News around critical and emerging technologies in September 2024 obviously touched on items in, far beyond and of course affecting Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Globally, critical technologies news headlines in September covered items as diverse as: commercial nuclear microreactors in the United States; Japan’s modular recycling units for critical minerals and rare earths; China’s more-than $6 billion investment in a nationwide datacenter network; early moves by major web browsers to mitigate quantum risks; TSMC’s moves towards 2 nanometer semiconductor manufacturing; and many more.
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Indo-Pacific Critical Tech Forum 2024 – October in Japan
WEF: ‘Securing Minerals for the Energy Transition‘ “McKinsey… indicates that investments of $300-400 billion in mining, refining & smelting would be needed per year through 2030…” / full item
- Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust launches to boost collaboration in blockchain, ledger, identity, interoperability, cryptographic, and related technologies / full item
- Oklo, nuclear energy startup backed by OpenAI, gains US Dept of Energy agreement for first small, modular commercial microreactor in Idaho / full item
- IBM Quantum Data Center expands with highest number of utility-scale quantum computers at a single location in the world, offered to clients via IBM cloud services / full item
- Download: ‘Quantum for Society – Meeting the Ambition of the SDGs‘ looking at quantum technologies in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals / full item
Taiwan & global semiconductor supply chain: August-September 2024 (pdf)
- Japan’s SoftBank partners Intelsat for hybrid satcom solution allowing ongoing connection via mobile or satellite, globally, using single device and single account / 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
- An overview of the challenges faced by GPS and space-based navigation, with a focus on AltPNT technologies / full item
- 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
- Verizon has partnered Skylo to launch satellite-based text and location services for Android smartphones in the US, at no extra cost / full item
ASPI: The future of subsea cables and opportunities for Australia
- Download: ‘Global megatrends – Shaping the future of societies, economies, and values‘ / full item
- The US Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads… / full item
- Japan: An intro to Emulsion Flow Technologies, producing modular units to scale recycling of rare earth metals and critical minerals / full item
China: “According to investigations by Chinese media, data center players have built too much capacity, lack the skills to carry out complex AI processes, and have overestimated demand.” / 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
- 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
- India: Techno Electric & Engineering Co is preparing to build edge data centres 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
Schroders: China Chartbook – Stimulus arrives, finally
- Australia: ElectraLith, startup making lithium extraction susatinable, running on renewable energy and requiring no water or chemicals / full item
- India: Pixxel becomes the first Indian space firm to secure NASA contract to provide a hyperspectral earth imaging satellite constellation / full item
- Oracle unveils its first zettascale cloud computing clusters, delivering the largest AI supercomputer in the cloud with up to 131,072 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs / full item
- Australia’s Quantum Brilliance to help deliver world-first mobile quantum computer for Germany’s cyber innovation agency by 2027, with civil and defense use cases / full item
HSBC: Asset Tokenization in the Quantum Age
- HSBC successfully trials first quantum-secure tech for trading tokenized physical gold, looking at protection from future quantum computing attacks / full item
- Google and Microsoft web browsers prep to change security coding to defend against risks likely to be posed by quantum computers / 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
“Shrinking [Australia’s] presence in the global semiconductor value chain has allowed us to sidestep… trying to compete with global semiconductor superpowers, but… we lose opportunity” / full item
- An estimated 20% of the global semiconductor engineering workforce is of Indian origin… Despite this… [the] sector has struggled to generate significant financial returns / full item
- China: YMTC, a key player in the flash memory segment, achieves chip design architecture innovation as it responds to ‘tech war’ limitations / full item
- Taiwan: TSMC is preparing ground for two 2nm semiconductor fabrication plants to commence operations in Q1 and Q3 of 2025, building on volume of 3nm chip orders / full item
- Intel’s contract manufacturing arm signed on as a customer with Amazon’s cloud unit for the production of customized AI-focused chips / full item
- India: Uttar Pradesh unveils plans for state’s first semiconductor park in Noida, aiming to attract global chip firms with a range of subsidies / full item
GITEX Asia Tech Conference & Expo: April 2025 in Singapore
- Japan: An overview of Hokkaido’s moves into semiconductor manufacturing, touching on the Rapidus-IBM partnership for a 2nm semicon fabrication plant / 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
- 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
- India: US’ Applied Materials inks MoU with Tamil Nadu gov’t for AI-enabled tech Center of Excellence focused on semicon manufacturing & equipment / full item
Critical minerals and the energy transition
- The Netherlands plans to limit ASML Holding NV’s ability to repair and maintain its semiconductor equipment in China… / full item
- Japan: Intel partners AIST for advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials R&D hub / 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
- 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
- HP is set to receive a $50M US Commerce Department grant to modernize existing semiconductor facility, with flow-on benefits in health and medical tech, AI and more / full item
- China Manned Space Agency unveils extravehicular lunar suit to be used in the country’s future crewed lunar landing missions. / full item
- India: Karnakata state to set space policy, developing a space technologies Centre of Excellence with sights on services for 10% of the global industry / full item
The Dawn of the AI Era:: Generative AI, teens, parents, home and schools
- SpaceX has proposed a $1.5BN investment to bring Starlink to Vietnam / full item
- China: Deep Blue Aerospace completes 10 of 11 tasks with first-of-its-kind reusable kerosene-fuelled Nebula-1 rocket, but crashes at the final stage / full item
- India’s GalaxEye space-technologies firm gains $2M backing from Infosys Innovation Fund, seeing opportunities in multi-sensor satellites and comprehensive datasets generated / full item
- India: Gov’t has approved space projects including Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return mission, a first space station module, and Venus Orbiter Mission / full item
McKinsey: Navigating the physical realities of the energy transition
- China: Landspace successfully completes 10km vertical liftoff, vertical landing test of reusable orbital rocket, targeting first orbital flight in 2025 / full item
- Singapore: Eartheye Space raised $1.5M pre-seed with online sat-tasking platform claiming workflow across 475 satellites / full item
- China: Geespace, backed by Geely, launched 3rd batch of satellites for ‘megaconstellation’ of near 6000 LEO sats, aiming for global broadband services / 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
“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
- China: Tianwen-2 prep is underway for 2.5 year sampling mission from a near-Earth asteroid, launching 2025 and later slingshotting to a second asteroid / full item
China’s space plans: “…5 main scientific themes have been identified for future breakthroughs…” “..extreme universe, space-time ripples… habitable planets… biological & physical space….” / full item
- Taiwan: Beyond 5G low-Earth orbit satellite program potentially facing setbacks with low payload performance and project timeline delays / full item
- Malaysia’s OMS undersea cabling firm sets $300M for new ASEAN-focused cable systems and acquisitions, responding to demand for data centers and cloud computing / full item
- New Indonesia-to-Singapore Nongsa-Changi undersea cable was recently announced, targeting Q4 2025 operations connecting with Nongsa Digital Park / full item
- Microsoft, BlackRock and partners unveil $30BN fund for AI infrastructure, looking to mobilise up to $100BN focusing primarily on US data center development / full item
Stablecoins: The Emerging Markets Story
- 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
- Vietnam: Google reportedly considering construction of hyperscale data centre in South Vietnam, the first major US tech company investment in the country / full item
“Malaysia (mainly due to Johor) has observed the highest increase in operational capacity at 80%, between H2 2023 and H1 2024…” / 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 & 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…. could cost as much as $440BN…” / full item
- India: Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s PSMC ink agreement for major semiconductor manufacturing facility in Gujarat, with investment projected at $11BN / full item
“Worldwide spending on semiconductor equipment is expected to grow 24 percent to $123 billion in 2025…” / full item
- Oracle unveils its first zettascale cloud computing clusters, delivering the largest AI supercomputer in the cloud with up to 131,072 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC and Korea’s Samsung Electronics reportedly discussed plans for semiconductor plant in the UAE, potentially rivaling TSMC’s world’s-largest fab in Taiwan / full item
- AMD now classifies itself as a ‘data center first’ company, with CPU and gaming businesses unable to match data business revenue / 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
“Malaysia is accelerating its ambitions to become a major player in the global digital economy and semiconductor industry through two significant initiatives…” / 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
- 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
“…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: Silizium Circuits and Calligo Technologies, semiconductor and RISC-V startups respectively, and the support received from Taiwan’s semicon industry / full item
- South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace and Australia’s Gilmour Space ink MOU for collaboration in space launch and satellite imagery / full item
- Australia: AICRAFT AI firm secures SA Space Collaboration & Innovation Fund backing, partnering India’s Guerin space-tech for miniaturized SAR radar / 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
- Vietnam: An overview of Vietnam’s 10 proposed undersea cabling projects, and concerns around possible participation of a number of China’s cable ecosystem firms / 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
World Bank: Electronic Signatures
Asia Tech Weekly newsletter
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