Welcome back,
This week’s lead story is about how Malaysia is taking the bull by the horns to grow its semiconductor industry through a landmark deal with ARM that gives it invaluable IP in exchange for $250 million.
The deal marks a first direct licensing agreement with a nation state for ARM, which typically deals with companies, and it is designed to up-skill Malaysia’s existing industry, which focuses more on production and lower-skilled areas, whilst creating 10,000 jobs. It’s a unique gamble that’ll take time to play out.
Elsewhere, quick commerce faces a lawsuit in India, Peak XV has yet another major executive exit and that record $1.5 billion ByBit hack is explained in full.
Have a great rest of the week.
Best,
Jon
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Malaysia is going big on semiconductors and AI after a string of investments and announcements made last week.
The big swing is the nation’s partnership with ARM which will see it invest $250 million into the company over 10 years in exchange for key IP. That’s the first licensing deal between ARM and a country, rather than a tech firm.
The goal is to enable local companies to get a jump start on advanced chipmaking, with Malaysia aiming to take third place in the world behind the US and China.
Malaysia is established as a ‘back end’ provider for chips, essentially helping with the final processes, but now it wants to advance up the stack. That’s a move the government believes can create a $270 billion industry with 10,000 jobs—although this will require specific training and plenty of time. Other countries have struggled to fill skilled employee gaps, or even just manufacturing gaps that have been created by global firms moving production outside of China.
ARM CEO Rene Haas hailed the government as visionary and ambitious, but he declined to give specific targets. It’s a tough space—with ARM itself planning to move into production for the first time, having previously only supplied designs/IPO—but a bold and unique move, nonetheless. (There’s sharper analysis behind the paywall at The Malaysianist.)
Elsewhere, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah led a $111 million investment in AI startup Turing, which works with OpenAI and others, using human engineers to contribute code to AI projects. The Series E deal valued Turing at $2.2 billion, double its previous valuation
It’s happening, India’s quick commerce startups are facing an antitrust suit over discounts. The challenge comes from product distributors who are being sharply undercut not just on delivery speed—which can be as low as 10 minutes—but price with discounts doled out to users.
With the fledgling industry expected to reach $35 billion by 2030, up from just $200 million in 2021, it is hardly surprising to see action—especially considering how distributor groups initially targeted e-commerce firms for predatory pricing and private-label products.
Blinkit and Zepto, two of the major quick commerce players, are in turn raising commissions to boost revenue amid increasing competition and investor concerns. Still, money flows into challengers with Swish raising $14 million from existing investor Accel and others.
Peak XV, formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, has lost another long-time executive after Shraeyansh Thakur resigned following a decade at the firm. His exit follows others:
Last month, Peak XV’s managing partners, Shailesh Lakhani and Abheek Anand, stepped down after serving for more than a decade. Prior to that, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, a partner at Peak XV’s Surge, departed after over 11 years at the firm, while Piyush Gupta, then Managing Director, left after seven years to launch his secondary-focused fund, Kenro Capital.
Independence gives Peak XV more freedom, but part of that appears to be figuring out its identity and focus.
The New York Times has a thorough long-read on the $1.5 billion hack on ByBit. Ultimately the hack was preventable had ByBit invested more in its security infrastructure. As it is, the exchange—which is the world’s second-largest based on trading volume—was using a free version of a security programme which was ultimately infiltrated by the North Korean-affiliated hackers that carried out the digital robbery.
Honor, the smartphone brand that emerged from Huawei, pledged to invest $10B in AI over 5 years as it prepares for a public listing link
AI startup Zhipu raised over 1B yuan ($140M) in a funding round led by Hangzhou government-backed firms, Alibaba and Tencent are among its existing backers link
Tencent’s Yuanbao AI chatbot topped China’s iPhone app charts this week, surpassing DeepSeek amid rising AI competition—Yuanbao leads a market where three of the top five free apps are AI bots, including ByteDance’s Doubao link
ByteDance is buying back shares at a higher price, valuing the company at around $315 billion as it recovers from a 2023 slump link
China plans to issue guidance promoting open-source RISC-V chips nationwide, aiming to reduce reliance on Western technology link
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it added 15 American companies to an export-control list and expanded the number of U.S. firms on its “unreliable entity” list—new names include several defense-technology companies include drone maker Skydio and Shield AI, which makes AI-powered systems for drones link
US law enforcement announced criminal charges against a network of Chinese government-backed and private-sector hackers, accusing them of over a decade of cyberattacks, including the 2024 US Treasury breach—12 Chinese nationals, including two Ministry of Public Security officers and employees of cybersecurity firm i-Soon, have been charged link
Microsoft warns that Silk Typhoon, a Chinese hacking group, is breaching cloud apps and remote tools to spy on US and global organizations link
Wealthy Chinese investors are secretly pouring tens of millions into Elon Musk’s private companies—xAI, Neuralink, and SpaceX—through opaque special-purpose vehicles that hide their identities link
Starting this fall, Beijing schools will introduce AI courses for primary and secondary students, aiming to bolster China’s dominance in the field link
Following DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough, China plans a $138B state-backed fund to drive innovation in AI, quantum tech, and hydrogen storage over the next 20 years link
JD.com posted its fastest revenue growth in nearly three years, boosted by Beijing’s consumer spending policies link
Baidu raised $2B in a sale of bonds exchangeable into Trip.com link
India’s semiconductor push can find inspiration in the country’s automotive industry which rose to become the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of passenger vehicles link
Oyo Hotels is fast-tracking its IPO as a $383M debt repayment looms—creditors, including Mizuho, require founder Ritesh Agarwal to pay by October unless Oyo lists, with a possible extension to 2027 if the IPO proceeds link
Foxconn, the first electronics manufacturer to be given a large incentive by Karnataka, plans to assemble 20M smartphones annually, on a 300-acre plot spread across two villages near Bengaluru link
Tata Electronics, in partnership with Taiwan’s PSMC and Himax Technologies, will establish a display chip manufacturing unit in Gujarat link
Xiaomi, India’s top smartphone brand from 2017-22, has dropped to 7th as of January due to struggles with offline sales—though its POCO sub-brand is performing among the top 3 link
InsuranceDekho raised $70M led by Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas Cardif’s insurtech fund, and Beams Fintech link
Early-stage VC firm Prime Venture closes fifth fund at $100M link
Ola Electric is laying off over 1,000 employees and contractors as it struggles to cut losses link
Ola has partnered with Lenovo to develop Krutrim 3 and build India’s largest supercomputer link
Uber is piloting accounts for teenagers in India link
Digital payments firm Razorpay is expanding to Singapore with the aim of reaching for $5B in TPV from domestic and cross-border transactions in two years, up from $1B currently link
Starting April 1 next year, the income tax department will have the authority to access social media, emails, and other digital spaces to curb tax evasion link
Darwinbox, a startup founded in India, raised $140M to expand globally, focusing on the US—the round was co-led by KKR and Partners Group, other investors include Microsoft, Salesforce, Sequoia, TCV, Peak XV, and Lightspeed link
Leap Finance, the student lending arm of study abroad platform Leap, raised $100M in debt from HSBC’s Asean Growth Fund to expand in the US and strengthen its presence in India link
Grab is acquiring Malaysia’s Everrise supermarkets from Navis Capital Partners, the deal will add 19 stores in Sarawak as it expands its grocery business link
Saigon Asset Management is investing up to $1.5B to build a 150MW data center hub in southern Vietnam, with the first phase set to launch in two years link
Shopee-parent Sea forecasted higher-than-expected sales for the year, signaling a revival of its e-commerce business despite fierce rivals like TikTok and Lazada link
Singapore prosecutors have leveled new charges against three men suspected of defrauding suppliers of server computers potentially containing Nvidia chips subject to US export curbs link
Airwallex is acquiring Vietnam’s CTIN Pay, gaining a local payments license to expand its global network link
Deepfakes of Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong have been used to sell cryptocurrency, money-making schemes, and permanent residency application services link
Japanese telco giant NTT Com says hackers accessed details of almost 18,000 organizations link
As Japan copes with a labor shortage, its market for service robots, which assist people with tasks like waiting tables, is expected to almost triple by 2030 link
TSMC plans a $100B investment to build five more chip facilities in the US in the coming years link
TSMC’s plan has been met with anxiety and criticism in its home country where there are questions over whether the deal will benefit Taiwan link
That said, Taiwan is pushing for closer ties to the US as the threat from China looms larger link
Foxconn’s mega-AI server plant near Guadalajara, Mexico, will complete construction in a year despite the threat of new tariffs from President Donald Trump link
