Hello everybody! That is Cheng Ting-Fang, your techAsia host, saying whats up from Taipei!
I simply returned from a brief journey to Hong Kong, the place I attended a gala dinner and awards ceremony. I’m excited to share some fantastic information with you: Nikkei Asia gained the prime prize in know-how reporting from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) — a prestigious competitors that locations us alongside the largest world information publications like Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Avenue Journal and The New York Instances.
I vividly bear in mind the journey that this award-winning protection entailed. It was loads of the exhausting work and collaboration with my unimaginable colleagues. One small anecdote I want to share entails the subsea cable map we produced, tracing Chinese language funding and involvement in undersea cables courting again to the Nineteen Nineties. This challenge began with digging via decades-old Chinese language authorities and telecom paperwork to establish each cable with Chinese language participation. We then wanted precise uncooked map information to permit our artwork workforce to visualise and illustrate these cables.
At one level, the challenge was virtually lifeless after we found that the map information would value $20,000, far past our price range. However after discussing technique with my colleagues, I nervously took on the function of procurement specialist and managed to barter the worth all the way down to about $800 for simply the info we would have liked. Lauly Li, Shunsuke Tabeta, Tsubasa Suruga and I interviewed a number of Chinese language and international executives in varied areas to realize perception from inside the subsea cable sector in China and south-east Asia, views hardly ever heard in world media.
One other standout challenge was our mapping of China’s electronics provide chain, highlighting the areas the place the nation has constructed aggressive alternate options to world leaders. Trying again on the six years since Huawei was added to the US Entity Record, it’s exceptional how a lot the worldwide provide chain has shifted and the way quickly China’s localisation drive has taken off.
The launch of that characteristic was not as clean as we had hoped. It coincided with breaking information that Nissan and Honda had been in merger talks, and confronted a technical glitch that prevented our graphics from displaying correctly for the primary 50 hours the story was up. However as soon as that was resolved, we obtained nice suggestions from the {industry} for the depth and element of our reporting.
The third story within the package deal checked out how China constructed a aggressive superior show {industry} beforehand dominated by Samsung.
There’s a saying in Taiwan that goes, “Eat sugarcane from the underside up,” which implies every chunk turns into sweeter than the final. And one other acquainted line sums up my emotions: “Each cloud has a silver lining.”
I need to specific my deep gratitude to our artwork workforce, led by MinJung Kim and Michael Tsang, for reworking our uncooked analysis and reporting into clear and highly effective graphics that our readers constantly discover useful. Particular thanks additionally to Katherine Creel, our tech editor, and the complete Nikkei Asia editorial workforce for his or her limitless help and collaboration in making these tasks doable.
Hong Kong has all the time introduced again fond reminiscences. I hadn’t been again to town since 2019, earlier than COVID, and in some methods it felt like stepping right into a time capsule, particularly by way of digital tech. Most taxis, for instance, nonetheless solely take money — no Apple Pay or bank cards. I used to be fortunate to seek out some leftover Hong Kong {dollars} in an outdated pockets earlier than the journey.
After the awards ceremony, I joined colleagues from Nikkei and the Monetary Instances on the Overseas Correspondents’ Membership. Over late-night drinks, I used to be reminded that Hong Kong was as soon as a very powerful hub for worldwide media. Whereas many shops have since moved employees to Singapore, Seoul, or Taipei attributable to shifting geopolitics, the harbour view and historic structure nonetheless say quite a bit concerning the metropolis’s vibrant good outdated days.
Slicing-edge issues
Chipmakers from Taiwan and South Korea are looking for their subsequent progress drivers amid world macroeconomic uncertainty. Taiwan’s second-largest contract chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp., is evaluating whether or not it ought to enter cutting-edge chip manufacturing, Nikkei Asia’s Cheng Ting-Fang writes. UMC’s CFO confirmed the corporate is exploring extra superior chip manufacturing, however famous that partnering with others to share the funding burden can be a key technique.
UMC is eyeing chip manufacturing tech as superior as 6-nanometers, a degree presently dominated by TSMC, Samsung and Intel, sources mentioned.
Samsung, in the meantime, remains to be searching for prospects for a brand new plant within the U.S., Kim Jaewon and Cheng Ting-Fang report. The world’s second-largest contract chipmaker is constructing a cutting-edge fab in Taylor, Texas, that it says will begin manufacturing in 2026, 4 years after development started. Sources say Samsung is holding off on tools set up, nevertheless, because it has but to safe sufficient prospects to make the most of the deliberate capability.
Each UMC and Samsung, like many different chipmakers, face rising strain from Semiconductor Manufacturing Worldwide Corp., China’s prime chipmaker, which has benefited from the nation’s push to localize chip manufacturing and strengthen provide chain resilience.
Son’s succession alerts
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has dropped his greatest trace but concerning the future management of the know-how conglomerate he began greater than 40 years in the past, writes the Monetary Instances’ David Keohane.
Son, who indicated he had the drive to remain in cost for one more 10 years, mentioned his successor was somebody already working beside him inside SoftBank.
“Deciding when to declare these two, three or 4 persons are candidates is a matter of timing, and I wouldn’t need them getting overconfident or appearing entitled. I additionally nonetheless have the need to remain on a bit longer, so it’s about managing that delicate steadiness,” Son mentioned on the group’s annual assembly in Tokyo.
Son referred to Junichi Miyakawa, the top of SoftBank Corp., the group’s listed telecoms unit, as somebody doing an “extraordinarily good job” and in whom he positioned nice belief.
Individuals near the group denied it was a sign that Miyakawa was in line for the highest job. As a substitute, they mentioned he was given for example of how Son had already entrusted somebody with one key a part of the enterprise.
Cat-eared, quadraped or humanoid?
Robots are shaping as much as be the subsequent huge factor within the tech {industry}, however approaches are diverse. Japan is specializing in sensible, task-specific automation to handle its labour shortages, notably in sectors like eating places and workplace upkeep, writes Ryohtaroh Satoh of Nikkei Asia. Tokyo-based analysis agency Fuji Keizai estimates the home service robotic market will greater than double from 2024 to 2030, reaching ¥400bn ($2.7bn), outpacing industrial robots.
In the meantime, Apple provider Foxlink goals to shift from being a conventional electronics element maker to an AI robotics options supplier by 2030, Freddy Kou, head of its robotics division, advised Nikkei Asia’s Lauly Li. The transfer goals to diversify income, scale back publicity to shopper electronics volatility, and capitalise on AI progress. Foxlink is investing in AI-powered robots for safety and industrial automation and is leveraging Nvidia’s platform to speed up growth.
BYD vs Tesla
BYD continues to steer world electrical automobile gross sales, outperforming main US rival Tesla for the third consecutive quarter, Yifan Yu of Nikkei Asia writes.
Each firms confronted industry-wide headwinds, resembling intensifying competitors in China and rising macroeconomic uncertainties. However whereas BYD’s shipments jumped 42.5 per cent on the yr for the April-June quarter, pushed partly by a collection of worth cuts, Tesla gross sales fell round 13 per cent. The US firm is dealing with some distinctive challenges, specifically CEO Elon Musk’s more and more strained relationship with US President Donald Trump, which traders see as an overhang on the corporate’s inventory and enterprise prospects, and buyer pushback towards Musk’s political actions.
Urged reads
US lifts curbs on chip design device gross sales to China amid commerce talks (Nikkei Asia)
Amazon developer performs down buzz over humanlike robots (Nikkei Asia)
BYD holds on to EV crown as Tesla faces robotaxi, Trump uncertainties (Nikkei Asia)
Crypto-crazy traders make South Korea the best-performing market in Asia (FT)
Donald Trump says he has discovered group of ‘rich folks’ to purchase TikTok (FT)
The Asian factories on the frontline of Trump’s tariffs (FT)
Malaysia seeks to spice up VCs with new fund, tax incentives (Nikkei Asia)
The vulnerabilities holding again Chinese language {industry} (FT)
Japan’s utilities pour billions into energy grid amid information centre progress (Nikkei Asia)
US customers ditch Shein and Temu as Trump closes tax loophole (FT)
#techAsia is co-ordinated by Nikkei Asia’s Katherine Creel in Tokyo, with help from the FT tech desk in London.
Join right here at Nikkei Asia to obtain #techAsia every week. The editorial workforce might be reached at techasia@nex.nikkei.co.jp