Welcome back,
OpenAI is firmly in the spotlight this week as it prepares to cut Chinese developers from accessing its API. The restrictions will be applied in other markets, too, but it stands to create the biggest void in China, where we know big tech firms are already pushing hard to own the local AI space—now they have an opportunity to really kick on and grow.
Elsewhere, there’s yet another big round for Indian quick-commerce firm Zepto (which feels very frothy); Indonesia is refusing to pay an $8M ransom after its national database was hit by hackers; Tencent has a new mobile hit on its hands; and Matrix has become the latest VC to decouple its global funds.
There’s all that and more for you to enjoy from this week’s newsletter.
See you again next week and thanks, as ever, for reading.
Best,
Jon
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OpenAI cutoff leaves field open for Chinese AI firms to dominate
It is finally happening: OpenAI is cutting Chinese users off from its API. The company’s ChatGPT service is not available in Mainland China, like many US internet services, but still Chinese companies have used its API to gain access to its service and build it into their offerings. That will cease on July 9, and not just in China—OpenAI will restrict access in other “unsupported countries and territories.”
China has been on OpenAI’s radar for some time. Back in February, it announced it had blocked five state-backed malicious actors, including a number from China, for abusing its services.
This leaves a gaping void which Chinese firms are racing to fill. We’ve previously noted that China’s big tech firms dominate the local AI scene, and Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are among those jockeying either through their own services or investments that they’ve made. Bloomberg reported that at least half a dozen Chinese firms, including Alibaba- and Tencent-backed Zhipu, are wooing users with incentives and discounts to make the switch.
Meanwhile: Singapore is emerging as a favourite destination for Chinese AI startups seeking to go global
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Tencent unearths new record-breaking mobile game
Tencent has a new gaming blockbuster after its Dungeon & Fighter Mobile game grossed an incredible $270M in its first 30 days:
The Nexon Co.-produced title brought in $270 million on iOS in the 30 days after its launch on May 21, taking the top spot in both downloads and revenue in the country, data released by industry tracker Sensor Tower on Monday showed. The performance, which exceeded analyst expectations, marked the biggest debut of the year for Tencent and is widely seen as the best candidate to generate recurring revenue like Honor of Kings, long China’s most lucrative title.
That exceeds its previous record breaker, Honor of Kings, and this gaming renaissance has helped send Tencent shares upwards:
Tencent shares have rallied 28% so far this year with help from the strong debut of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, adding $91 billion in market value, more than any other Chinese company. Improved regulatory and business climates in the company’s key markets are also helping drive expectations.
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Indonesia hit with ransomware, refuses to pay $8M demand
Indonesia is famous for lax cybersecurity. Back in 2020, data belonging to over 100M users was exposed, the country’s health ministry was hit for 279M personal records a year later and then just last year a SIM hack exposed 1.3B numbers.
Now, the country’s national data centre has been hit with ransomware after it was encrypted with LockBit. The impact has been disruption to immigration at airports and other public services from over 200 government institutions. So far, the government has refused to pay the $8M ransom requested by the hacker group behind the attack. But there’s pressure on the communication and IT minister, with many calling for him to resign in response to the fiasco.
What a mess.
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Matrix is the latest VC to decouple its global funds
The trend started with Sequoia just over a year ago, and now Matrix has followed:
Matrix is rebranding its India and China affiliates, becoming the latest venture firm to distance its international franchises. The U.S.-headquartered venture capital firm will retain its name, while Matrix Partners India will rebrand to Z47 and Matrix Partners China will rename itself MPC.
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Shein has a backup plan to seek a listing in Hong Kong, as its ambition for an IPO in London encounters rising scrutiny in both the UK and China link
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Bing’s censorship rules in China are so stringent that even mentioning President Xi Jinping leads to a complete block of translation results, according to new research by Citizen Lab link
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Meituan is considering raising funds via a bond offering this year, as the Chinese food delivery and shopping platform seeks to repay some existing debt and fund its expansion—the size of the bond could be more than $1B link
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Amazon plans to take on Temu and Shein with new discount section link
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Temu and Shein have been ordered to provide info on EU tech rules compliance by July 12 link
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The US is investigating China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom over concerns the firms could exploit access to American data through their US. cloud and internet businesses by providing it to Beijing link
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Chinese companies’ stock market listings once flooded Wall Street but now China’s initial public offerings are in a drought link
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Agencies representing TikTok’s biggest advertisers are drawing up contingency plans as the US prepares to ban the popular video app, including seeking break clauses in their marketing contracts. link
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ByteDance is working with U.S. chip designer Broadcom on developing an advanced AI processor, a move that would help TikTok’s owner secure sufficient supply of high-end chips amid U.S.-Sino tensions link
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Huawei devices will reportedly lose support for Android apps later this year in ‘HarmonyOS NEXT’—Huawei is said to be confident of a “fully independent architecture” link
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The recent collapse of Woodson, a Shanghai-based semiconductor start-up that went bankrupt, is the latest example of how China’s efforts to build local alternatives to the world’s most advanced chips can fail link
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Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia invested $200M in European expansion link
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Innotron, the parent firm of China’s top chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, is investing 17.1B CNY ($2.4B) in an advanced packaging plant in Shanghai that could be used to make AI memory link
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Google documented how it disrupted 10,000 instances of news spam targeting politic and social issues in Taiwan and the US through YouTube and other mediums—DRAGONBRIDGE is the most prolific China-linked influence operator link
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Quick commerce company Zepto believes in its business model so much that it is rapidly raising a new round right after delivering the latest one: fresh from announcing $665M at a validation of $3.4B, it is now reported to be raising $250M-$400M at a potential valuation of $4.6B with KKR and GIC among the new backers in the mix to be part of this new fundraise link
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Meanwhile, it has emerged that Flipkart explored a deal with Swiggy over the last year as it looked seriously at diving into quick commerce—the talks are said to have fallen through chiefly due to disagreements on valuation link
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Flipkart has quietly started rolling out its own payments app, Super.money, as it broadens its fintech ambitions more than a year and half after separating from PhonePe link
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India’s latest focus is on AI, with international tech companies and local startups aiming to tap into profitable new markets. They are developing AI platforms tailored to the diverse languages and industries in the world’s most populous nation. link
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Apple supplier Foxconn has been excluding female candidates from assembly jobs at its flagship Indian smartphone plant because they are married link
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Prosus has written off its 9.6% stake in Indian edtech firm Byju’s to zero, signalling a loss of confidence in the startup that was once valued at $22B link
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Zyod raises $18M to expand its tech-enabled fashion manufacturing to more countries link
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Rocketlane, which offers automation planning in the US, India and beyond, raised $24M link
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AI health startup Cloudphysician raised $10.5M led by Peak XV Partners link
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Thousands of Chinese engineers and technicians are struggling to obtain Indian visas, highlighting a bottleneck in the process and a potential hurdle in country’s push to become a major “China plus one” manufacturing hub link
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Officials in Indonesia have warned Temu it will need a local licence if it chooses to enter the country, which it has been rumoured to be planning link
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Singapore’s surprise announcement to free up power for data centre expansion shows how many countries have underestimated how demand for AI and compute services is going to expand in coming years link
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Alibaba is closing its data centres in Australia, India amid expansion in Southeast Asia and Mexico link
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State-backed defence conglomerate ST Engineering is one of the companies developing a data centre after those restrictions were lifted link
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Indonesia says e-commerce firm Shopee has admitted to violating monopoly rules link
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Indonesia arrested over 100 foreigners in Bali who are suspected of participating in cybercrime link
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Temasek is among the investors to back enzymatic Australia-based recycling tech startup Samsara Eco in a $65M round link
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Crypto firm Animoca Brands, once a public company in Australia, is reportedly considering a public listing in Hong Kong or the Middle East as early as next year that could value it at $6B—it has raised $604M and is valued at $5B in January 2022 link
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SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 is investing in US artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI at a $3B valuation as part of a larger round of $250M link
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Yahoo! Japan will waive $189M in ad revenue after it detecting fraudulent clicks link
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SoftBank forms AI healthcare JV in Japan with US health tech company Tempus link
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More than 50 years after the TDK brand became a household name with its best-selling cassette tapes, the Japanese group has transformed itself into the power behind the world’s smartphones and is now vying for a piece of the artificial intelligence market link
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South Korea delivery giants lock horns in post-pandemic price war link
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The country will begin awarding aid to chipmakers from July, kicking off a $19B financial support package link
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Webtoon, the manga startup backed by Naver, saw its share price surge nearly 10% following a US IPO that raised $315M link
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Hollywood Reporter has a deeper dive into Webtoon’s ambition to crack Hollywood and the US market link
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SK Hynix plans to invest 103 trillion won ($74.8 billion) through 2028, underscoring the conglomerate’s bet on a sector it considers crucial for future-proofing its businesses link
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Nepal’s capital Kathmandu is making taxi drivers switch to EVs, but not all drivers can afford to. link
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Japan and South Korea Are Fighting Over an App at a Tense Time — SoftBank and Naver helped bridge geopolitical relations with a joint venture to own the operator of the messaging app Line, but now the partnership is fraying. link
