The robots are coming to 7-Eleven - Asian Tech Roundup

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at China’s advance in decarbonisation, India’s efforts to get a slice of the semiconductor pie and why the robots are coming to Japanese convenience stores.

Research this week has revealed the dizzying scale of investment by China’s renewable energy, electric vehicle (EV) and battery companies in foreign supply chains. These companies have sunk more than $200 billion since 2022 into getting closer to raw materials, avoiding tariffs and expanding their markets.

In contrast to the approach of the current US administration, China is currently bringing online roughly a gigawatt of solar power every eight hours and currently installs somewhere between one half and two thirds of global renewable energy and storage. China also manufactures and exports most of the solar panels and batteries used by the rest of the world. China also recorded a small decrease in its carbon emissions this year for the first time.

As China continues to position itself to dominate the decarbonised global economy of the future, the Trump administration and its cheer leaders in the UK continue to deny the reality of human-made climate change and lobby for the fossil fuel industry.

Speaking of the dominant economies of the future, the Indian government and individual states are continuing their efforts to secure a larger slice of the global semiconductor market. Midi’s government is reportedly considering a $20 billion incentive for the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0. Meanwhile, individual states are offering their own infrastructure baubles to try and attract global manufacturers.

Konbini bots

A Tokyo branch of 7-Eleven convenience stores empire is trialling robot cleaners and shelf-stackers as an answer to acute shortages of human labour.

In a warning of some of the demographic challenges facing the west, the working-age population has been declining steadily in Japan since the 1990s and the country is expected to face a shortage of 3.4 million workers in the next five years.

In addition to the AI-driven robots, the store also features a self-checkout register with a monitor linking the customers to remote support staff which is supposed to reduce the workload of the remaining human employees.

7-Eleven has also experimented with delivery bots and says that it plans to scale up the use of both over the next few years.

Australia

Rules registered this week by the eSafety Commissioner mean that Australia will require adult websites to check all users’ ages and block anyone that cannot prove that they are over 18 years of age. Site owners have six months to implement facial scanning, AI or other age checks. Source
American defence tech company Anduril announced that a fleet of its XL uncrewed undersea vehicle “Ghost Shark” will begin operations in Australian waters next year under a AUS$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) contract that was jointly funded by Australia and Anduril. Source

China

China’s world-leading solar, battery and electric vehicle companies have made foreign investments totalling more than $210 billion in the last three years, according to new research from Johns Hopkins University’s Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab. Whilst right-wing populist governments and oppositions in the US, EU and UK noisily defend fossil fuel interests and deny man-made climate change, China has quietly turned into a powerhouse of decarbonisation. Source
In the US, the House Select Committee on China issued an advisory warning of an "ongoing" series of highly targeted cyber espionage campaigns thought to be the work of the China-linked APT41 group. The advisory says the campaign is taregting individuals involved in US-China trade talks. Source
Anthropic will stop selling AI services to groups majority owned by Chinese entities, a first for a US owned AI company. Source
The Chinese government is considering a draft amendment to the country’s Cybersecurity Law that will introduce certification requirements for technology products. The requirements will be accompanied by more severe penalties for security vulnerabilities which place critical data or industries at risk. Source
Hong Kong-based asset manager HashKey Group is to launch a Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) fund to accumulate cryptocurrency assets as regulations around them lessen. The company aims to start the fund with $500 million. Source
Startup Unitree Robotics, which makes humanoid robots, is planning an IPO which could value it at as much as 50 billion yuan ($7 billion). Source
The Czech Republic’s cyber agency has told critical infrastructure organisations not to use Chinese technology or transfer user data to servers located in China, on security grounds . Source
Anthropic says it will stop selling its AI services to companies with majority Chinese ownership to reduce the risk of its technology being used for military purposes. Source
Geedge Networks, founded by “Great Firewall” inventor Fang Binxing, has exported surveillance and censorship technology to repressive regimes including Myanmar, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia. Source
Baidu has released an updated version of its proprietary reasoning model which it claims performs comparably to those from DeepSeek, OpenAI and Google. Source
Social media platform Xiaohongshu has earned a sanction from China's cyberspace authority which has accused the popular app of "damaging the internet ecology", according to a statement from the regulator. Source

India

The Indian government is planning a $20 billion incentive scheme to attract semiconductor manufacturers, both domestic and global, as part of its ongoing strategy to strengthen its position in the global chip manufacturing league. India’s traditional manufacturing states offering subsidies and infrastructure investment to try and attract semiconductor projects. Source
Infosys is to consider a proposal for a share buyback at a time when growth in the IT sector has slowed due to the global trade environment and threat of tariffs. Source
A government document seen by Reuters, suggests that India is unlikely to create legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies in the country based on fears that that crypto could destabilise the mainstream financial system. Instead, the Indian government plans to maintain partial oversight of digital assets. Source
Delivering a keynote at a legal event, Justice Vikram Nath of the Supreme Court of India cautioned against over-reliance on the use of AI within the Indian legal system, calling for strong safeguards and ethical oversight. Source
Internet and broadband services in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Doda district were suspended by authorities after protests broke out over the arrest of local Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Mehraj Malik. Mr Malik remains in jail. Source
Amazon has expanded its Amazon Now service, into parts of Bengaluru, Delhi, and now Mumbai. The service promises 10-minute deliveries of everyday essential groceries. Source

Japan

A 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo has started trials of robot workers, to maintain service in the face of a serious shortage of human ones. Approximately one third of the Japanese population is aged 65 or over. Source
Japan continues to plough its specialised furrow, betting on custom floating-point accelerators for supercomputers rather than generalised AI hardware. Source

South Korea

Google is to comply with South Korea’s demand to blur sensitive satellite images on its mapping services, paving the way for its Maps service to be offered in the country. Source
President Lee said Korean companies would be "very hesitant" to invest in the US after 300 workers were rounded up and deported from Hyundai plant in Georgia. Source

Taiwan

US chip manufacturer Qualcomm says it will continue using Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung rather than shifting production to Intel, casting doubt on Intel's ability to return to the top-ranking manufactures in the short term. Source
TSMC shares rose 5% after the chipmaker posted a sharp rise in August sales. Monthly revenue jumped nearly 34% year-on-year on strong AI demand. Source

Elsewhere in Asia

UAE: Damage to two major undersea cables in The Red Sea slowed the internet in the UAE and as far away as India and Pakistan, according to monitoring firm NetBlocks. 90% of communications across Asia and Europe are conducted via this critical communications corridor. Source
Nepal: Prime minister KP Sharma Oli resigned after several people died during unrest set off by a ban on social media. The ban has now been lifted but protests have continued, with the Parliament building being set on fire and ministers attacked. Source