Asia Tech Review

DeepSeek rocked the US stock market and it has helped China's Big Tech giants amplify their AR narrative, but it hasn't ignited AI investment in China... why is that? That's the big focus this week with PitchBook data showing that China's AI VC needle will take a little time to move because (in simple terms) it's a unique market, with lots of government involvement. Elsewhere, Softbank is busy splurging on AI again and that Grab-GoTo deal looks like it might be driving ahead. We also round up the highlights of Q4 reporting for China’s top publicly traded companies, there’s a flurry of news on North Korea’s crypto hacking chops, a tech IPO is moving along in the Philippines and X and the Indian government are involved in a lawsuit. All of that and more in this week's newsletter https://lnkd.in/g8H9Kp3N

🍔🍟🥤 Foodpanda is my delivery app of choice but it just can’t catch a break in Asia After nearly a decade of efforts to sell and well over $1 billion in failed acquisition deals, it remains stuck in 11 markets across the region The latest blow? Its $900 million sale of Foodpanda Taiwan to Uber just collapsed Taiwan’s antitrust regulator ruled the deal anti-competitive, and Uber decided it wasn’t worth the fight This isn’t new—Foodpanda’s parent company, Delivery Hero, also failed to sell its Southeast Asia business last year after talks with Grab fell apart Despite seeing "huge potential" in Asia, Delivery Hero has prioritized Western markets—but with no clear exit, Foodpanda remains locked in a brutal battle with Grab and other well-funded local players It's tough to see Foodpanda finding a way out, it looks destined to continue playing second fiddle in a market it doesn’t truly want to be in You can read more in this week's Asia Tech Review https://lnkd.in/gGbE-iBy

Foodpanda is a major player in Asia, with its Taiwan business alone worth nearly $1 billion. That valuation is according to Uber, which had agreed to buy Foodpanda Taiwan for $950 million. That deal is over, however, after Uber gave up on fighting anti-competitive charges That means Foodpanda retains the jewel in its crown, which includes a Southeast Asia business that it has tried to offload with many years but without success. It's hard for startups in Southeast Asia to get acquired but it is also tough for massive companies like Delivery Hero, Foodpanda’s parent, too Elsewhere, this week we look at a European investigation into corrupt lobbying at Huawei, another Chinese startup released a hit AI product and Intel’s new CEO puts Southeast Asia on the map https://lnkd.in/gRxchYeq

This week’s lead story is about how Malaysia is taking the bull by the horns to grow its semiconductor industry through a landmark deal with ARM that gives it invaluable IP in exchange for $250 million The deal marks a first direct licensing agreement with a nation state for ARM, which typically deals with companies, and it is designed to up-skill Malaysia’s existing industry, which focuses more on production and lower-skilled areas, whilst creating 10,000 jobs. It’s a unique gamble that’ll take time to play out https://lnkd.in/gZ7qVeiv

It looks like Apple and Indonesia will finally bury the hatchet and conclude a standoff that banned sales of the newest iPhone in the country for nearly six months The issue is unlikely to have hurt Apple. Indonesia is a growing market, but lower priced Android devices dominate the market Still, it’s good to end the bad publicity and Apple is going to bring manufacturing to the country for the first time so there’s plenty to keep an eye on Elsewhere, Alibaba continues to make waves in AI, there’s more concern about how Chinese buyers are circumventing US restrictions to get their hands on Nvidia tech and we have some numbers to quantify just how big TikTok Live may be https://lnkd.in/gn8DVdNz

This week is a redemption issue for Alibaba and Jack Ma... When the chips were down and the stock price was tanking, who’d have thought it would be artificial intelligence that would revive the e-commerce giant’s fortunes… and thanks to a wave started by an entirely different company. That’s where we are today—oh and a major meme trader is also backing the business to the tune of over $1 billion in stock. Elsewhere, we have news of Singapore’s big push on its struggling domestic stock exchange, and details of how Jack Ma got back into the limelight as part of Beijing’s new effort to back its domestic tech titans. All that and more for you in this week’s newsletter. https://lnkd.in/gfXvPFZu

We finally learned how Apple plans to bring AI to its products in China It will do so with two of China’s largest tech giants—Alibaba and also Baidu—and the features should launch on China-based devices in the second half of this year That news was seen as a huge win for Alibaba and a loss to Baidu, which was already publicly known to be working on the project. After years of being whipped by younger and more agile e-commerce upstarts, Alibaba has found a strong position in AI—and its shares are up 30% this year so far Elsewhere, we have news of Coinbase’s plans to return to India after an absence of more than a year, China’s stock rally post-DeepSeek and mass layoffs at crisis startup eFishery in Indonesia https://lnkd.in/gNrsdnzn

It seems that Grab and GoTo Group's Chinese New Year resolution every year is to finally merge their ride-railing businesses Reports this week reports from DealStreetAsia and Bloomberg suggested a deal between the two bitter rivals might finally be done—with Grab said to be paying $7 billion to buy the Gojek business Funnily enough exactly one year ago a merger deal between the two was reportedly being discussed for 2024—that one didn't happen... so this feels like deja vu It's hard to add analysis to yet more reports but changes of personnel on both sides, especially Gojek, might mean that a coming-together could finally happen. It would certainly make sense given the position both companies are in re cost-cutting and sustainability—but then again you can't bet on it as we seem to learn every year This week's newsletter has our opinion, and the latest on reactions to Deepseek's emergence, India might take a leaf from the Trump playbook on crypto (but don't expect Modi coin) and Masa Son is going big on OpenAI All that and more at the usual link https://lnkd.in/gEf3nEjJ

Everyone is talking about DeepSeek AI after it burst on to the world stage with its answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT In this week's newsletter we look at what the hype is about, specifically: - How DeepSeek built a strong competitor at a fraction of the cost Silicon Valley giants pay - How the startup bankrolls itself using trading - Why DeepSeek proves China is robust enough to develop its own systems and products despite US restrictions on access to top technology We also have details of another year of falling investment in Southeast Asia, how eFishery cooked its books to grow to a $1 billion valuation and OpenAI hits legal troubles in Asia https://lnkd.in/gxQ2eiEd

Tension is the theme of this week’s newsletter, with governments going after each other and major companies as the war to reign supreme on technology ratchets even further. We’re not just talking about the impending US ban on TikTok, but news emerged this week of ways the Chinese government is reportedly trying to curtail India’s development as a manufacturing hub. In recent years, firms like Apple have diversified their reliance on China to build their hardware with India and Vietnam among those benefitting. India, it would seem, is the one that concerns Beijing the most. Foxconn is in the middle of a diplomatic fallout after it halted sending new workers to its India-based factories on rotation, according to reports. Instead, the company has sent Taiwanese workers. All that and much more are in this week's newsletter https://lnkd.in/gaCD6zYN