China’s chip suspicions - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus North Korean hackers hacked

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at why China is suspicious of a lifting of export restrictions on some US AI chips, and a rare glimpse into the activity of North Korea’s hackers.

For a long time Chinese AI developers have been desperate for GPUs and accelerators made by the likes of Nvidia and AMD, resorting to elaborate smuggling schemes to import them in the face of sanctions. But with the unexpected reversal of export restrictions on some chips, including Nvidia’s lower-spec H20 GPU which was originally developed for the Chinese market then sanctioned in April, the Chinese government apparently smells a rat. Nvidia executives have been called in and asked for guarantees that there are no back doors built into the H20 that would enable American snooping. Of course, it could be a tit-for-tat move by China, whose technologies are regularly banned in the west on security grounds, or it might be designed to buy time for its domestic players. The government is making concerted efforts to boost its own silicon industry, which most analysts believe is still some way behind the US in terms of its premium AI chips. This take is supported by news that DeepSeek, which developed its groundbreaking R1 LLM mainly using US-made GPUs is delaying its successor because Huawei’s premium Ascend chips aren’t up to snuff.

On the Korean peninsula, an established North Korean cyberespionage gang seems to be changing tactics, launching ransomware attacks in its southern neighbour. Meanwhile, two hackers claim to have breached a North Korean hacking group, finding evidence of attacks on South Korean government networks and companies, together with hacking tools and passwords.

Australia

• The Federal Court of Australia has ruled in favour of Epic Games and determined that Apple and Google have engaged in anti-competitive conduct when it comes to their respective app stores. Source
• The Human Rights Commissioner in Australia has warned that AI risks entrenching racism and sexism in the country. The Commissioner has said that AI driven productivity gains should not come at the expense of discrimination and that regulation is necessary to avoid this outcome. Source
• Meanwhile Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar believes Australia should relax its copyright laws and allow AI companies to help themselves to whatever content they want . Source
• Australia will help fund the construction of datacentres in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu as it seeks to prevent China gaining a significant toehold in the region . Source

China

• Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from H20 chips sold to China in return for access to this potentially lucrative market. Security experts raised concern last month that Chinese access to Nvidia H20 chips would act as a “potent accelerator” of AI development. President Trump has dismissed concerns. Source
• However, a social media account affiliated with China's state media said on Sunday that the H20 chips posed a security risk to China. Nvidia developed the H20 specifically for China markets in response to the Biden administration imposing an export ban on advanced chips in 2023. President Trump banned them earlier this year but has now reversed that ban, as US and China delay tariffs for another 90 days. Source
• Beijing is also demanding that companies including Alibaba and ByteDance justify their orders of said H20 chips. Source
• DeepSeek has delayed the launch of its highly anticipated R2 model after the Huawei Ascend chips that the Chinese government encouraged it to use led to persistent technical issues with model training. Source

India

• Infosys is acquiring a 75% stake in Versent Group, a cloud services unit owned by telecom provider Telstra, for $153 million. Source
• Indian services giant Tata Consultancy Services (the same TCS which was implicated in the Spring retail cyberattacks) will shed over 10,000 staff but will give pay rises to most of those who remain. 80% of employees will apparently receive a pay rise. Source
• Indian fintech giant Paytm has finally received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment services provider for online merchants. Patm was initially refused a licence in 2022 due to its non compliance with rules on investments from countries which share a land border with India. Source

Japan

• Sony has finally ended all operations in Russia, having operated there since 2006, including with a local subsidiary. Source
• Japanese investment giant SoftBank is to acquire a former General Motors factory in Ohio, with plans for a new datacentre. Source
• SoftBank’s shares jumped during the week as investors bet its focus on AI will pay off. Source
• NTT Data Group is to form a partnership with Google in the development of agentic AI. Source

South Korea

• SK Hynix forecasts that the market for memory chips designed purely for artificial intelligence will grow 30% a year until 2030. Source
• South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT have announced a shortlist of five teams this month to take charge of the sovereign AI project, "AI for everyone." The shortlist consists of portal site operator, Naver, mobile carrier SK Telecom, LG Group, game publisher NCSoft, and AI startup Upstage. Source
• North Korean threat group ScarCruft has launched a series of ransomware attacks against South Korea, in a change of tactics for the group, which is normally focused on espionage. Source

Elsewhere in Asia

• UAE: Abu Dhabi is now home to Orral Nadjari, founder of Britishvolt. Britishvolt was once the UK’s best hope of developing its own EV battery eco-system but it collapsed in 2023. Nadjari is reportedly developing and manufacturing battery cells for high-end sport utility EVs, robots, and flying taxis. Source
• Singapore: Do Kwon, former CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs has pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of fraud in a New-York court. Do Kwon, who is South Korean, is charged with misrepresentation relating to two cryptocurrencies - TerraUSD and Luna – which collapsed several years ago, causing panic in crypto markets. Source
• North Korea: A pair of hackers claim to have breached a North Korean government hacking operation and leaked its contents online. Source