Singapore’s technology news coverage in December 2023 captured a wide range of items, including: Singapore’s Southeast Asia-focused artificial intelligence LLM; China’s WeRide ‘robo-buses’ gaining a limited public roads testing license; the Singapore-China digital yuan pilot scheme; and more.
Other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies in December 2023
Microsoft: New Future Of Work Report 2023
- An intro to Fr8Labs, focusing on the logistics industry with SaaS operating system and with plans for an ‘open ecosystem’ allowing participation via APIs
- Japan’s Toshiba and Singapore’s SpeQtral boost existing collaboration around quantum key distribution hardware to deliver Singapore’s National Quantum-Safe Networks+ project
- Singapore looks to triple pool of AI-skilled workers, including scientists and engineers, to deliver on national AI strategy, with target of 15000, alongside chipmaker and cloud provider partnerships
- Insights on APAC’s food-tech scene from 4 CEOs, from the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, part of Singapore International Agri-Food Week
MERICS: Fragmenting Cyberspace – The future of the internet in China
- Singapore: Coda Payments, backed by GIC sovereign wealth fund, looks to grow payments business beyond gaming revenue with addition of creator and companies focus, pitching as alternative to Big Tech
- Singapore: Meatiply raises $3.75M with cell-based cultivated meat, looking also at ‘functional ingredients’ approach to produce hybrid products for health and wellness markets
- Singapore-based Bitsmedia, creator of Muslim Pro lifestyle app, gains $20M, with sights on AI platform development and market growth across Gulf countries and the US, UK, Indonesia and Malaysia
- China’s WeRide gains Singapore licenses allowing self-driving ‘robobuses’ to test on public roads in areas including the One North tech cluster and the National University of Singapore
- Singapore’s FOMO Pay and UAE’s Zand Bank partner for cross-border payments, B2B transactions and int’l remittances between Asia and MENA countries
pwc Digital Trust Insights 2024
- Singapore’s Pave Bank launches with $5.2M funding and digi-bank license in Georgia, Eastern Europe, with services including ‘programmable’ banking and seeing bridging opportunities between Asia and Europe
- Singapore-Indonesia Jagat social network breaks 10M user target with location-based approach pushing users to make in-real-life connections and friendships
- Singapore: National Multimodal LLM Programme launched recently, a S$70M initiative to develop the region’s first large language model ecosystem catering to SEA‘s range of cultures and languages >>>
Build skilled AI talent in Singapore by providing funding and access to high-end computing for local researchers and engineers. This effort will enable the development of a pool of skilled AI professionals to drive innovation and technological excellence in developing AI solutions in Singapore.
Foster a thriving AI industry to develop LLM-enabled solutions for greater productivity and new opportunities for businesses. This programme will foster collaborations with industry partners to provide a conducive environment to catalyse the development of novel AI enterprise use cases in a rapidly evolving landscape of AI technology.
Enable Singapore to build a trusted environment in using AI, as the programme will provide a deeper understanding of how LLM work and further research AI governance. The NMLP will develop a base model with regional context that can understand Singapore’s and the region’s unique linguistic characteristics and multi-lingual environment.
- Singapore: Atomionics rolls out ‘virtual drill’ tech using gravity and AI to define ore bodies, looking to cut customer costs and development times for minerals projects
- Singapore: University researchers and EtaVolt startup presented a high-intensity illumination device capable of ‘patching’ wear and tear in solar panel cells, claiming boosted unit life of up to 5 years
PwC Digital Payments Survey 2024: Southeast Asia landscape
- Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures VC firm opens Middle East and North Africa office in Saudi Arabia, looking to capitalize on the MENA startup ecosystem
- Singapore’s Seraya Partners private equity firm raised $800M for Asia infrastructure fund focusing on digital infrastructure and energy transition investments, with AIIB amongst backers
- Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority inks MoU with China’s Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission to develop Tianjin Green and Digital Shipping Corridor, involving multiple stakeholders and institutions >>>
The MPA released a statement emphasising the green corridors’ purpose: “The Singapore – Tianjin Green and Digital Shipping Corridor will serve as a valuable testbed for both countries to pilot and trial digital solutions, alternative fuels and technologies, and facilitate talent development to support the decarbonisation and digitalisation of shipping”.
This involves higher education institutions, and industry stakeholders including shipping lines, port operators, shipbuilders, classification societies, and bunker suppliers.
- Singapore and China to work on cross-border ‘digital yuan’ pilot project, building on 2020 digital finance MOU, allowing travelers from both to use e-CNY locally
- From e27: Snapshots of the 2023 startup ecosystems in The Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand
Deloitte TMT Predictions 2024: Gen AI, sustainability, tech, media & telecom
Indo-Pacific Tech news: Daily
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