🎙️ Signals On the Record #14 We're living longer. But are we staying healthier? Japanese biotech startup Ekei Labs wants to understand what happens inside our cells as we age. Its approach is studying tiny chemical marks on DNA that may offer clues about aging and disease. Founder Bilal Kharouni also sees a problem with the rush to use AI in biotech: without the right data, even powerful models have limits. Could better data eventually help researchers find new treatments? I explored Ekei's technology, ambitions and challenges in my latest Signals story. 📰 Read the full story on Signals. @Substack 🎙️ The full written interview is available to subscribers on @Patreon 🔗 Links in comments ⬇️

Issue #30 of Signals: APAC is out 👋 AI agents are getting phone numbers and wallets. Singapore has a new chip fab. Hard drives are back in the AI infrastructure conversation. And Japanese robot makers are looking more closely at the U.S. Plus, a China-linked hacking campaign targeting AI policy circles and plenty more across tech, policy and capital in APAC. Read Issue #30

Voice AI doesn’t travel across markets as easily as text. A model still has to handle local accents, pauses, background noise and the way people actually speak. Deepgram says its API requests in APAC rose 96% over the past year. I spoke with Sriram Ved, the company’s VP and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, about its new Singapore base, where regional demand is coming from, and whether global scale or local expertise will matter more. The full conversation is in On the Record # 13 ⬇

Issue # 29 of Signals: APAC is out. There was a lot happening across Asia-Pacific tech this week, but a few stories stood out. @Huawei is pushing China’s AI industry to move faster while accelerating its own chip roadmap. @SKhynix is exploring ways to expand memory production in the U.S. @Waymo is adding Singapore to its international robotaxi plans, and @applepay could finally be heading to India. @Apple Then there’s the infrastructure underneath all of this. On the semiconductor side, @Samsung and SK Hynix turned down @iamkepco KEPCO’s $18 billion power prepayment proposal + more stories about @MediaTek and China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) Capital was busy too: Firmus is considering an Australian IPO of up to $5 billion, KIOXIA is weighing a major U.S. listing, and @GrabSG Grab is making a $1.49B fintech push through Atome And for this week’s deeper read: how AI could make huge volumes of stolen data much easier to analyze, potentially changing how cyber intelligence is produced and scaled. That, plus the rest of this week’s tech, policy and capital stories across the region, in Issue # 29. Read below Follow @SignalsVentures for your weekly roundup of Asia-Pacific tech, policy and capital. lnkd.in/gNGMxva8

Legora @WeAreLegora raised $550M at a $5.5B valuation in March. Its latest APAC move was the opening of an office in South Korea. Capital can support Legora’s expansion. Adapting its platform to each legal market is the next challenge. For 🎙️ On the Record #11, Heather Paterson, Legora’s vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan, discusses what the company has learned from its expansion so far, why South Korea came next and what it had to change before entering the market.

The conversation also explores a question that could shape Legora’s regional strategy: What should it build itself, and where might it need local partners or acquisitions? The full story is now available in @SignalsVentures signalsventures.substack.com…

AI is moving beyond the chatbot and into public services, music charts, factories and geopolitics. Signals APAC newsletter # 27: 🇦🇺 Australia draws a line on AI-generated music 🇨🇳 Moonshot AI enters talks with Microsoft, Amazon and Google 🤖 A humanoid robot ran faster than Usain Bolt then crashed 💾 China’s YMTC targets the global NAND lead 🇰🇷 South Korea plans free nationwide access to gen AI 💰 DeepSeek reportedly seeks $7.4B at a $74B valuation Swipe for the week’s biggest APAC tech and business stories. Read the full newsletter through the link in bio 🔗 #APACTech #ai #Semiconductors