Asia's Tech News, Weekly: September 4th 2024

GPU-as-a-Service, China's datacenter network, Japan's deepfakes problem, Hong Kong's tokenization moves, India's Foxconn competition, solid-state EV batteries...

Sep 05, 2024

• Singapore's Singtel and Korea's SK Telecom roll out world-first telco-provided GPU-as-a-service, looking at partnerships across Asia and Europe to grow the service / 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

• China: Over $6BN invested to date in nationwide datacenter network, so far consisting of near 2 million server racks and using energy from China's West to drive Eastern tech centers / full item

• Japan's NTT and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom launch all-optical communications network between Tokyo and Taipei, achieving transmission across 3000km in 17 milliseconds / full item

• South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups sets ambitious $11.5 billion 2025 budget plan, an increase of $31.6 million on 2024 / full item

• South Korea: SDT gains $7.5M in pre-IPO funding to build out quantum tech and standardization for quantum computing control equipment, covering a range of platforms and components / full item

Data centers: "Malaysia (mainly due to Johor) has observed the highest increase in operational capacity at 80%, between H2 2023 and H1 2024..." / full item

• US-India AI Fellowship Program applications open, offering a 12-month program for early and mid-career professionals in industry, government, academia and civil society / full item

• Japan: Fujitsu and Osaka Uni Center for Quantum Info & Quantum Biology announce 2 new technologies, one cutting calculation time from 5 years to 10 hours. / full item

• China: Galactic Energy completes 3rd Ceres-1 solid rocket launch, sending 6 satellites into orbit from a mobile sea platform / full item

• Australia: NSW startups gain SE Asia market access with International Landing Pads agreements in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, offering reciprocal access / full item

• Japan: Deepfake cases jumped 28-fold last year, the 5th-largest among 224 economies tracked / full item

• China: Bank of China establishes $4.21 billion fund-of-funds to invest in tech innovations, forming the fund in partnership with local governments and industry / full item

The Economic Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence

• India's Kaynes Semiconductor approved for Gujarat assembly, testing, marking & packaging facility, backed by near $400K investment under gov't India Semiconductor Mission / full item

• China: New communications satellite enters geostationary belt, with ChinaSat 4A satellite reportedly to 'provide users with voice, data, radio and television transmission services' / full item

• Brief country profiles for Australia, India, Japan and Singapore, via the cmspi 'Payments Regulation in Asia' report / full item

• Hong Kong Monetary Authority launches Project Ensemble Sandbox, introducing 4 broad asset tokenization use cases / full item

• India: NxtQube drones infrastructure gains seed funding, targeting Universal Docking Station compatible with multiple manufacturers, battery-swapping & drone swarm docking / full item

"India has emerged as a global research powerhouse, ranking among the top 5 countries in 45 out of 64 critical technologies in 2023..." / full item

• Japan's SBI Holdings financial conglomerate backs Singapore's Oasys gaming-focused blockchain firm, looking at expanded uses for blockchain tech / full item

• Cambodia: An overview of the Kingdom's Bakong digital currency, and developments in blockchain, web3 and associated technologies / full item

• Japan: Taiwan's TSMC semiconductor chip-maker is on track to build a 3rd plant in Japan by 2030, with timeframe slowed due to availability of trained workforce / full item

• India: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka compete to attract Taiwan's Foxconn for 'Foxconn City' facilities, each offering thousands of acres for construction / full item

• Japan: Toyota partners Idemitsu Kosan oil refiner for mass-production of solid-state batteries for EVs, aiming to market by 2027 / full item

• Australia: An intro to the 6 Australian startups that made it onto the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list, working in space technologies, payments, AR and more / full item

• Japan: An intro to 5 startups selected for the Global DeepTech Accelerator Osaka, part of the Kansai startup ecosystem / full item

• Philippines: Central bank finds the country’s 6 digi-banks attracted 8.7M depositors as of June 2024, significantly larger than 3.6M depositors of 1 year ago / full item

• China's Xpeng rolls out G6 as first model in Thailand, with electric SUV soon to be available in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia / full item

• Singapore: Protégé Ventures, SEA's first student-led VC fund, invests Sg$25K pre-A in Equatorial Space Systems rocket propulsion & space launch firm / full item

China: "Shares sank more than 30%, wiping out $50 billion in PDD's [parent firm of Temu and Pinduoduo] market value..." / full item

• Japan: Tokyo Stock Exchange adds 21 VCs and 1 bank to TSE Asia Startup Hub, aiming to back Asia's startups / full item

• Taiwan: US semicon firm, Micron, commits to high-bandwidth memory market with acquisition of a number of production facilities from Taiwan's AUO display company / full item

• Download: 'Superapps - Breaking down barriers, building bridges', from PwC and Global Fintech Fest, focusing on the India market / full item

• Australia: A quick look at the approaching She Loves Tech Oceania Regional Pitch Finals and the individuals and startups taking part / full item

• Thailand Post approved to participate in virtual banking, potentially as neutral agent to complement commercial firms receiving licenses / full item

PwC: The Indian Payments Handbook 2024-2029 (direct pdf link)

• Singapore: The 15 Singaporean startups selected for the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list, working in fintech, space technology, warehouse robotics and more / full item

• Cambodia: Visa inks MOU with Techo Startup Center for digital business growth, broadly aligning with Cambodia Digital Economy and Society Policy Framework 2021-2035 / full item

• Samsung Electronics hits milestone in auto semiconductors with LPDDR4X chip gaining certification for integration with Qualcomm Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform / full item

• Malaysia: Asia Internet Coalition, representing tech giants including Google, Facebook's Meta and Twitter/X, pushes back on Malaysia's proposed social media licensing plan / full item

• China: Zero Gravity Aircraft Industry, maker of a 6-seat electric vertical takeoff & landing vehicle, raised $14M, looking to refine tilt-rotor craft and move into mass production / full item

• Indonesia: TransTrack vehicle fleet tracking startup gains $12M Series A with digital platform streamlining fleet utilization and cutting overheads / full item

"TikTok makes choices about the content recommended and promoted to specific users, and by doing so, is engaged in its own first-party speech," [US Circuit Judge] Shwartz said. / full item

• China: IBM has reportedly shut down R&D in China, laying off over 1000 employees in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian / full item

• Download: 'Payments Regulation in Asia', an August 2024 report from cmspi payments consultancy / full item

• Taiwan: Skoda Taiwan partners Noodoe to implement Noodoe EV Operating System in build-out of charging infrastructure across Taiwan / full item

• Singapore: National Uni and Agency for Science, Tech & Research unveil wearable sensor for continuous, non-invasive health monitoring, using hydrogel-based device / full item

• Vietnam's VinCSS cybersecurity firm inks MOU with Singapore's ST Engineering Info-Security to boost cybersec solutions in aerospace / full item

• Japan's Bee Informatica completes seed round, raising near $500K with Funding Bee, a digital microfinance solution for SMEs in Malaysia / full item

Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology - October 2024

• Tech in Asia Conference Jakarta: October 23-24 - eFishery, Golden Gate Ventures, Xendit, Globe Telecom, GoTo, Kopi Kenangan, Antler VC... / full item

• Taiwan: TAITRONICS / AIoT Taiwan 2024 Conference and Expo is in October, looking at all things hardware, electronics, digital tech and AI / full item

• FinTech in India: "The survey highlighted that 84% of FIs and FinTechs in India prioritise strategies to understand and meet evolving customer demands..." / full item

• Decentralized science: "It aims to enhance the processes of funding, creating, reviewing, crediting, storing, and disseminating scientific knowledge through the use of Web3 tools..." / full item

Bitcoin: "...the US president and presidential candidates should be the dollar’s biggest salespeople rather than supporting an alternative." / full item

In wider-world technology news:

» 'Integrating Autonomous Mobility into the Transport System - A Saudi Arabian Case Study', a White Paper from the WEF and the Saudi Arabia Center for the 4IR / full item

» IBM unveils latest semicon items, Telum II processor and Spyre AI accelerator, with mass production to be handled by Samsung Foundry under 5nm process / full item

» "All UK children should be given a 'digital vaccination' of access to technology and digital skills that ensures they are not susceptible to misinformation..." / full item

» 'AI into Crypto', looking at 'the development of AI, its current status, and the industry that has emerged from the combination of AI+Crypto' / full item

» "The video game market reported $196 billion in revenue for 2023, outpacing streaming and box-office revenue combined..." - Bain & Company Gaming Report 2024 / full item

» 'Stablecoins & CBDCs', an August 2024 report from CCData / full item

» OpenAI's ChatGPT hit milestone of over 200M weekly users, double the number of users at this point in 2023, and with Apple and NVIDIA reportedly to invest / full item

» Google researchers unveil new AI game engine, GameNGen, entirely powered by a neural model and capable of real-time generation over long timeframes / full item

» Verizon has partnered Skylo to launch satellite-based text and location services for Android smartphones in the US, at no extra cost to customers / full item

"Cybercrime groups, like other businesses, can create more content in less time using GenAI tools... with tens of thousands of sites showing these indicators." / full item