Asia's Tech News, Weekly: September 11th 2024

ASEAN Startups, Geely's satellites, Intel in Japan, China & nuclear fusion, NZ Shutterspeed & Techstars, Nauru & Starlink, Singapore & alt-protein...

Sep 12, 2024

• China: Geespace, backed by Geely, launches its 3rd batch of satellites, pursuing a 'megaconstellation' of nearly 6000 low Earth orbit satellites, aiming to provide global broadband services / full item

• Australia: Here's an intro to the 12 startups selected for the NSW Government-supported 2024 Techstars Accelerator Program / full item

• New Zealand's Shutterspeed selected for investment by Techstars with AI-powered business assistant for content creators and creatives / full item

• South Korea: Government-affiliated food agency director charged with creating and running a 12-GPU cryptocurrency mining server in his workplace / full item

• Malaysia: Cradle, gov't focus agency for early-stage startups, is to lead the ASEAN Startup Initiative, with initiatives to include ASEAN Startup Portal / full item

"India's space agency expects a 20%-30% increase in its budget in the coming years..." with pricing aiming for on-par with SpaceX / full item

• South Korea: FaindersAI retail-tech firm unveils 15- square-meter pre-assembled, autonomous and cashierless MicroStore, installable within 1 week / full item

• Japan: Intel partners AIST for advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials R&D hub / full item

• South Korea's SK Hynix announces high-bandwidth memory and enterprise SSD milestones at Semicon Taiwan, in part set to enhance data transfer and efficiency in AI uses / full item

• Japan sets sights on faster, light-based photonics for data centers to facilitate build-out of facilities outside of metro and industrial areas / full item

• China: Shanghai's Energy Singularity looks to raise $500M to further develop cheaper next-gen nuclear fusion tech with small-scale tokamak reactor / full item

• China: Zhipu AI generative artificial intelligence firm secures major state-backed but undisclosed funding, valuing the firm at approximately $2.8BN / full item

• Malaysia's Cradle Fund and Invest India form strategic India-Malaysia Startup Alliance to strengthen startup ecosystems in both nations / full item

• India: Techno Electric & Engineering Co is preparing to build edge data centers for RailTel telco in 102 Indian cities, boosting the country's digital infrastructure / full item

• Pacific Islands: Nauru becomes the 1st South Pacific nation to sign up to Starlink Community Gateway service, inking agreement with state-owned Cenpac / full item

• Singapore: Bezos Earth Fund to grant $30M to finance Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at the National University of Singapore / full item

"...the silicon photonics market is nascent but will grow at an annual compound rate of 40% from 2023, reaching $500 million by 2028." / full item

• India: Pixxel becomes the first Indian space firm to secure NASA contract to provide a hyperspectral earth imaging satellite constellation / full item

• Malaysia: Taiwan's ELNA opens 2nd printed circuits board plant in Penang with $230M in funding, seeing supply chain opportunities in a range of sectors / full item

• China is to to launch a 2-vehicle Mars sample-and-return mission in 2028, aiming for an optimal Mars launch window that opens for only a few weeks every 26 months / full item

• Singapore's Brilliant Labs unveil Frame, glasses equipped with Noa, an integrated multimodal AI assistant. / full item

• Intel has outsourced production of Lunar Lake processors to Taiwan's TSMC, and reportedly to outsource all sub-3nm process manufacturing to the firm / full item

• South Korea: An overview of HAII Corporation's Alzguard-T service, focusing on prevention of dementia using brain training across 6 key cognitive domains / full item

• Australia: AICRAFT AI firm secures SA Space Collaboration & Innovation Fund backing, partnering India's Guerin space-tech for miniaturized synthetic aperture radar / full item

• India: US' Applied Materials inks MoU with Tamil Nadu gov't for AI-enabled tech Center of Excellence focused on semiconductor manufacturing & equipment / full item

• Vietnam: Google reportedly considering construction of hyperscale data center in South Vietnam, the first major US tech company investment in the country / full item

• India: Silizium Circuits and Calligo Technologies, semiconductor and RISC-V startups respectively, and the support received from Taiwan's semiconductor industry / full item

China: "Although a difference in yield still exists, SMIC's capabilities are approaching a level 3 years behind TSMC...with comparable performance as TSMC's 5-nm products..." / full item

• Japan: A brief look at Sakana, AI firm with a focus on a large number of small models that work together rather than on one large foundational AI model / full item

• Philippines: Malaysia's Carching Ventures launches in the Philippines to help drivers earn from product ads while driving / full item

• Download: 'Mythical Beasts and Where to Find Them - Mapping the Global Spyware Market and its Threats to National Security and Human Rights' / full item

• Taiwan: Two military officers have been indicted on charges of selling classified documents to China contacts in exchange for Tether cryptocurrency payments / full item

• Korea Web3 Market Guide is available to download, a pre-event overview prepared for the recent Korea Blockchain Week 2024 conference / full item

2024 Global Data Center Market Comparison

• China: Huawei unveils new tri-fold Mate XT smartphone model on the same day as Apple launches the iPhone 16, with Huawei device hosting a 10-inch screen / full item

• "Zed, a credit-led neobank, recently introduced the Philippines’ first credit card without foreign transaction fees, interest charges or annual fees..." / full item

• Thailand: Trade Policy & Strategy Office under Ministry of Commerce unveils roadmap to establish the country as global hub for plant-based foods / full item

• Indonesia: PT Telkom Data Ekosistem, subsidiary of state-owned telco, now targeting data center capacity of up to 500MW by 2030, seeing opportunities in AI-focused services / full item

• Malaysia: BoomGrow vertical farming solutions provider and CelcomDigi telco partner for tech-driven agri-tech solutions / full item

"Social media giants would be forced to ban children under the age of 14 from their platforms or face hefty penalties, under proposed laws in South Australia that could be replicated..." / full item

• India: Tata Consultancy Services and Google Cloud expand partnership with 2 new AI-backed cybersecurity solutions covering single, multi-, and hybrid cloud environments / full item

• 4 sustainability-focused startups, including New Zealand's Twiice, which makes edible coffee cups / full item

• Indonesia's GoTo to close Gojek on-demand ride-hail, delivery and courier business in Vietnam, cutting losses in the face of broadly unprofitable operations / full item

• 3 Aus-NZ tech startups that between them raised $36.1M in the week to September 6th, working in real estate, manufacturing and agriculture / full item

• Available now: 'The Consumer Crypto Catalyst - Decentralized Applications for Everyday Users' from The Block / full item

• Taiwan: "Customers get hands-on experience in the recycling process, taking plastic waste brought from home, and melting and molding it into a pair of sunglasses within two hours." / full item

• eCommerce Expo Asia and Technology for Marketing Asia is set for October 9-10 in Singapore / full item

• Download: 'Malaysia Startup Ecosystem Roadmap 2021-2030' PDF download: / full item

"The Netherlands plans to limit ASML Holding NV’s ability to repair and maintain its semiconductor equipment in China..." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» Lockheed Martin is testing inflatable structures for use in space and lunar environments, seeing benefits over metal in scaleability, volume-to-mass ratio and more / full item

» First Nations Allies Summit is set for December 2nd, delivered by Barayamal / full item

» Apple is requiring that Patreon users switch to the iOS in-app purchase system in November, or risk being removed from the App Store / full item

» Asia tech, last week: GPU-as-a-Service, China datacenters, Japan deepfakes, RWA tokens & HK, India & Foxconn, SheLovesTech Oceania, solid-state EV batteries, Japan & quantum... / full item

"...the sting in the tail of the report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute is that AI is shaping up as a fierce competitor to Bitcoin for electricity and equipment." / full item