Australia okays age assurance tech - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Chinese chip bans may have backfired

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at the results of Australia’s age assurance trials, plus signs of regret over US chip bans to China.

Restricting access to online sites based on age is controversial for several reasons, not least of which are questions over the effectiveness of age assurance technologies. Australia, which voted to restrict social media sites to over 16s, has been experimenting with several technologies, ahead of this becoming law in December. The Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT), which has been testing several approaches, released its preliminary findings this week. “The preliminary findings indicate that there are no significant technological barriers preventing the deployment of effective age assurance systems in Australia. These solutions are technically feasible, can be integrated flexibly into existing services and can support the safety and rights of children online," said AATT’s director.

But there is no catch-all solution either. Meanwhile, some technologies such as facial recognition can be wildly out in their estimation, with one 17-year-old not best pleased to have her age judged as 32.

Necessity being the mother of invention, many have queried whether the US banning exports of high-tech chips to China in an effort to retain AI supremacy might backfire, encouraging China to become self-sufficient. These concerns are now being voiced in the White House, with AI tsar David Sachs ruminating that the bans may have been bad for America and good for Huawei. Chinese AI chips are thought to be just months behind their US rivals.

Australia

• AWS has unveiled a new $13 billion datacentre investment in Australia along with plans to build three new solar farms to support the infrastructure expansion. Source
• Australian police have charged four people accused of being behind a large-scale money laundering operation involving cryptocurrency exchange and armoured transport services. Source
• Australia’s testing of age verification technology ahead of a planned social media ban for under-16s is yielding mixed results, with some teens judged as being in their 30s, ABC News reports. Source

China

• David Sacks, the venture capitalist advising the US government on crypto and AI policy, says restrictions on chip exports to China could backfire, helping Huawei and others gain ground. Source
• China has every chance of “beating” the US in the AI race analysts say, but what does that mean and how different are the countries’ aims? Rest of World speaks to several experts to find out. Source
• Earlier this year Chinese researchers discovered a deposit containing millions of tons of thorium in Inner Mongolia which could supply thorium-fuelled nuclear reactors for thousands of years. Source1 Source2
• MiniMax, a Shanghai-based AI company, has released an open-source LLM which it claims challenges Chinese rival DeepSeek and US-based Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google in terms of performance and cost. Source
• In a preliminary judgement, the European Commission has found that online retail giant AliExpress has failed to assess and mitigate risks related to the sale of illegal products under the DSA. Source
• Trump has reprieved a planned ban on TikTok, voted through by Congress, for another 90 days. Source
• Espionage group Salt Typhoon apparently breached Viasat in addition to numerous other telecom providers in the US and elsewhere that have already been documented. Source

India

• Amazon has announced investment of more than 20 billion rupees ($233 million) in India in 2025 to expand and update its operations infrastructure, develop new technology for its fulfilment network and enhance safety. Source
• India is reportedly halting the export of rare earth minerals to Japan as it seeks to prioritise the needs of its domestic needs for tech and EVs, as well as decreasing its reliance on China. Source
• Almost all iPhones manufactured in India by Foxconn were shipped to the US, as Apple seeks to mitigate US trade sanctions against China. Previously the figure was around half. Source
• India is the second largest market for online pirated goods and services after the US. Source
• Google has unveiled a Safety Charter for India to demonstrate how AI can be used to tackle cyberattacks as well as improving software security. Source

Japan

• Japan is seeking to block online casino websites based in eight countries, as under Japanese law it is illegal for citizens to gamble on overseas betting sites. Source
• Honda has joined the space race with the launch of a test rocket that rose a couple of hundred metres into the air before successfully landing. Source
• Japan's TDK has announced its acquisition of US-based SoftEye, which makes software and hardware for smart glasses and specialises in technology that facilitates eye tracking and object recognition. Source
• Japanese researchers have developed a manganese oxide (MnO2) catalyst that promises to be much more effective than current methods in producing hydrogen by electrolysing water. Source

Malaysia

• The Malaysia Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry is investigating a Chinese company using servers equipped with Nvidia chips for training AI models following reports that Chinese engineers flew into Malaysia earlier carrying hardware filled suitcases. Source
• The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said on Thursday it has obtained a temporary court order against messaging service Telegram and two channels on the platform for allegedly disseminating illegal content. The communications regulator said that the content had "the potential to undermine public trust in national institutions and disrupt societal harmony.” Source
• Major fossil fuel companies including Shell and French TotalEnergies are investing newly large sums of money into gas exploration and production in Malaysia and Indonesia to meet rising power demand, partly fuelled from a proliferation of AI driven data centres. Source

South Korea

• Samsung Foundry and electronics design firm Cadence have agreed a multi-year IP arrangement and joint development of advanced AI-driven flows on advanced process nodes. Source
• Samsung is reportedly selling fewer Galaxy S25 Edge units than originally expected. Source
• Google’s recent switch to source Tensor chips from TSMC rather than from Samsung Foundry has caused some soul-searching within the South Korean firm , SamMobile reports . Source

Elsewhere in Asia

• Taiwan: Taiwan is banning shipments of chipmaking supplies to China’s Huawei and SMIC after Huawei was accused of using shell companies to trick TSMC into supplying chips to support its AI ambitions. Source
• Vietnam: The US is pressurising Vietnam to reduce its dependency on Chinese technology for goods manufactured for international markets, which would in turn reduce US dependency on Chinese components. Source
• Indonesia: Indonesia's antitrust agency has given "conditional" blessing to last year's takeover of Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platform Tokopedia by TikTok after an investigation. Source
• North Korea: A North Korean threat group has been using deepfakes of executives in Zoom calls to trick employees into installing malware. Source