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
Saturday, 11 April 2026

3Before9

3 must-know AI stories before your 9am coffee

Who should pay attention

Founders | Investors | AI developers | Regulators | Data centre operators | Consumers

What changes next

Debate over AI ethics and model integrity is likely to intensify across the industry.

1

TSMC Posts 35 Per Cent Revenue Jump to Record High on Relentless AI Chip Demand

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported first-quarter revenue of NT$1.13 trillion (US$35.7 billion), a 35 per cent year-on-year rise that beat analyst forecasts and set a new quarterly record. March alone saw a 45.2 per cent annual revenue surge to NT$415.2 billion, driven overwhelmingly by orders for advanced AI processors from the likes of Nvidia and Apple. While smartphone and PC segments softened due to memory shortages, TSMC's artificial intelligence business more than compensated. The chipmaker has also raised prices on its most advanced nodes ahead of its full earnings release on 16 April, where investors will watch whether gross margins held within the guided 63 to 65 per cent range.

Why it matters for Asia

TSMC fabricates the vast majority of the world's most advanced AI chips, and a record quarter confirms that enterprise demand for AI compute in Asia shows no sign of slowing. For buyers and builders across the region, sustained pricing power at the leading edge signals that AI hardware costs are unlikely to fall any time soon - a critical factor for anyone budgeting inference workloads or planning data centre expansions in Southeast Asia, Japan and beyond.^

Read more
2

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Unite to Combat AI Model Copying in China

Three of the world's leading AI labs - OpenAI, Anthropic and Google - have begun sharing intelligence through the Frontier Model Forum, the industry nonprofit they co-founded with Microsoft in 2023, to detect and block so-called adversarial distillation attempts by Chinese competitors. Anthropic alone documented 16 million unauthorised exchanges traced to three named Chinese firms: DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax. US officials estimate that adversarial distillation costs American AI labs billions of dollars annually. The collaboration mirrors the way cybersecurity firms exchange threat intelligence - when one company spots an attack pattern, it flags it for the others in near real time.

Why it matters for Asia

This is the first coordinated defensive operation between all three frontier labs and it directly targets Chinese AI companies that serve millions of users across Asia. For enterprise buyers in the region evaluating Chinese-built models, the move raises fresh questions about the provenance and long-term reliability of those offerings. It also signals that the US-China AI rivalry is shifting from an export-controls battle into active technical countermeasures, reshaping the competitive landscape for AI adoption across Asia-Pacific.^

Read more
3

Digital Realty Pledges S$7 Billion Singapore Investment to Build Asia-Pacific AI Hub

Digital Realty announced a commitment of nearly S$7 billion in total investment in Singapore, with more than S$4.3 billion earmarked for new data centre developments. The US-headquartered firm will launch a Digital Realty Innovation Lab at its Loyang facility in the second half of 2026, giving customers a fully supported environment to develop, test and validate AI and hybrid cloud solutions before wider deployment. Digital Realty has nearly doubled its Singapore workforce to more than 300 over the past three years and expects to grow to 400 by 2030, adding high-value jobs in digital infrastructure and emerging technologies.

Why it matters for Asia

Singapore is fast cementing its position as the region's critical hub for AI inference, and this latest multi-billion-dollar bet adds to a wave of hyperscaler and colocation investment that includes recent commitments from Microsoft and Google. For enterprises across ASEAN planning AI deployments, the expanding capacity in Singapore means lower latency, more competitive pricing and a broader choice of infrastructure partners - but it also intensifies the city-state's challenge of balancing data centre growth with energy and land constraints.^

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

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

Tuesday

7 April 2026

  • 1.Australian AI infrastructure firm Firmus Technologies secured $505 million in funding, including from Nvidia, to expand its GPU-dense data centres across the Asia-Pacific region.
  • 2.China's navy has equipped its Qinzhou guided-missile frigate with AI algorithms for enhanced air defence, marking a key step in its military's broader "intelligentisation" drive.
  • 3.Microsoft has committed $6.5 billion to AI and cloud infrastructure across Southeast Asia, with $5.5 billion for Singapore and over $1 billion for Thailand, positioning the region as a global AI compute hub.
Read edition

Tuesday

7 April 2026

  • 1.South Korea's March exports hit a record $86.13 billion, with semiconductor shipments surging 151% to $32.84 billion on soaring AI data centre demand.
  • 2.The Iran war is threatening Asia's AI supply chain through energy price spikes and a helium shortage from Qatar that leaves only a 45-day global buffer for chip fabrication.
  • 3.Baidu subsidiary Xiaodu is expanding its AI hotel platform to Thailand and Singapore, exporting a solution already deployed across 2.6 million rooms in China.
Read edition

Sunday

5 April 2026

  • 1.Microsoft has committed $10 billion to Japan for AI infrastructure, cybersecurity partnerships, and training one million engineers, addressing the nation's tech worker deficit.
  • 2.Alibaba launched its Qwen 3.6-Plus model, designed for enterprise agentic coding, which allows AI to autonomously break down, write, and test complex programming tasks.
  • 3.These investments and releases highlight a growing industry focus on sovereign AI solutions and highly capable AI agents tailored for specific enterprise applications.
Read edition

Saturday

4 April 2026

  • 1.Microsoft will invest $10 billion in Japan by 2029 to boost AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and train one million engineers, partnering with local firms like Sakura Internet.
  • 2.Microsoft also pledged $5.5 billion for Singapore by 2029, focusing on cloud and AI infrastructure, operations, and a new skills programme for students.
  • 3.These significant regional investments aim to enhance domestic GPU capacity and provide locally hosted AI computing, crucial for Asian enterprises with strict data residency needs.
Read edition