Tech in Asia

15/06/2026

The Strait of Hormuz crisis has exposed a vulnerability at the heart of the global AI supply chain: energy.

Taiwan and South Korea produce the world's most advanced chips and memory, but both remain heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels to power their semiconductor industries.

The challenge goes beyond cost. Global customers like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are demanding lower-carbon supply chains, making renewable energy a strategic necessity rather than just a sustainability goal.

For semiconductor leaders, advocating for faster renewable deployment may become as important as investing in next-generation chip technology.
For cleantech companies, the opportunity to serve industrial-scale manufacturing has never been greater.

These countries make the chips powering the AI era, but the two import most of their energy from a region now in crisis.

15/06/2026

We sat with Oura, Superpower, and Radar Therapeutics and asked them questions about AI we're all secretly thinking about.

Look out for more in-depth features upcoming up on Tech in Asia.

15/06/2026

🔍📈 We compiled official filings and financial statements to help readers see which private tech firms are growing, profitable, or cash-generative.

📊 Unlike listed companies, private firms do not publish their financials in an easily accessible database, so Tech in Asia created this tracker that collects official financial data on private tech companies and startups across Southeast Asia.

💰 It includes latest revenue and net profit, top-line growth and profit status, plus net cash from operating activities and changes in cash and cash equivalents to show whether a company is generating or burning cash.

See the caveats, including that the tracker does not include metrics earlier than 2024.
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We compiled official filings and financial statements to help readers see which private tech firms are growing, profitable, or cash-generative.

15/06/2026

AI trading agents promise faster and smarter crypto markets—but they may also introduce a new systemic risk.

As more trading decisions become automated, the biggest vulnerability may no longer be market manipulation through capital, but through information.

Our latest opinion piece argues that resilience—not speed—will become the defining competitive advantage for AI-powered trading platforms. Systems that incorporate diverse data sources, transparent decision-making, and meaningful human oversight may prove far more valuable than fully autonomous agents.

The convergence of AI and crypto is inevitable. Whether it creates a more resilient financial system or a more fragile one depends on how we build it today.

Manipulating an AI trading agent isn’t sophisticated hacking. It’s a matter of feeding it systematic rubbish – and it doesn’t take much capital to do.

14/06/2026

📉 Tech layoffs across Asia show no signs of slowing down.

Meta has begun notifying Singapore employees as part of a global workforce reduction affecting around 8,000 roles, while Amazon is cutting jobs in Singapore as it winds down parts of its local operations. In India, edtech startup Adda247 has laid off about 20% of its workforce ahead of a planned IPO.

The era of growth at all costs may be over, but the push for efficiency is far from finished.

Read more👇

Tech firms are dismissing staff to stay afloat as headwinds hit Asia. This layoff tracker is keeping tabs on marching orders.

14/06/2026

🌏📈 See how AI’s surge reshapes Southeast Asia’s SaaS sector, without wiping it out.

🤝 According to Neha Singh, Southeast Asia’s software ecosystem remains underpenetrated, fragmented across markets, and dependent on local relationships, giving SaaS players more breathing room than their Western peers.

💰 Pure-play SaaS is no longer among the top investment themes; horizontal SaaS companies face the greatest pressure, forcing startups to push deeper into industry-specific workflows where defensibility is stronger.

Dig into the full story to see why M&A activity is rising, from Nvidia acquiring VinBrain to Grab acquiring Chope.
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Want to keep up with the ins and outs of the ecosystem in Asia? Sign up for free at techin.asia/newsletters

See how AI’s surge reshapes Southeast Asia’s SaaS sector, without wiping it out.

14/06/2026

🏦 Indonesia’s digital banks are evolving.

The winners are no longer those with the highest deposit rates—but those with the strongest ecosystems.

SeaBank, Bank Jago, and Superbank leverage Shopee, Gojek, and Grab to drive sticky deposits, better lending data, and lower customer acquisition costs.

The industry is shifting from growth-at-all-costs to profitability and sustainable banking.

Ecosystem-backed banks are gaining ground in Indonesia. We break down the players leading the pack in loans, profits, and deposits.

14/06/2026

🚀📈 CEO Kai Qiu explains why the company sees AI infrastructure financing as an attractive revenue stream.

💳 CreditNow uses alternative data to extend unsecured credit to SMEs; for eligible SMEs, application time is about a minute with no manual document uploads.

🤝 Anext remains Singapore-focused, embedding deposit accounts onto payment service providers such as WorldFirst to let customers open a fixed deposit account to receive payments in Singapore dollars while earning interest.

Dive into the story for Kai Qiu’s timeline for breaking even by 2027.
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Want to keep up with the ins and outs of the ecosystem in Asia? Sign up for free at techin.asia/newsletters

CEO Kai Qiu explains why the company sees AI infrastructure financing as an attractive revenue stream.

14/06/2026

Legal AI isn't replacing lawyers. It's replacing paperwork.

Startups across Asia are building AI for courtroom transcription, legal research, and case management—tailored to local languages and legal systems.

The real opportunity may not be better chatbots, but modernizing courts still buried in manual processes.

Human judgment stays. Administrative work doesn't.

As Anthropic and OpenAI push into AI in the legal space, Asian startups are racing to build courtroom-focused systems for emerging markets.

13/06/2026

Thailand's recent fuel crisis exposed a deeper issue: its climate startup ecosystem.

Many founders don't fail because of bad tech—they run out of cash waiting for grant reimbursements or relocate to Singapore to attract investors, taking IP and future value with them.

The lesson? Grants should validate, not fund, a startup. Investors also need to help build the pipeline instead of waiting for "perfect" companies.

An interesting take on why Thailand risks losing its clean energy future.

Investors and founders have a consistent message: Thailand’s best climate startups die before serious capital arrives.