Taiwan experiments with a stronger dollar - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Broadcom loses Toshiba in Japan

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at export-heavy Taiwan’s experiments with a stronger local currency; the continued fallout of the Broadcom-VMware merger in Japan; and an easing of US AI chip restrictions benefitting China.

The Taiwanese dollar rose almost 10% against the US dollar last weekend: a meteoric rise and its sharpest daily gains since 1981. After a slight fall on Tuesday, the currency is still up more than 8% against the US dollar. The move was mostly driven by the weakness of the US dollar and a surge by exporters looking to convert their holdings

Why is this important? Because a stronger Taiwanese currency means more expensive exports, which in tech's case means silicon chips. The country’s central bank initially did nothing to stem the rise, unusually for a nation that relies on exports – the speculation being that the authorities are willing to bear a stronger currency to win trade concessions from the USA.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the fallout from Broadcom’s controversial acquisition of VMware continued: long-term VMware customer Toshiba has switched off the platform in favour of Nutanix after its costs rose by a factor of 10. Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami told our sister site CRN that the relationship had been “eroded”.

China

• Huawei is to unveil a PC powered by its Linux-based operating system HarmonyOS on 19^th May. Source
• A team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has succeeded in transmitting data at 1 terabit per second over 1,200 kilometres while maintaining “unprecedented” security levels. Source
• Chinese chip designer Loongson has said that more than 100 products now run on its proprietary LoongArch architecture. Source
• Alibaba is to allow RedNote users to click directly on product links to shop on Alibaba's Taobao ecommerce platform. Source
• US tariffs and restrictions on China are likely to cause American chipmaker AMD losses of $1.5 billion in revenue. Source
• But the US plans to scrap a rule introduced by Biden to limit exports of AI chips to countries that might then re-export them to China. Source
• Nvidia will release a downgraded version of its H20 AI chip for China in the next two months, according to Reuters. Source
• China’s largest chipmaker SMIC is to invest more than $7 billion to support expansion plans this year, despite US tariffs and restrictions. Source
• US investment firm Bain Capital is looking to sell its holdings in Chinese datacentre group WinTriX DC for around $4 billion. Source

India

• X has blocked 8,000 accounts, including popular and media accounts, after an order from the Indian government. Source
• And Meta has blocked a popular Instagram news page @Muslim in India on the government’s request. Source
• Merger talks between Bharti Airtel and Tata Group’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) business have ground to a halt. In a regulatory filing, Airtel said the two companies couldn’t agree on a way forward. Source
• The Indian Department of Telecommunications has said that licensed satellite communication service providers must comply with lawful interception and monitoring requirements. The instruction is as part of a wider set of security instructions the DoT has recently released for all satcom service providers seeking a licence to operate in India. Source
• Merchant transactions via payments giant Paytm firm grew 23% year-over-year to INR11.84 billion from INR9.62 billion the latest quarter, but the average number of monthly transacting users declined from 96 million into 72 million. Paytm’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) grew 9% YoY. Source
• The EU is tightening its GDPR reform package to include stricter rules. India’s poor privacy controls mean it will remain outside the list of companies European companies can freely share data with . Source
• A hacker who breached Star Health has admitted sending death threats to its executives. Source

Japan

• After 16 years as a VMware customer, Toshiba is currently migrating 2,200 virtual machines off VMware-Broadcom onto Nutanix. Source
• Buffalo Japan is to release a transparent 4TB hard drive to mark the 50th anniversary of its see-through “skeleton disk”. Source
• Nissan has abandoned its plans to build an EV battery plant in Kitakyushu, just a fmonths after signing agreements with local governments. Source

South Korea

• Samsung subsidiary Harman International is to acquire health technology company Masimo for $350 million subject to regulatory approval. Source
• Hackers are actively exploiting a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the Samsung MagicINFO 9 Server, which is used to manage and control digital signage displays. Source

Taiwan

• Mitsubishi is in talks with Taiwan’s Foxconn to source new EVs for Australia and New Zealand. Source
• The Taiwan Dollar (TWD) has appreciated by almost 10% against the US dollar (USD), in one of the sharpest TWD appreciations in the last 30 years according to analysts. The possible implication is more expensive Taiwanese manufactured devices and components. Source
• A nation-state threat actor called MirrorFace been engaged in cyber espionage against government agencies and public institutions in Japan and Taiwan. Source

Other Asia

• OpenAI is launching a data residency programme in Asia to help customers of ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu and the OpenAI API comply with data protection legislation. The company operates a similar scheme in Europe. Source
• Malysia: A multiyear licensing deal with the Malaysian government helped Arm achieve a record-breaking Q4 and more than $4 billion in revenues for the financial year. Source
• Malaysia: National car brand Perodua aims to produce more than 60% of the components for its first electric vehicle domestically. The eMO will be produced in Selangor and go on sale later this year. Source
• Thailand: Thailand is becoming a hub for electric vehicle manufacturing, with BYD and other Chinese parts makers setting up shop in the Eastern Economic Corridor, a special economic zone in the east of the country. Source