Regional

AI news brief: Chinese officials proposed on Friday adding artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, and photovoltaic technology to an export control list, aiming to prevent ‘improper proliferation’ of these critical capabilities, as trade and tech tensions between China and the West continue to escalate. The proposal, put forward by Chinese authorities on Friday, covers three major technology areas: AI, biopharmaceuticals, and solar photovoltaic technology. The report notes that Shanghai hosted the World Artificial Intelligence Conference this past July, highlighting China’s momentum in AI development…

AI News Flash: Johor, Malaysia — a maker of critical optical communication components that supply AI data center networks says it plans to more than triple its Malaysian manufacturing capacity by the end of 2028 to meet unprecedented demand growth. The company is Taiwan’s FICG, which adopted a ‘China+1’ strategy at the request of US customers to diversify production away from its heavy concentration in China. FICG began mass production earlier this year at its first plant under its Malaysian subsidiary Pro3C, and…

AI news flash: TSMC posted a record-high profit in Q3 2026, with net income up 68.7% year-over-year — the sixth straight quarter of record earnings. Demand driven by the AI wave keeps running strong, with orders for the most advanced process chips booming while demand for supporting chips rises right alongside, keeping TSMC’s growth momentum at full speed. See the original article for details.

AI news brief: Asian stock markets tumbled in early Thursday trading, dragged down by a selloff in US markets triggered by September CPI data coming in hotter than expected, alongside growing worries about overheated AI investment. South Korea’s KOSPI fell more than 7%, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 4%, and tech stocks bore the brunt of the selling pressure.

AI News Brief: Solafune, a Japanese data analytics startup, plans to develop and launch an Earth observation satellite equipped with AI technology. The company’s core strategy centers on ‘space computing’ — processing imagery onboard the satellite in orbit instead of beaming raw images back to the ground for analysis first. This approach is seen as an application of ‘Edge AI’ satellites…

AI News Brief: Singapore’s economy grew an estimated 5.4% year-on-year in Q3 2026 (July-September), the government announced Wednesday, with growth driven mainly by sustained strong AI-related demand that boosted manufacturing. The report notes Singapore’s exports expanded on strong tech sector demand, making manufacturing the main driver of this GDP growth. The Monetary Authority of Singapore kept monetary policy unchanged and expects inflation to start easing from the middle of next year. The original summary is fairly brief, offering only…

AI news brief: Mainland Chinese chipmakers are aggressively expanding capacity in Singapore, as AI chip demand squeezes capacity for base chips and components, and the industry is also watching whether this shortage could flip into oversupply. This summary is from a Nikkei tech podcast episode intro, which only lists host and guest info plus two related headlines (a TSMC-affiliated company reportedly evaluating expansion after its first Singapore plant sold out; Broadcom and Toppan Chemical opening their first advanced chip substrate plant in Singapore), without further mechanism, capacity figures, or timeline details — see the original link for more.

AI News Flash: NTT Data Group is in final-stage negotiations with US AI company Anthropic to build a dedicated data center in western Japan (Osaka), according to multiple sources who spoke to Nikkei Asia. This would be Anthropic’s first dedicated data center in Japan, with processing capacity expected to rank among the largest in the country. The new facility could reportedly cost up to $6.3 billion to build, with partial operations expected to begin in 2028.

AI news brief: Japanese electronics giant Omron recently announced it will acquire US industrial computer maker OnLogic for about $675 million, with the deal expected to close as early as January next year. OnLogic makes and sells industrial computer equipment used in factory environments. The acquisition is seen as a major step in Omron’s push into physical AI, integrating OnLogic’s industrial computer lineup to strengthen its sales footprint in control equipment and automation across the Americas.

AI news brief: Harvey, a US legal AI startup, plans to open an office in Japan in early 2027, marking its formal entry into the Japanese market. CEO and co-founder Winston Weinberg says the company will target major Japanese law firms and corporate legal departments as its primary customers.