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AI in ASIA
Wednesday, 25 March 2026

3Before9

3 must-know AI stories before your 9am coffee

Who should pay attention

AI leaders, founders, enterprise decision-makers, and teams deploying AI across Asia.

What changes next

Regulatory expectations tighten, infrastructure buildout accelerates, and enterprise AI governance matures.

1

Arm Launches First In-House Chip to Power the Agentic AI Era

SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings has unveiled the AGI CPU, a 136-core data centre processor built on TSMC's 3nm process - marking the first time in the company's four-decade history that it has manufactured its own silicon. Developed with Meta as lead partner, the chip targets the CPU-side orchestration work needed to coordinate accelerators in large-scale AI deployments. Arm claims the AGI CPU delivers more than twice the performance per server rack compared to the latest x86 platforms, with potential savings of up to $10 billion per gigawatt of data centre capacity. Commercial systems are already shipping from Lenovo, Quanta Computer, and Supermicro.

Why it matters for Asia

The customer list reads like an Asia-Pacific semiconductor playbook. SK Telecom has signed on to deploy the chip across its AI inference infrastructure alongside Korean AI accelerator startup Rebellions, while Taiwan's TSMC handles fabrication and Quanta Computer builds the server systems. For enterprise buyers across the region, this signals a credible Arm-based alternative for AI workloads - one backed by Asian capital, manufactured in Asia, and already being deployed by Asian telcos.^

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2

SK Hynix Files for US Listing to Fund AI Memory Chip Expansion

South Korean memory giant SK Hynix has filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential Nasdaq listing, seeking to raise between $10 billion and $14 billion. The company, one of the world's leading suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI processors, plans to earmark proceeds for expanding its AI memory production capacity and building out a semiconductor cluster in Yongin, South Korea. The move also aims to close the valuation gap with US-listed peers, where AI-focused chipmakers typically command higher market multiples.

Why it matters for Asia

SK Hynix supplies the HBM chips that sit inside virtually every major AI accelerator, from Nvidia's H100 to AMD's Instinct series. A successful US listing would give the company a direct line to American capital markets at a time when AI infrastructure spending shows no signs of slowing. For Asia's semiconductor ecosystem, this is a statement of confidence - South Korea's memory industry is not content to remain a supplier in the background but is positioning itself as a front-and-centre player in the AI investment narrative.^

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3

Boao Forum Report Declares Asia the New Epicentre of AI Development

The Boao Forum for Asia has released its annual economic outlook report declaring that the global epicentre of AI development is progressively shifting from Europe and the United States toward Asia. The report credits the region's substantial digital populations, diverse application ecosystems, and coherent policy frameworks for driving the transition. China was singled out for achieving full-chain industrial maturity in AI, while Japan and South Korea were recognised for their strengths in high-end manufacturing and industrial automation. Singapore was highlighted as a model of application-driven advancement and governance innovation.

Why it matters for Asia

This is not just cheerleading from a regional forum. The report maps a concrete division of labour across Asia's AI landscape - China handles scale deployment, Japan and Korea lead on industrial applications, and Singapore serves as the governance and platform hub. For enterprise buyers and policymakers, the message is clear: Asia is no longer simply adopting AI tools built elsewhere but is building a complementary, multi-node innovation network that could reshape the global AI value chain.^

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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.
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  • 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.
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Monday

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  • 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.
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Sunday

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  • 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.
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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.
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Thursday

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  • 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.
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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.
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