SpaceX’s secret Chinese investors: Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: The Korean startup that turned down $800 million

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Offshore banking monkey business?

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at a report that SpaceX is welcoming investment from wealthy Chinese entities, but only if they keep it secret, and AI chip startup FuriosaAI’s dismissal of an acquisition offer from Meta.

Despite being a US defence contractor Elon Musk’s SpaceX apparently allows investment from Chinese entities, but insists that the funds be routed through offshore financial hubs such as the Cayman Islands, presumably to hide their origin. SpaceX’s CFO said the arrangement is “acceptable,” but others have questioned why a defence contractor would take be seeking to conceal foreign ownership interests. “It is certainly a policy of obfuscation,” law professor Andrew Verstein told ProPublica. “It hints at potentially serious problems.”

Meanwhile South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI turned down an enormous $800 billion acquisition offer from Meta, reportedly over the tech giant’s plans for its business strategy and organisational structure. Instead, the company is seeking to raise a relatively modest $48 million (KRW 70 billion) from investors.

Australia

  • Australian authors have expressed anger at the way their works have been used to train Meta’s AI models. “I am furious to learn my books have been again pirated and used without my consent to train a generative AI,” said Holden Sheppard. Source
  • The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says its staff have been harassed by a “large numbers of trolls” and media organisations after publishing research about China. Source
  • Australian startup Apate.AI has created an app to waste scammers’ time. Source

China

  • SpaceX permits Chinese investment so long as funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore hubs for anonymity, reports ProPublica. Source
  • Alibaba chief Joe Tsai has expressed concern at the money being pumped into AI datacentres. "I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble," he said. Source
  • The rise of DeepSeek and subsequent change in how AI systems are trained has upset China’s budding datacentre market and taken the shine off investment. Source
  • Chinese hacking group Weaver Ant reportedly infiltrated a major telecommunications company located in Asia, maintaining an unseen presence for 4 years. Source
  • Another ant, Jack Ma’s Ant Group, is reported to have trained advanced AI models using Chinese chips from Alibaba and Huawei in place of Nvidia, with potential compute savings of 20%. Source
  • China has developed a dual-use technology capable of targeting and cutting armoured undersea cables. Source
  • The US has added six subsidiaries of Chinese cloud conglomerate Inspur Group to its export restriction list citing their development of supercomputers for the Chinese military. Source

India

  • The secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders described as “eyewash” Amazon’s move to eliminate referral fees for certain products, calling it a “calculated tactic to consolidate its dominance rather than genuinely empowering small sellers.” Source
  • India has rebuffed X’s legal case against content takedowns calling it a “strawman challenge.” Source
  • India has dropped its equalisation levy, essentially a tax on foreign Big Tech that required companies to pay 6% of advertising earnings, “so that we can address the uncertainty in international economic conditions.” Source
  • Zoho’s Ulaa browser has won the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge, organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to promote independence from foreign technology. Source
  • “Quick commerce” accounted for over two-thirds of all e-grocery orders last year, growing five times to $6-7 billion from 2022. Its market share is expected to grow over 40% annually until 2030. Source
  • Infosys laid off 30-45 more trainees telling them they haven’t made the grade. It comes after the tech giant cut 400 such roles in February . Source

Japan

  • Semiconductor giant Renesas launched its first automotive-qualified system-on-chip for the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Source
  • Renesas’ head of infrastructure spoke to Computing about the challenge of building resilience in a fast-changing world. Source

South Korea

  • AI chip startup FuriosaAI reportedly turned down an $800 million acquisition offer from Meta. Source
  • Han Jong-hee, head of consumer electronics and mobile devices at Samsung, died from a heart attack aged 63. Source
  • During a tour of Korea, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pledged support for the country’s partner companies within its AI ecosystem. Source

Taiwan

  • TechInsights analysts say the costs of producing silicon wafers at TSMC's plant in Arizona are only about 10% higher than in Taiwan. Source
  • TSMC will start to take orders for wafers built on its latest 2nm N2 node process next week, according to Taiwan’s Commercial Times. Source

Eleswhere in Asia

  • Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea has shut down Facebook in a "test" to mitigate hate speech, misinformation and pornography. Government critics call it "tyranny" and an "abuse of human rights". Source
  • Malaysia: Malaysia has agreed to crack down on potential shipments of Nvidia processors to China after pressure from the US. Source
  • Indonesia: Indonesia’s ban on the iPhone 16 will be lifted on 11th April, with Apple agreeing to invest $300 million in the country. Source
  • North Korea: North Korea is testing unmanned AI enhanced suicide and reconnaissance drones. Source