DeepSeek breaks China’s AI price war with peak-hour surge pricing
DeepSeek breaks China’s AI price war with peak-hour surge pricing

DeepSeek lit China’s AI price war by making tokens absurdly cheap. Now it is doing something no rival has dared: charging more when demand runs high. The Chinese startup has told API customers it will double the price of its V4 models during busy hours…

OCBC to lift annual tech spending above $771mn as new CEO doubles down on AI
OCBC to lift annual tech spending above $771mn as new CEO doubles down on AI

CBC plans to raise its annual technology spending to more than $771mn, according to Bloomberg, as Singapore’s second-largest lender leans harder into AI and digital banking. The increase marks one of the first strategic signals from Tan Teck Long, who …

South Korea accuses Google of abusing Android app-store power over ‘Project Hug’
South Korea accuses Google of abusing Android app-store power over ‘Project Hug’

South Korea’s competition regulator has accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the Android app market, and signalled it will recommend corrective measures and a financial penalty. The Korea Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday that its M…

AI hardware demand keeps Asia’s factories humming as the Iran war bites
AI hardware demand keeps Asia’s factories humming as the Iran war bites

Asia’s factories grew again in June, and the global scramble for AI hardware is doing much of the lifting, according to survey data published this week. Brisk demand for chips, servers, and data-centre equipment kept order books full even as the Iran w…

Rakuten satellite project to get up to $926m Japanese government grant
Rakuten satellite project to get up to $926m Japanese government grant

Japan has decided it does not want to depend on Elon Musk to keep its phones connected from space. The government is set to provide up to ¥150 billion, roughly $926 million, in subsidies to a consortium led by Rakuten Group to build a homegrown low-Ear…

Taiwan’s drone defence debate heats up as opposition pushes rival plan
Taiwan’s drone defence debate heats up as opposition pushes rival plan

The opposition KMT is proposing NT$240bn for unmanned systems just days after stalling the government’s plan, in a fight with real implications for the island’s defence. Few militaries have watched the war in Ukraine more closely than Taiwan’s, and the…

South Korea bets $880bn to win the AI era
South Korea bets $880bn to win the AI era

South Korea has placed its biggest bet yet on the AI era. The plan commits at least $880bn over a decade to chips, data centres and robots. It is the boldest South Korea AI investment to date, and the government says speed is now the only way to surviv…

Nvidia-backed Firmus will build a 360MW AI data centre in Indonesia and expects $30 billion in offtake deals
Nvidia-backed Firmus will build a 360MW AI data centre in Indonesia and expects $30 billion in offtake deals

Firmus Technologies, an Australian AI infrastructure company valued at $5.5 billion, will build its first data centre in Indonesia through an eight-year partnership with Nvidia. The 360-megawatt Nvidia DSX AI Factory campus in Batam, an island just off…

Asian AI startups launch Mythos-like models as Anthropic’s export ban drags on

New models are launching in Asia that promise Mythos-like capabilities without fear of an export ban. U.S. AI labs may never recover this enormous market.

Malaysia intercepts $13M AI chip shipment bound for re-export
Malaysia intercepts $13M AI chip shipment bound for re-export

The shipment passed through Kuala Lumpur declared as ordinary computer components. Inside the 72 server units, Malaysian customs officers found something the paperwork did not mention: advanced artificial-intelligence chips worth 52.9 million ringgit, …