News/Asia
Intel partners with IndiaAI to boost AI skills nationwide
Intel and MeitY's IndiaAI partnership represents a significant milestone in India's AI development strategy, establishing a framework to cultivate AI skills and adoption across education, entrepreneurship, and governance sectors. This collaboration, formalized within the government's ambitious IndiaAI Mission, aims to democratize AI access while fostering indigenous innovation—positioning India to compete in the global AI landscape through targeted skills development and support mechanisms. The big picture: Intel has partnered with India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to advance artificial intelligence capabilities and skilling initiatives nationwide under the IndiaAI mission. The memorandum of understanding focuses on equipping students, professionals, startups, and...
read May 2, 2025The top 6 countries to watch in the AI infrastructure boom
The global race for AI infrastructure is heating up as nations compete to host the specialized data centers needed for training and running advanced AI models. Beyond traditional data center requirements, AI facilities demand exceptional power capacity, advanced cooling systems, robust connectivity, and supportive regulatory frameworks. This infrastructure competition will shape which countries become the dominant players in the AI economy, influencing everything from research innovation to computational sovereignty. 1. United States The U.S. leads in AI infrastructure with major installations from tech giants Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, supported by abundant land resources, sophisticated power grids, and extensive fiber...
read May 1, 2025Remote hiring becomes gateway for North Korea’s state-sponsored infiltration
North Korea's sophisticated digital infiltration scheme has evolved from placing individual IT workers in Western companies to a complex operation leveraging AI tools and fake identities. The scheme, which generates millions for the North Korean government, now involves sophisticated identity theft, AI-generated personas, and local facilitators who manage physical logistics—creating unprecedented national security and economic risks as these operatives gain access to sensitive corporate systems while posing as remote tech workers. The big picture: North Korean operatives are systematically infiltrating Western companies through remote work positions, using stolen identities and increasingly sophisticated AI tools to create convincing fake personas. Simon...
read Apr 28, 2025As you were: DeepSeek AI resumes downloads in South Korea after brief ban
China-based AI service DeepSeek has resumed operations in South Korea after a two-month suspension due to personal data protection violations. The comeback follows a regulatory review that identified unauthorized data transfers in DeepSeek's initial South Korean launch earlier this year. This incident highlights the growing tension between rapid AI service deployment and regional data privacy regulations, particularly as Chinese tech companies expand their global footprint. The big picture: South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission found that DeepSeek had transferred user data and prompts without permission when it first launched in the country in January. The app's downloading capability was suspended...
read Apr 26, 2025Adani plans $10B data center expansion to meet AI demand
Adani's $10 billion investment plan for Indian data centers reflects the growing demand for AI and cloud infrastructure in one of the world's fastest-growing digital economies. This significant capital injection represents the billionaire's strategic pivot toward technology infrastructure, positioning his conglomerate to capitalize on India's digital transformation and the surging computational needs driven by artificial intelligence adoption. The big picture: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani plans to invest $10 billion to build data centers across India, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment aims to capitalize on booming demand for artificial intelligence and business process services in the country....
read Apr 26, 2025South Korea’s webcomics industry blends tradition with AI-driven innovation
South Korea's webcomics industry is witnessing a creative transformation as generative AI becomes integrated into the production process. Legendary cartoonist Lee Hyun-se exemplifies this shift—while maintaining his artistic integrity, he's leveraging AI to extend the legacy of his iconic characters. This evolution marks a significant turning point for an industry that has already successfully transitioned from print magazines to digital platforms, now commanding a global audience of hundreds of millions of readers. The big picture: Established South Korean cartoonists are experimenting with AI tools to enhance their storytelling capabilities while preserving their artistic voice. Lee Hyun-se, creator of the 1983...
read Apr 25, 2025AMD and KDDI team up to boost 5G virtual network performance
KDDI and AMD's new partnership marks a significant step in Japan's 5G infrastructure development, bringing chiplet-powered processing to mobile networks. The collaboration aims to address the growing demand for 5G capacity while prioritizing energy efficiency—a critical balance as mobile data consumption continues to surge globally. This partnership also highlights the strategic importance of processor architecture in preparing telecom networks for AI integration. The big picture: Japanese telecom giant KDDI will deploy AMD's 4th Generation EPYC processors across its 5G virtualized network infrastructure, with nationwide implementation beginning in 2026 following a testing phase in 2025. Why this matters: The partnership addresses...
read Apr 24, 2025Databricks to invest $250M in India for AI growth, boost hiring
Databricks is significantly increasing its presence in India with a major investment aimed at tapping into the country's growing AI expertise and market potential. This move represents a strategic expansion by the data analytics firm as global technology companies increasingly look to India for technical talent and growth opportunities in artificial intelligence development. The big picture: Databricks announced plans to invest more than $250 million in India and increase its workforce by over 50% as it expands its artificial intelligence operations in the country. The San Francisco-based company intends to grow its headcount to more than 750 employees in India...
read Apr 24, 2025SK Hynix profit jumps 158% as AI chip demand surges
SK Hynix has cemented its dominance in the AI memory chip market with its latest quarterly results, outperforming analyst expectations despite a sequential dip from record highs. The South Korean memory giant's impressive performance stems largely from its commanding 70% market share in high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips - the critical components powering Nvidia's AI accelerators and other generative AI systems. This market leadership has helped the company achieve a historic milestone by overtaking rival Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time. The big picture: SK Hynix reported first-quarter revenue of 17.64 trillion won ($12.36 billion) and...
read Apr 24, 2025Nvidia’s AI dominance showcased in 70+ ICLR projects in Singapore
Nvidia's research presence at a major AI conference showcases the chip giant's extensive involvement in cutting-edge AI development beyond hardware manufacturing. At the International Conference on Learning Representations in Singapore, Nvidia researchers are presenting over 70 papers spanning music generation, 3D video creation, robotics, and language model development, highlighting how the company's research initiatives directly inform their chip architecture and maintain their position at the forefront of AI innovation. The big picture: Nvidia is leveraging its research across multiple AI disciplines to strengthen its identity beyond simply being a chip manufacturer. "People often think of Nvidia as a chip company...
read Apr 22, 2025Airtel and partners test AI, digital twins on 5G in India
The convergence of 5G, extended reality, and AI is ushering in a new era for manufacturing in India, with significant implications for industrial operations and workforce development. This strategic partnership between telecommunications, technology, and automobile manufacturing giants represents a notable step in India's Industry 4.0 evolution, bringing together communications infrastructure, advanced computing, and industrial expertise to create more intelligent and adaptive manufacturing environments. The big picture: Bharti Airtel, Ericsson, and Volvo Group have formed a research partnership to integrate Extended Reality, Digital Twin technologies, and AI within manufacturing environments using 5G Advanced networks. The collaboration will use Volvo's Bangalore Factory...
read Apr 18, 2025Foxconn launches FoxBrain AI to give manufacturing efficiency a boost
Foxconn's entry into the AI large language model space represents a significant shift for the world's largest electronics manufacturer, as it leverages artificial intelligence to transform its core manufacturing operations. The Taiwan-based company's new FoxBrain model, built on Meta's Llama 3.1 architecture, signals how traditional manufacturing giants are increasingly developing proprietary AI systems to optimize their industrial processes and supply chains rather than merely integrating third-party solutions. The big picture: Foxconn has developed FoxBrain, its first large language model with 70 billion parameters and a 128k-token context window, designed to enhance manufacturing and supply chain operations. The model was trained...
read Apr 16, 2025Nvidia taps 3 Taiwanese firms to build AI hardware in US
Nvidia is rapidly expanding its domestic chip manufacturing capacity with plans to produce high-end AI infrastructure worth hundreds of billions of dollars across multiple U.S. locations. The strategic shift toward American manufacturing represents a significant departure from traditional semiconductor supply chains and aligns with growing trends toward technological sovereignty and supply chain security in the AI hardware sector. The big picture: Nvidia is commissioning over a million square feet of manufacturing space in Arizona and Texas to produce AI chips and supercomputers on American soil. TSMC has already begun manufacturing Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell chips at its Phoenix, Arizona facility. Taiwanese...
read Apr 14, 2025Hey, Mivi: Indian firm claims first human-like AI assistant with emotional intelligence
Mivi's launch of a human-like AI assistant marks a significant development in the Indian technology landscape, integrating emotional intelligence with advanced language processing capabilities. This AI platform, accessed through specialized earbuds, represents a growing trend toward more personalized and contextually aware voice assistants that can maintain natural conversations. The technology's ability to remember past interactions and understand emotional tones could potentially set a new standard for AI-human interaction in the Indian market. The big picture: Indian tech company Mivi has unveiled what it claims is the world's first truly human-like AI assistant, developed entirely in India and designed to create...
read Apr 12, 2025Microsoft’s AI helps pinpoint earthquake damage in Myanmar for faster disaster relief
Microsoft's AI-powered satellite imaging technology is helping disaster response efforts in Myanmar by rapidly assessing earthquake damage. By combining aerial imagery with specialized computer vision models, the company's AI for Good Lab identified over 500 severely damaged buildings in Mandalay following a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake. This technology provides critical information to aid organizations, helping them prioritize resources and target relief efforts more effectively in the crucial early hours after natural disasters. The big picture: Microsoft's philanthropic AI for Good Lab analyzed satellite imagery to assess building damage in Mandalay following Friday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar. The analysis...
read Apr 12, 2025Nokia partners with telecom giants on spectrum sharing and cloud networks
Nokia is accelerating telecom innovation through strategic partnerships that showcase next-generation network capabilities. The company has established three significant collaborations in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, each focusing on different aspects of network infrastructure evolution. These partnerships demonstrate how shared infrastructure, cloud-based radio access networks, and AI-powered data center solutions are collectively driving telecom transformation while enabling cost efficiencies and performance improvements. The big picture: Nokia is expanding its technology ecosystem through strategic partnerships with major telecom operators in multiple regions to advance networking capabilities. Nokia's collaborations with Maxis in Malaysia and both Tawal and Zain in Saudi Arabia highlight innovation...
read Apr 11, 2025Tech giants forge AI infrastructure partnerships to meet growing computing demands
Major tech partnerships are transforming the AI infrastructure landscape, with top companies focusing on digital twins, cloud integrations, and increased data center capacity in Asia. These collaborations highlight how the underlying technology powering AI systems is evolving to meet growing demands for more efficient, sustainable computing resources capable of running increasingly complex AI workloads. The big picture: Schneider Electric and ETAP have created what they claim is the first AI factory digital twin, allowing comprehensive simulation of power requirements across AI data centers. The solution runs on NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud APIs and provides real-time monitoring and predictive analytics for AI...
read Apr 11, 2025Vodafone Idea rolls out AI-powered 5G in India with ambitious three-year plan
Vodafone Idea's AI-driven 5G rollout represents a strategic technological shift for India's third-largest telecom operator. By leveraging artificial intelligence in its self-organizing network infrastructure, the company aims to efficiently deploy 5G across 17 priority circles while replacing legacy Chinese equipment, potentially reshaping its competitive position in India's evolving telecom landscape. The big picture: Vodafone Idea has launched commercial 5G services in Mumbai and plans rapid expansion to four additional cities by April 2025, powered by AI-based optimization technology. The company plans to deploy 75,000 5G sites across India over the next three years, focusing on 17 priority circles. Vi is...
read Apr 9, 2025SK Telecom takes the plunge, partners with Giga Computing to develop liquid cooling for AI data centers
Liquid cooling systems are becoming essential infrastructure for AI data centers as high-density computing demands exceed what traditional air cooling can support. SK Telecom's new partnership with Giga Computing and SK Enmove positions the Korean telecom giant to develop comprehensive liquid cooling solutions spanning all three major cooling technologies. This strategic move reinforces SK Telecom's growing presence in AI infrastructure, where thermal management has become as critical as computing power itself. The big picture: SK Telecom has formed a partnership with liquid cooling specialist Giga Computing and SK Enmove to develop next-generation cooling solutions specifically designed for AI workloads. The...
read Apr 7, 2025Floating on Air: Award given to Airtel Business for AI-powered B2B marketing transformation
Airtel Business's AI-powered marketing strategy unlocked a lucrative enterprise badge. The company has earned industry recognition for transforming traditional B2B marketing approaches and successfully implementing artificial intelligence across its operations, creating measurable business impact through automation and personalization that delivers more relevant customer experiences. This recognition from ASSOCHAM highlights how AI implementation can create tangible benefits in enterprise marketing by enhancing team capabilities and customer intelligence simultaneously. The big picture: Airtel Business, the B2B division of Bharti Airtel, has received the "Best Adoption of AI in Marketing" award at the ASSOCHAM Branding and Marketing Excellence Awards 2025, recognizing its innovative...
read Apr 7, 2025South Korean AI startup shuts down, disappears after database exposed deepfake porn images
That breeze coming from the south of the peninsula is an AI startup in the wind... The explosive growth of AI-generated explicit content has reached a disturbing milestone with South Korean company GenNomis shutting down after researchers discovered an unsecured database containing thousands of non-consensual pornographic deepfakes. This incident highlights the dangerous intersection of accessible generative AI technology and inadequate regulation, creating serious harm particularly for women who constitute most victims of these digital violations. The big picture: A South Korean AI startup called GenNomis abruptly deleted its entire online presence after a researcher discovered tens of thousands of AI-generated...
read Apr 7, 2025AI manages 660 million people at India’s Maha Kumbh Mela religious gathering
India's largest AI-driven crowd management system has been successfully deployed at the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, enabling authorities to safely manage over 660 million attendees during the 45-day religious gathering. The collaboration between Echelon Edge and Synergy Telematics marks a significant advancement in applying artificial intelligence to large-scale event management, demonstrating how predictive analytics can transform public safety operations for mass gatherings on an unprecedented scale. The big picture: Echelon Edge implemented India's first centralized AI-driven crowd management platform at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, successfully managing movement for 660 million people during the 45-day religious gathering from January to...
read Apr 6, 2025ASUS co-CEO highlights DeepSeek’s cost advantage in reshaping AI hardware needs
ASUS's co-CEO SY Hsu has highlighted the emergence of DeepSeek as a significant development for the artificial intelligence industry, particularly noting its cost advantages. His comments signal a potential shift in how major hardware manufacturers view the AI model landscape, with implications for hardware requirements and supply chain strategies amid ongoing tariff concerns. The big picture: China-based DeepSeek's new AI model has drawn attention for its efficiency, potentially challenging assumptions about the necessity of investing in the most advanced and expensive Nvidia chips for AI development. Why this matters: Hardware manufacturers like ASUS are closely monitoring AI model efficiency improvements,...
read Apr 6, 2025Qualcomm acquires MovianAI to bolster edge AI capabilities across device spectrum
Qualcomm's strategic acquisition of MovianAI from Vietnam's Vingroup marks a significant escalation in the chipmaker's push to dominate generative AI capabilities for edge devices. This move, following its recent purchase of tinyML specialist Edge Impulse, signals Qualcomm's determination to build comprehensive AI capabilities spanning from resource-constrained IoT devices to sophisticated smartphone applications. By acquiring both specialized AI teams with complementary expertise, Qualcomm is positioning itself at the forefront of AI innovation across the entire computing spectrum. The big picture: Qualcomm has acquired MovianAI, the generative AI division of Vietnam's VinAI, to strengthen its research and development capabilities in advanced artificial...
read