Asia's Tech News, Weekly: September 18th 2024
India's BHASKAR startups platform, Pacific Islands tech, China's nuclear energy, Taiwan cyber-attack, Korean startup & UAE, Australian lithium, Singapore's AI wearables...
• Japan: KDDI telecoms major and Sharp electronics firm partner for what may be Asia's largest data center in Osaka, focusing on AI services / full item
• China: Quicktron warehouse robotics firm secures $100M Series D, with China clients including JD and Cainiao and over 1000 other clients across 20 countries / full item
• Japan's Mizuho Bank invests $3.5M in 3DEO, US startup that manufactures metal parts using 3D metal printers / full item
• Taiwan Mobile has invested $124M for a 12% stake in Systex AI software firm with sights on enterprize-focused tech opportunities across Southeast Asia / full item
• Malaysia: An overview of Penang STEM Talent Blueprint, Advanced Technology Equipment Cluster, and other future-focused technology initiatives / full item
China & nuclear energy: "...planning at least 150 new reactors in the next 15 years, more than the rest of the world has built in the past 35. The effort could cost as much as $440 billion." / full item
• Singapore: Ministry of Digital Development & Information introduces Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) Bill, focusing on combatting AI-generated deepfakes. / full item
• China: Proposed regulations set requirements for a range of labels to identify AI-generated content during production, display and distribution / full item
• South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace and Australia's Gilmour Space ink MOU for collaboration in space launch and satellite imagery / full item
• Japan and Australia launch Pacific Digital Development Initiative, focused on Pacific Island nations infrastructure, telecoms, and information security. / full item
• Vietnam: VinCSS, a cybersecurity firm backed by Vingroup, gains 3 world-first certificates for IoT security under the FIDO Device Onboarding open standard / full item
• Japan: "Tier IV aims to operate self-driving taxis commercially in three locations in Tokyo by 2025, including Odaiba as well as other central Tokyo areas such as Shinjuku and Minato." / full item
• Australia: An intro to ElectraLith, startup making lithium extraction sustainable, running on renewable energy and requiring no water or chemicals / full item
• India: Government is to launch the Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry - BHASKAR - initiative under Startup India, aiming for a one-stop platform for firms, investors and ecosystem players / full item
• 8 South Korean tech startups selected for the Super Gap Startup 1000+ Project's UAE visit to explore opportunities in the United Arab Emirates / full item
• India's Tata Electronics inks MoU with Tokyo Electron Limited, accelerating production of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Gujarat, and assembly & testing in Assam / full item
• Vietnam Private Capital Agency, founded by private capital leaders, has launched with the goal of delivering $35BN in private investments in Vietnam by 2035 / full item
"China’s artificial intelligence industry could pour more than US$1.4 trillion into developing the technology in the next six years..." / full item
• Singapore: Eartheye Space raised $1.5M pre-seed with online sat-tasking platform claiming workflow across 475 satellites / full item
• Australia: Gov't proposes fines for social media and internet platforms of up to 5% of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation / full item
• China: Landspace successfully completes 10km vertical liftoff, vertical landing test of reusable orbital rocket, targeting first orbital flight in 2025 / full item
• Taiwan: Cyber-attack disrupts financial sector with Taiwan Stock Exchange and a number of banks hit by DDoS attack / full item
• Download: 'Gemini 2024 Global State of Crypto', a survey of 6,000 across the US, UK, France, Singapore and Turkey. / full item
Video: Frame, AI-powered smart glasses from Singapore's Brilliant Labs / full item
• India: Tata Consultancy Services reportedly now working with Tata Electronics, leveraging different positions in value chains to roll out first made-in-India chips by 2026 / full item
• South Korea: Samsung enters mass-production of semiconductor industry's first 1Tb V-NAND flash memory for SSDs serving ultra-high-capacity servers / full item
• India: Gov't unveils 4 new initiatives to address growing cybercrime including national criminal suspect registry and training of 5000 new cyber roles / full item
• Australia: Build Buddy construction-tech startup moves to Startup World Cup finals with platform allowing users to design and build their own home / full item
• Philippines Science High School has introduced Pisay-DigiCert, a blockchain-based system for portable digital credentials. / full item
"Malaysia is accelerating its ambitions to become a major player in the global digital economy and semiconductor industry through two significant initiatives..." / full item
• Fortinet cybersecurity firm confirms data breach affecting Asia Pacific customers, with hackers claiming 440GB taken / full item
• Australia: Morgan Stanley is to use AI to manage high-net-worth client portfolios with automation of some financial adviser processes / full item
• Download: 'Stablecoins - The Emerging Markets Story', a September report for Visa from Castle Island Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital / full item
• New Zealand: Checkmate pre-employment screening startup lands $1.6M seed funding, targeting markets including Australia and The Philippines / full item
• Philippines: Advance salary-on-demand startup inks $1.8M agreement with Cebuana Lhuillier, finance firm with interests from loans to pawn shops, for credit lines for MSMEs in need of capital / full item
Video: An interview intro to Malaysia's Carching, which recently launched in The Philippines to help drivers earn via ads installed on their cars / view here
• National University of Singapore and UK's Plexal unveil 10 cybersecurity startups for cohort 1 of CyberBoost Catalyse programme / full item
• China: Here's a brief overview of Huawei's new Mate XT, a first-of-its-kind triple-screen folding smartphone / full item
• Australia: "ChatGPT... has little to do with Australia other than the fact that people here use it... they help to train the OpenAI’s models themselves without any direct benefit..." / full item
• Download: 'The Hard Stuff - Navigating the physical realities of the energy transition' from McKinsey. / full item
• Asia's Tech News, last week: Malaysia & ASEAN Startups, Geely's satellites, Intel & Japan, China & nuclear energy, NZ & Techstars, Nauru & Starlink, Singapore & alt-protein, Indian space-tech & NASA... / full item
Is 6G worth it?: "We are not segmenting for actual coverage and actual market reality when comparing to cost, time, and need... The current cost for 5G is breaking the bank, to the extent where 6G might not be affordable." / full item
In wider-world technology news:
» PayPal and Venmo have now integrated Ethereum Name Service, allowing users to send crypto payments via simple addresses / full item
» Google Search partners with Internet Archive to bring back cached versions of websites via the Wayback Machine / full item
» An overview of the challenges faced by GPS and space-based navigation, with a focus on AltPNT technologies / full item
» Elon Musk launches 'Colossus' xAI supercomputer in estimated $3BN project, powered by 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, targeting next-gen AI / full item
» Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust launches to boost collaboration in blockchain, ledger, identity, interoperability, cryptographic, and related technologies / full item
» Star Catcher raised $12.25M with plans for first-of-kind grid to beam solar energy to spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit, and potentially to Earth and locations beyond / full item
» Russia's northeastern region of Komi Republic unveils plans to build 15 cryptocurrency mining centers, with first 2 centers set for $27.6M construction cost / full item
» Download: 'World Payments Report 2025' from Capgemini - views of 600 corporate treasurers across insurance, retail and automotive sectors / full item
» Download: 'Global megatrends - Shaping the future of societies, economies, and values' / full item
"By 2027, digital wallets are projected to account for more than $25 trillion in global transaction value, or 49% of all sales online and at POS combined." / full item
And here's the September 18th edition of Asia's Tech News, Weekly, published over on LinkedIn, in case you prefer that platform:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asias-tech-news-weekly-september-18th-2024-startup-news-asia-iwsoc/