's state-owned telecoms company, to provide its 'Thousand Sails' satellite internet services similar to, and competing with, StarLink / full item

• Malaysia: Rural & Regional Development Ministry introduces the Smart Village concept to boost potential and capabilities of rural communities with technology, targeting economic development / full item

• Vietnam: South Korea's LG Innotek is to scale up manufacturing in Haiphong with $268M in new facility investment, targeting smartphone camera modules and optical products / full item

"A record-breaking crypto rally born in the US is leaving its mark on Asia, including a jump in the value of Bitcoin held by Bhutan to more than $1BN..." / full item

• India: Department of Science & Tech has selected 8 firms for support under the National Quantum Mission and National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems / full item

• China's manned lunar mission, targeting a moon landing by 2030, will include a three-day rover vehicle exploration of the moon's surface / full item

• Australia: Airtree Ventures VC firm targets a 5th fund, Core Fund V, with $650M, securing 3 US investors as it approaches first closure / full item

• South Korea: Police arrest 215 people on suspicion of stealing $228M in the country's largest cryptocurrency investment scam, impacting 15,000 victims / full item

• Cambodia: Khmer Enterprise unveils UNIPRENEUR Season 3, spanning 50 universities with the goal of boosting Cambodia's youth entrepreneurship and innovation skills / full item

• China: GAC Group and Changan Automobile, two of the nation's largest automakers by sales volume, set sights on manufacture of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles / full item

WEF: Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment

• Taiwan: AppsWorks incubator and Google for Startups Cloud Program partner for AI-focused startup growth / full item

• Australia's evokeAG agri-food innovation event, set for Brisbane in February 2025, is set to showcase more than 50 startups & scaleups from 10 countries / full item

• China: Government moves to curb tech giant use of algorithms to influence opinions online, issuing 3-month deadline for action across a wide range of concern areas / full item

• Australia: Deloitte expands Space Info Sharing & Analysis Centers with new Watch Center Hub in Australia to deliver real-time threat intelligence and cybersecurity / full item

• Philippines: Central bank looks to tighten virtual assets reporting requirements via new reporting portal, commencing January 1st 2025, in bid to boost stability and trust / full item

• Download: 'Emergence of co-lending business models in India - Opportunity for FinTechs' from PwC / full item

"With approximately one million objects measuring between 1 cm and 10 cm orbiting Earth... space debris is a looming issue for the growing space economy..." / full item

• China: Recent Shijian-19 space mission successfully tested a small, expandable module in orbit, potentially for use in planned Tiangong space station expansion work / full item

• Malaysia's Entomal Biotech takes overall win at the Asian Entrepreneurship Award 2024 in Japan, with New Zealand's Formus taking 2nd place / full item

• Australia's All G biotech firm becomes the first globally to land regulator approval for sale of animal-free lactoferrin protein in China / full item

• Gobi-Core Philippine Fund unveils new report, 'Philippine Horizons - Filipino Innovation in the ASEAN Landscape' in partnership with Alibaba Cloud and Eskwelabs / full item

• South Korea: ComeUp 2024 global startup festival is scheduled for December 11-12 in Seoul, featuring a range of specialist summits / full item

• Philippines: Yield Guild Games Web3 gaming guild protocol to launch 'Onchain Guilds', a new platform on the Ethereum blockchain providing verifiable records / full item

Video: 'How can Philippine startups unlock Web3?' / on YouTube

• China's Pony AI autonomous driving giant shares open near 15% above IPO offer price, valuing the firm at $5.25BN / full item

• Australia: Government drops proposed legislation to fine social media platforms for spread of misinformation, but maintains pursuit of separate bill to keep children off social platforms / full item

• New Zealand: Tap to Pay on iPhone is now available in NZ, allowing merchants to take contactless payments with Adyen, ANZ Bank, Stripe, Windcave and Worldline participating / full item

• Hong Kong: ZA Bank adds cryptocurrency trading to services for retail clients, initially offering Bitcoin and Ethereum only / full item

• Vietnam: Hanoi Tax Department has rolled out an AI-powered assistant, aiming to deliver 24/7 access to information via web portal, and the Etaxmobile and Ihanoi apps / full item

• Australia: Adelaide's OmnigenIQ adapts its bioreactor tech for use in space, enabling production of vital biologicals in-mission, rather than requiring transport from Earth / full item

"As of 2024, the cryptocurrency market in New Zealand is projected to generate around USD 134.7 million in revenue, with an anticipated 1.94 million users by 2025." / full item

• China: Alibaba has raised $5BN via Hong Kong-based dual-currency bonds - $2.65BN in US dollar-denominated notes and $2.35BN in offshore yuan-denominated notes / full item

• Hong Kong: Baidu is to trial Apollo Go robotaxis in Hong Kong as soon as year-end / full item

• "AI Safety Institutes, or AISIs, are one of the most important new structures to emerge in international AI policy..." / full item

• China: Ehang eVTOL developer completes 48-minute test flight of autonomous flying vehicle powered entirely by solid-state batteries / full item

• "...Nets is rolling out the commercialisation of SGQR+ in Singapore, while Singapore-HQ'd fintech Liquid Group looks to take SGQR+ global with the launch of roamQR..." / full item

• "The overall Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $24.2 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 23.8% for 2023-28." / full item

• India: A brief intro to the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay, a government-aligned initiative that has run for 20 years / full item

• Australia: Future of Blockchain Innovation Hub at RMIT may be uncertain as it has reportedly entered discussions about whether it should be shut down / full item

"...foreign device makers would find a 'simple and straightforward approval process' if they utilize already-approved large language models (LLMs) from Chinese companies, rather than attempting to implement their own AI systems." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» Advanced Micro Devices, AMD, is reportedly to enter the mobile devices market with new accelerated processing chips from a TSMC-produced 3nm process / full item

» Apple is to directly sell advertising inventory on Apple News, moving away from reliance on 3rd-party vendors, looking to diversify revenue in response to slowing sales / full item

» Sweden's Candela raised $40M in 2024 with high-speed, no-emission electric hydrofoil vessels, with project partners including Saudi Arabia's NEOM / full item

» Captain Arctic, a solar-powered vessel creating near-zero emissions, preps for 2026 maiden voyage carrying 36 passengers and 24 crew / full item

» NFTs receive a shot in the arm with 110 million Doodles-branded coffee cups rolling out at McDonald's across the US / full item

» Finastra, financial software firm with over 8K client institutions across 130 countries, investigates 400GB hack of file transfer platform / full item

"The [Bitcoin] rally reflects growing optimism around Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies, including his plan to create a 'crypto czar' role in the White House." / full item