Welcome back,
We finally learned how Apple plans to bring AI to its products in China. It will do so with two of China’s largest tech giants—Alibaba and also Baidu—and the features should launch on China-based devices in the second half of this year.
That news was seen as a huge win for Alibaba and a loss to Baidu, which was already publicly known to be working on the project. After years of being whipped by younger and more agile e-commerce upstarts, Alibaba has found a strong position in AI—and its shares are up 30% this year so far.
Elsewhere, we have news of Coinbase’s plans to return to India after an absence of more than a year, China’s stock rally post-DeepSeek and mass layoffs at crisis startup eFishery in Indonesia.
All of that and more in this week’s issue—have a great week!
Jon
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Apple’s Chinese AI push has a lot more definition after last week
There’s been plenty of speculation about Apple’s AI strategy for China, where the government must green light products before they hit the market as you’d expect. Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai confirmed the partnership and he said Apple and Alibaba have applied for the requisite government approvals for the service.
Alibaba shares rocketed to a two-year-high following a 9% jump, as you’d expect, while Baidu’s Hong Kong-based stock dropped 3%. Alibaba’s shares are up 30% this year, as it embraces a new identity as an “AI darling.”
Perhaps to offset that reputation blow, Baidu announced its own moves last week:
Meanwhile, the enemy of my enemy is my friend as Tencent brought DeepSeek AI features into its Weixin (WeChat) messaging app. Initially this is just a test phase that will let some users use the AI service for search but there could be more Weixin features, and Tencent may use DeepSeek tech in its other products, including cloud services, and its assistant app.
The US is radically rethinking crypto under the Trump administration and Coinbase, the biggest name in the industry and a US tech giant, is re-evaluating the Indian market.
Coinbase left India over a year ago due to the regulatory challenges of the market, but now some of that burden has lessened hence the US giant is in talks with regulators to see what can be done. Binance returned to India last year and Coinbase has traditionally been far more compliant, a requirement for a US-listed business.
News of Coinbase’s interest in India comes weeks after India’s Economic Affairs Secretary said the government will reassess how it regulates crypto given the shift from the US government and other countries.
Disgraced startup eFishery is cutting over 1,000 jobs (that’s around 90% of its workforce) after investigating allegations of fraudulent accounting. We wrote last week that the findings of an internal report had become public, and the company could still face liquidation as it bids to recover.
US public markets may have been shattered by DeepSeek’s breakthrough but Chinese tech stocks are, by contrast, in a bull market phase, the FT reports:
The Hang Seng Tech index, which tracks the 30 largest tech groups listed in Hong Kong, is up 25 per cent from its 2025 low on January 13. It has outpaced the Nasdaq 100’s 4.4 per cent increase and a 0.5 per cent decline for the “Magnificent Seven” US tech stocks over the past month.
Beijing is tightening control over advanced technology, restricting engineers, equipment, and key exports as trade tensions with the US and Europe grow. New limits on battery and mineral processing technologies aim to keep critical know-how within China. Apple’s key supplier, Foxconn, is among those affected as it expands in India. link
Chinese foundries are rapidly gaining ground in the $56.3 billion legacy chip market, undercutting prices and expanding aggressively, putting pressure on Taiwanese rivals link
China’s top memory chipmaker, CXMT, is rapidly gaining global market share, challenging South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix—Its share of the $90 billion DRAM market jumped from near zero in 2020 to 5% in 2023, with analysts expecting further growth link
Shein is urging top Chinese suppliers to expand to Vietnam, offering up to 30% higher procurement prices, sources say link
Huawei is already challenging Apple and Google in mobile OS adoption, it has also found a way to boost its smartwatch sales—registering them as medical devices to allow buyers to charge the cost to their medical insurance link
Supercell, the gaming house owned by Tencent, posted a 77% growth in sales link
Chinese EV maker BYD has introduced “God’s Eye,” a self-driving system set to roll out across its entire lineup. Developed in-house, it brings high-end EV features like remote parking and autonomous overtaking to mass-market models. link
China’s SMIC Q4 profit slumps 38.4%, misses estimates despite revenue growth link
E-commerce giant JD.com has expanded into food delivery services link
Hangzhou is becoming an emerging tech hub in China—challenging Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing—thanks to the emergence of DeepSeek, top universities and the presence of major firms like Alibaba and NetEase link
Source Code Capital, an early ByteDance backer, is cutting its fundraising target for its new fund to $150M from $300M due to weak investor interest, sources say link
China’s Salt Typhoon hackers continue to breach telecom networks into the new year despite government efforts to stop them link
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Insikt Group detected seven compromised Cisco devices linked to Salt Typhoon, targeting telecom firms in the US, South Africa, Italy, and Thailand
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The group conducted reconnaissance on Myanmar’s Mytel in December
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Over half of the targeted Cisco devices were in the US, South America, and India, with others spanning 100+ countries
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Universities in Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam were also targeted
Temu and Shein saw a sustained sales drop after US President Donald Trump scrapped a key duty exemption, discouraging American shoppers drawn to their ultra-cheap goods—Shein US sales fell 16% to 41% from February 5–9, while Temu dropped up to 32%, according to Bloomberg link
That tariff crackdown may mean that Shein’s long planned UK IPO is delayed until the second half of the year link
Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says his company is keen ‘to work with China’—even though that is a strategy that has worked for few American tech companies, particularly those with local rivals and a product that appears at odds with Chinese internet censorship system link
US crypto miners face equipment delivery delays as Chinese supplier Bitmain comes under heightened trade scrutiny link
Nvidia reduced its stake in Arm Holdings by 44% and exited Serve Robotics and SoundHound AI—the company also took a 1.7 million share position in self-driving startup WeRide, which sent WeRide’s shares up 76% link
Travel super app Klook raised another $100M, bringing total funding past $1B, as it bets on Millennial and Gen Z travellers link
Gaorong Ventures invested $30M in HashKey Group, Hong Kong’s largest licensed crypto exchange, at a $1B+ valuation—the deal marks a rare Chinese VC foray into digital assets link
Zeta, which provides banking software to banks and fintechs, raised $50M at a $2B, up from its previous round in 2021 that valued it at $1.15B which was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund link
Another startup running to IPO is Zetwerk, which provides manufacturing services and was previously valued at $3B—it plans a domestic IPO this year with the goal of a $5B valuation link
Two senior partners are leaving Peak XV, representing the first major personnel exits since the firm cut its fund size by over $400M in October link
Digital payments startup ToneTag closed a $78M funding round link
Google has invested in Toonsutra, a webtoons platform from India that’s raised around $6M and was started by the former CPO of Dailyhunt and a long-time animation executive link
US chip toolmaker Lam Research to invest over $1 billion in India link
Lucidity, which claims to automate cloud storage scaling to cut costs by up to 70%, raised $21M link
AI-driven contract management SpotDraft startup close to raising $50M-60M led by Temasek’s Vertex Ventures at valuation of $200M-$250M link
OpenAI says it does not use Indian media groups’ content to train ChatGPT, according to the account of court filing shows link
But still things are going to get more intense with India’s top Bollywood music labels, including T-Series, Saregama, and Sony, seeking to join the copyright lawsuit against OpenAI over AI data training concerns link
India’s market regulator is seeking expanded powers to remove unauthorized financial advice from platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram and access call records for market violation probes—good luck with that guys! link
Hotstar and JioCinema fully merged into JioHotstar as Reliance tightens grip on the streaming market in the country link
Reliance-Disney are to stop offering completely free IPL cricket streaming, sources say link
Chinese apps are set to return to India, including Shein and Taobao, five after their removal following border clashes link
Canva has been widely linked with an IPO and as part of that it looks like it is doubling down on emerging markets—the company will expand its low-cost plans, first piloted in India with $0.79 daily charges, to Indonesia, Latin America and other parts of Asia link
Apple is getting help from its suppliers as it bids to finally lift a sales ban on its latest smartphones in Indonesia—a number of the US firm’s partners are said to be exploring iPhone production in Indonesia, which continues to lack a robust supply chain ecosystem to enable Apple to bring more advanced facilities to the country. Apple’s previous offers to make accessories in Indonesia were rejected, despite initial agreement with the government, so it looks like it will take a village approach to make this work link
Delivery Hero is said to be focusing on Asia and the Middle East to fuel its growth despite cutting costs and streamlining amid a competitive market period link
HD, an online marketplace for healthcare in Southeast Asia, raised $7.8M from investors including pharma giant Merck link
US private equity firms, including Blackstone, Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus, and General Atlantic, have poured billions into Malaysian data centers hosting ByteDance link
Malaysia will equip 445,000 civil servants with Google AI tools to drive digital transformation link
The total revenue from ‘pig butchering’ crypto scams grew 40% last year as the industry grew in sophistication to rip off victims—finally though law enforcement in Southeast Asia is wising up to the threat link
Thai authorities arrested four Europeans in Phuket for allegedly stealing $16M through ransomware attacks on over 1,000 victims link
South Korea spy agency has said that DeepSeek ‘excessively’ collects personal data link
Meta is reportedly in talks to acquire South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI link
SoftBank is exploring project finance for Stargate, its project to spend over $500B in the next four years building US-based infrastructure for OpenAI link
SoftBank posted a $2.4B loss in its fiscal third quarter as it prepares for a major AI investment—the firm was hit by a $2.3B loss in its Vision Funds after two quarters of gains link
Taiwan’s exports to Mexico hit a record high as tech firms shifted production from China, but US tariff threats now cast uncertainty over the trade link
Teenagers from across Asia are reportedly migrating to Taiwan for promises of semiconductor jobs link
An Arizona-based woman pled guilty to running a laptop farm for North Korean IT workers—she faces a nine-year sentence link
