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

Banks want AI. But is the infrastructure beneath their apps ready for it? I spoke with Mohamed Oueida, founder and CEO of a16z-backed Stitch, about why legacy core systems are difficult to modernize, why the company started in the Gulf and whether its model can travel to Southeast Asia. Read the full story on Substack ⬇️ signalsventures.substack.com…

ICYMI, Signals Newsletter #28 Across Asia, governments and companies are putting more money into the infrastructure behind AI A few stories I’m watching in this issue: 🇸🇬 Singapore commits another S$220M to fintech
🇰🇷 South Korea’s chip exports hit a record as its sovereign AI push gathers pace
🇨🇳 China tests new ways to bring AI tokens to everyday consumers
🇯🇵 Kioxia’s expansion offers an early test of whether chip investment can revive regional economies
🎙️ Legora’s APAC chief discusses what it takes to scale legal AI across Asia Signals covers technology, policy and capital across Asia-Pacific. Follow @SignalsVentures for weekly updates.

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

Zac Altman sold two startups. He wasn’t planning to build a third. Then he encountered Australia’s ADHD care system. Now he’s building Kantoko and says ADHD may only be the starting point. 🎙️ On the Record #10: signalsventures.substack.com…

Signals APAC # 26 ⬇️ A few stories I’m watching: 🇨🇳🇹🇼China’s export restrictions put pressure on Taiwan’s tech supply chains 🇰🇷Samsung and SK Hynix increase shareholder returns as AI demand reshapes the chip market 🇨🇳China opens satellite IoT to more private players 🤖 Unitree’s huge IPO puts the spotlight on China’s humanoid robot ambitions 🇰🇷Nvidia explores a potential deal with Korean AI chip startup Rebellions Want to read the full issue? ⬇️

ICYMI Signals newsletter # 25 This week in APAC: 🇦🇺 Australia tested facial recognition on 130,000 faces 🇨🇳 DeepSeek is coming for AI coding tools 🇰🇷 SK hynix is scaling up with a $38B chip expansion 🇯🇵 Japan is pulling in ~$37B in semiconductor investment And beyond that: Apple + Alibaba are building a China-specific AI model. Meta is cracking down on under-16 accounts in Australia.

ICYMI 🎙️On the Record # 9 — Simile CEO and co-founder Joon Park

Signals 🎙️ On the Record #9 Simile raised $200M five months after emerging from stealth — and the company wasn’t even planning to raise. “We were preempted,” CEO Joon Park told me. “They came to us and said, ‘We’d love to invest now.’” The Stanford spinout is now valued at $2B and is building AI models that simulate human behavior. I talked to Joon about how the research became a company, who’s actually using it, and why investors moved before Simile asked. Read the interview on Signals⬇️ 🔗Link in comments

Signals APAC # 24 is out. The US put a 15% tariff on a material China controls 90% of. Chinese AI firms are reportedly still accessing Nvidia chips through overseas data centers. Samsung and SK Hynix said to be testing Chinese equipment as a hedge. Unitree Robotics goes public. $35B in China VC returns. New Chips & Semiconductors section. Link in comments

Signals: APAC Newsletter — Issue #23 Here’s what moved across APAC 📰 ➡️ Trump administration reportedly moves to ban Chinese AI models amid cybersecurity concerns ➡️ The U.S. and China reach rare agreement on AI governance ➡️TSMC is raising chip prices. Clients include Nvidia, Apple, and Google. ➡️China resumes robotaxi permitting after three-month freeze ➡️ Samsung enters the smart glasses market with a focus on privacy 💰 On the capital side: ➡️ Ant International staged a quiet comeback — $1.2B raised, Hong Kong IPO in the works. ➡️ Moonshot AI is gunning for a $50B IPO. ➡️ Blackstone just bet on a Korean robotics company most people have never heard of. ➡️Samsung Biologics acquires $1.8B to get into the weight-loss drug supply chain.

Signals: APAC Newsletter - Issue #22 APAC | Week 3, July 2026 One theme runs through this issue: the infrastructure of AI — chips, software, capital, and labor — is being contested at every level across the region. ➡️ Nvidia's Jensen Huang locked in deals across Japan's entire tech stack, from a $6.2B AI factory to Toyota and robotics makers ➡️ Hyundai's workers staged the world's first factory strike over humanoid robots ➡️ Kimi K3 is positioning as China's answer to the Western frontier labs ➡️ Shein, DeepSeek, and CXMT are all heading toward public markets Link in comments 👇

ICYMI 📰 📰 Signals: APAC Newsletter - Issue #21 APAC | Week 2, July 2026 - @SKhynix just broke the record for biggest foreign IPO in US history - 🇲🇾Malaysia's PM deployed an AI clone of himself - @deepseek_ai is building its own chip - @Temasek crossed $400B and is doubling down on AI - @EvenRealities hit a $1B valuation - And @TencentGlobal is stepping in to unwind the @ManusAI deal (@Meta ) Full breakdown in Issue # 21

Issue #20 of Signals APAC is out This issue: 🇺🇸🇨🇳Apple in talks with blacklisted Chinese chipmakers. 🇺🇸🇨🇳Anthropic cracking down on terms-of-service violations. 🇯🇵Japan putting $6.2B behind a domestic AI push. 🇰🇷South Korea committing $900B to semiconductors. 💰And a $2.8B round that got very crowded, very fast. If you follow technology and capital across Asia-Pacific, this one's worth the read. 📑Subscribe via the link in comments

📰Signals: APAC Newsletter — Issue #19 is live. 🔗link in comments Beijing’s countermove on export controls, Anthropic’s testimony to Congress, a Tokyo AI lab rewriting the rules on frontier models, and the largest memory chip listing in history. Plus nine capital market updates across APAC. Read on.

Issue #18 of Signals: APAC is out. This week: Huawei developed a chip-stacking workaround that analysts are calling another DeepSeek moment. JPMorgan followed Goldman in blocking Hong Kong staff from accessing Claude. The White House pulled a US ally’s AI access over alleged China ties. And capital markets across the region had one of their busiest weeks of the year. If you track technology, policy, and capital across Asia-Pacific, full issue linked below

Missed last week’s APAC tech news? Here’s what moved 👇 ICYMI — Issue #17 of Signals: APAC 👇 • 🇹🇼Taiwan eyes sweeping AI chip export controls on China • 🇸🇬Shopee cuts 8% of developers in AI pivot • 🇺🇸🇨🇳Nvidia markets its CPU to Chinese clients, currently unrestricted under US export rules •🇨🇳Google sued a Chinese AI-powered cybercrime ring behind $1.9B in fraud •🇰🇷Coupang hit with a record $400M+ fine after data breach affecting 34M users Full breakdown in this week’s Signals: APAC 🔗

Newsletter #16 is live. 🌏 ICYMI — here’s what moved across Asia-Pacific, June 1–7, 2026. China is tightening its grip on outbound AI deals, just as @deepseek_ai eyes a $59B valuation and @MiniMax_AI released a frontier model at a fraction of Western prices. Meanwhile, alliances are taking shape. The U.S. and Japan committed $1 billion to joint AI and quantum research. Five Eyes agencies flagged @LinkedIn as a foreign intelligence tool. @Grab is working to advance a $600M Taiwan deal amid Huawei-linked data security questions. And Australia is pushing Big Tech to pay for news. @Meta isn’t happy about it. On the capital side: @SoftBank surpassed @ToyotaMotorCorp in market cap for the first time in two decades. BlackRock is anchoring Japan’s biggest IPO of 2026. Full breakdown in the newsletter. 👇

Most drugs never make it to patients. Not because the science was wrong. Because no one knew where to look. We spoke with Daeseung Lee, CEO of Portrai, a Seoul-based startup that’s mapping the human body to fix one of drug development‘s oldest problems. Now big tech is calling. Read the full story 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/signal…

In case you missed Signals APAC #15, here’s what happened last week. This week, chips were everywhere. @BytedanceTalk is building its own processors to cut ties with @nvidia @Huawei says it has a new way to keep up with the world’s best chipmakers, without the equipment it can’t access. @Samsung is building a $1.5 billion memory chip testing plant in Vietnam. And Nvidia just said it will spend up to $150 billion a year with its Taiwan suppliers alone. 💰On the deals side: ByteDance is pouring $70 billion into AI infrastructure. Airwallex hit a $12 billion valuation. Samsung stepped into Korea’s biggest crypto exchange. 🔗 Full issue in the comments

In case you missed it We recently spoke with Joe Wadakethalakal, CEO and co-founder of PvX Partners, a Singapore-based fintech that built a new way to fund mobile game studios in an era when all the money is chasing AI. Read the full story 👇

If you missed the Signals APAC newsletter over the weekend, here’s what happened 📰 Full issue in comments. If you find it useful, feel free to share it with anyone who might enioy it and follow @SignalsVentures for weekly APAC tech updates.

📰 In case you missed our latest newsletter, it's right here ⬇️ 1/ @Apple in talks with @intel and @Samsung on chips, per Bloomberg 2/ Samsung crosses $1 trillion on AI chip demand 3/ @SoftBank building sovereign AI servers in Japan with @nvidia and Foxconn 4/ @MediaTek launches Taiwan’s most advanced AI data center 5/ @amazon pulls back retail in Singapore 6/ @Sony x @TSMC joint venture for next-gen image sensors 🔖Read the full newsletter below⬇️

If you missed the latest newsletter edition Meta's Manus deal SoftBank: $100B robotics IPO Australia: Big Tech news tax eFishery founder: 9 years DJI: banned at home Goldman: blocked Anthropic in HK 10 signals, 10 deals. Full brief ➡️link in replies.

In 2022, a Singapore- and Miami- headquartered fintech stopped raising money. No Series B. No VC pitches. Three years later, they're in 50+ markets and profitable. spoke with Credolab co-founder Michele Tucci about the bet that paid off. Full story below 🔗

ICYMI. A lot moved in APAC tech last week. Most of it didn't make the front page. We tracked it so you don't have to 👇 Issue # 10 of Signals: APAC is live — Week 4, April 10 signals + 8 deals + 2 deep dives RT if you know someone who tracks Asia tech 🙏

ICYMI — Issue # 9 of Signals: APAC is out. 🤖 Humanoid robots just broke a world record in Beijing. A year ago, most couldn’t even finish the course. @Honorglobal 🇨🇳 A $2B AI deal became a geopolitical crisis overnight. @Meta’s @ManusAI acquisition is now under review by multiple Chinese agencies and both founders are reportedly under exit restrictions. 💳 The fintech that walked away from @Stripe in 2019 just made its biggest move yet. @airwallex is now going after Stripe, @Square , and @Adyen — all at once. 📡 @TSMC posted a 58% profit jump and raised its forecast. The AI buildout is not slowing down. 🇰🇷 A Korean chip startup #DEEPX is embedded in @Hyundai_Global ’s plan to ship 30,000 #humanoidrobots a year by 2028. Plus 7 more stories, 10 deals across China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia, and two deep dives worth your time. Full issue in the link in bio. 🔗 #APAC #AI #Fintech #Geopolitics #VentureCapital #Semiconductors #Startups #Korea #China #Japan #Australia #Tech

💰📊📈 $27.4 billion. One quarter. Almost all AI. 🌏 Asia just had its biggest startup funding quarter in 3+ years. 60% went to 🇨🇳China, driven entirely by AI. India 🇮🇳had its best quarter in over a year. Korea🇰🇷 and Singapore🇸🇬both trending up. The money is back in Asia. But it’s not spread evenly. Swipe for the full breakdown 👉 #APAC #asia #startupfunding #ai #artificialintelligence

ICYMI — Issue #8 of Signals: APAC is out. Last week’s APAC signals — in two slides. Full breakdown in the comments 👇

Signals: APAC Newsletter #6 China stepping into @Meta ’s @ManusAI deal is starting to affect cross-border AI deals. @Huawei chips vs tightening export restrictions. Capital continues to move across the AI value chain — with activity from @SoftBank, @SKhynix and #Grab Signals: APAC Newsletter # 6   (link below⬇️)

So what changed? 💰 Higher interest rates 📉 Investors moving away from risk 🚫 Fewer down rounds in Southeast Asia Now the rules are different. Startups need to solve real, urgent problems and prove they can actually make money. The era of growth-at-all-costs is over. (Growth at all cost means trying to grow as fast as possible even if it means losing money or taking big risks.) 💸💲 The startup reset has begun. 👇 Which Southeast Asian startups do you think will survive this new era?

ICYMI 🚨 Southeast Asia’s startup boom just hit reality Global startup funding in 2025 ⬆️ +30% per @crunchbase data. Southeast Asia? Still stuck in a funding winter🥶 Startups raised $5.4B last year — but that’s only ¼ of the 2021 boom, according to data by @DealStreetAsia And now we’re seeing the impact. Several startups have already shut down: ⚠️ Tessa Therapeutics ⚠️ Pace (BNPL fintech) ⚠️ Indonesia’s B2B startup Ula

📰Signals: APAC Newsletter— Issue #4 Key developments shaping Asia-Pacific tech and markets
📍 Week 2, March 2026 ⚡ @ByteDance taps @Nvidia AI chips
🎬 AI video model delayed
📈 PayPay jumps after $880M IPO 
🤖 China restricts @openclaw AI use
⚠️ Iran conflict raises chip supply risks
💬 Tencent building AI agent for WeChat
🚗 @nuro testing AV tech in Tokyo 
🏭 Japan & South Korea ramp up tech investment Plus Asia tech deals: 🇯🇵 PayPay $880M IPO
🇨🇳 PixVerse raises $300M
🇸🇬 MetaComp raises $35M
🇨🇳 Gestala raises $21M #APAC #AI #Semiconductors

Conversation with Aonic founder and CEO Jin Xi Cheong on how the Malaysia-based drone startup is automating farming across Asia. 📖 Read the full story on Substack ⬇️ open.substack.com/pub/signal…

Qwen has become one of China’s most prominent open-weight AI efforts, competing with models from @OpenAI @Google , @claudeai , and Meta Lin’s sudden exit has surprised colleagues and the broader AI community.

The move could help Vietnam move from chip assembly to manufacturing💿 Major companies like @intel @SamsungKorea @Qualcomm and @AmkorTechnology already have operation there.

🇺🇸🇻🇳🤝The U.S. is helping Vietnam build a semiconductor industry. Washington plans to remove Vietnam from a strategic export control list, opening access to advanced American chip technology.

Signals: APAC Newsletter — Issue # 2 Sharing the second issue of my newsletter, where I track early signals shaping technology, policy, and capital across Asia-Pacific. If you’re working in the region or just curious about the shifts happening across APAC, I hope this is useful. 📩 Always happy to hear thoughts or tips: kate@signalsventures.com open.substack.com/pub/signal…