Skip to main content

We use cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to visit this site you agree to our use of cookies. Cookie Policy

AI in ASIA
Wednesday, 18 March 2026

3Before9

3 must-know AI stories before your 9am coffee

1

Physical AI Set to Transform 41 Per Cent of Companies Within Three Years

Just 3 per cent of companies have extensively integrated physical AI into their operations, according to Deloitte's latest State of AI in the Enterprise report, based on a survey of 3,235 business leaders across 24 countries. But that number is about to shift sharply. Some 41 per cent of respondents expect physical AI to transform their industries within three years, with 18 per cent anticipating extensive integration within two. Manufacturing, logistics and warehousing are leading adoption, with robotics-heavy sectors positioned to move first. Chris Lewin, Deloitte's Asia-Pacific AI leader, framed the shift as a change in roles rather than an elimination of jobs, with human workers moving toward supervision and system design.

Why it matters for Asia

Asia-Pacific is where physical AI will land hardest and fastest. Foxconn already demonstrated an industrial humanoid robot at its Taiwan showcase late last year, and manufacturing supply chains across China, Japan and Southeast Asia are prime candidates for early deployment. Enterprise buyers in the region should be planning workforce transition strategies now, not after the robots arrive.^

Read more
2

Micron Completes $1.8 Billion Taiwan Factory Acquisition Ahead of Earnings

Micron Technology completed its acquisition of Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation's P5 site in Tongluo, Miaoli County, Taiwan on 15 March. The $1.8 billion deal gives Micron roughly 300,000 square feet of existing 300mm cleanroom space, which will be converted to produce leading-edge DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for AI workloads. Micron plans to begin construction on a second facility of comparable scale at the same site by the end of fiscal 2026. The company reports fiscal Q2 2026 earnings today, with analysts expecting revenue of $19.2 billion, a 138 per cent year-on-year surge driven by insatiable AI data centre demand for HBM chips.

Why it matters for Asia

Taiwan's role as the backbone of AI semiconductor manufacturing just got another layer of reinforcement. Micron's expanded footprint means more high-bandwidth memory production closer to Asia's chip packaging and assembly ecosystem. For enterprise buyers across the region banking on AI infrastructure buildouts, this signals that HBM supply constraints should begin easing from fiscal 2028 onward.^

Read more
3

Alibaba DAMO Academy Unveils AI Model for Early Fatty Liver Detection

Alibaba's DAMO Academy has published research in Nature Communications on MAOSS, an AI model that uses routine non-contrast CT scans and serum biomarkers to detect and grade fatty liver disease. Steatotic liver disease affects an estimated 30 per cent of the global population and is notoriously difficult to catch early through conventional screening. MAOSS automatically extracts subtle features from liver texture, density and morphology, turning standard scans into diagnostic tools without requiring specialist imaging. The model was developed in collaboration with Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University and Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, and forms part of DAMO Academy's broader medical AI programme that has screened over 50 million people across ten countries.

Why it matters for Asia

Fatty liver disease prevalence is particularly high across Asia, with rates above 30 per cent in China, India and Southeast Asia. DAMO Academy's ability to repurpose existing hospital CT infrastructure for early detection could be transformative for public health systems across the region that lack specialist diagnostic capacity. The 50-million-patient screening milestone also positions Alibaba as a serious contender in Asia's medical AI market, where enterprise healthcare buyers are increasingly looking for proven, scaled solutions.^

Read more

That's today's 3-Before-9.

Explore more at AIinASIA.com or share signals with us.

Get 3-Before-9 in your inbox

Three signals, every weekday, before 9am

Free forever. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.

Recent Editions

View all

Tuesday

14 April 2026

  • 1.Japan's major technology companies, including SoftBank, Honda, Sony, and NEC, have launched a joint venture to build a trillion-parameter AI for autonomous machines, ensuring all data remains within Japan.
  • 2.Chinese embodied AI startup Spirit AI secured $420 million from prominent investors, including Lei Jun and Jack Ma, to develop humanoid robots and general-purpose robotics.
  • 3.These investments signify a strategic pivot in Asian AI, with Japan prioritising data sovereignty for physical AI and China focusing on hardware and real-world embodied intelligence.
Read edition

Monday

13 April 2026

  • 1.Japan committed an additional $4 billion in subsidies to Rapidus, bringing total public backing to $16.3 billion to establish a domestic 2nm chip foundry.
  • 2.The Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index reports the performance gap between top US and Chinese frontier AI models has narrowed to just 2.7 percent.
  • 3.Hong Kong opens the 2026 World Internet Conference Asia-Pacific Summit with six AI governance sub-forums spanning agents, security, finance and health.
Read edition

Sunday

12 April 2026

  • 1.UK regulators including the Bank of England are urgently convening with financial firms to assess cybersecurity risks from Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview, which can find software vulnerabilities faster than human experts.
  • 2.Grab unveiled 13 AI-powered features at GrabX 2026, building an Intelligence Layer on 20 billion rides and orders to serve as Southeast Asia's first AI-native superapp.
  • 3.India's Sarvam AI is closing a $350 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation, the largest ever for a pure-play Indian AI company, with backing from Nvidia, Amazon and Bessemer.
Read edition

Saturday

11 April 2026

  • 1.TSMC reported a record Q1 revenue increase of 35 per cent to NT$1.13 trillion, primarily driven by strong demand for advanced AI chips.
  • 2.OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are collaborating through the Frontier Model Forum to counter unauthorised AI model copying from Chinese firms.
  • 3.Digital Realty is committing nearly S$7 billion to expand data centre capacity in Singapore, reinforcing the city-state as Asia-Pacific's critical AI infrastructure hub.
Read edition

Thursday

9 April 2026

  • 1.OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are collaboratively sharing threat intelligence via the Frontier Model Forum to counter adversarial distillation by Chinese AI firms.
  • 2.This coordinated defence operation targets firms like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, potentially impacting enterprise buyers in Southeast Asia and informing AI governance frameworks in the region.
  • 3.Meta has launched Muse Spark, a closed-source multimodal model from its Superintelligence Labs, featuring a "Contemplating" mode for complex reasoning.
Read edition

Wednesday

8 April 2026

  • 1.GITEX AI Asia, the region's largest technology conference, opened in Singapore, attracting significant investment and showcasing the city-state's role as a deep tech hub.
  • 2.The World Bank revised East Asia's 2026 growth forecast downwards to 4.2%, while identifying AI-related exports and investment as a regional economic strength.
  • 3.Microsoft committed $10 billion to Japan's AI infrastructure from 2026 to 2029, partnering with Sakura Internet and SoftBank to address the country's projected shortfall of 3.26 million AI workers by 2040.
Read edition