India’s digital payments free ride is coming to an end - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Anthropic’s mega Aussie datacentre deal

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India’s digital payments free ride is coming to an end

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at imminent changes to India’s digital payment system, Anthropic’s Australian datacentre deal and SK Hynix’s talks with Intel about manufacturing memory chips in the US.

India is about to reintroduce merchant fees for some payments on its hugely successful Unified Payments Interface (UPI), six years after they were abolished.

UPI is India’s national real-time digital payments network. It allows people and businesses to send and receive money instantly between bank accounts using a mobile phone, QR code, phone number or virtual payment address. Due to its size, scope and reach it is frequently held up as a model for digital public infrastructure that other countries should emulate.

From 15th October, merchants will pay a 0.4% fee on UPI transactions worth more than Rs2,000 (£18), capped at Rs300 per transaction, while person-to-person transfers and smaller purchases will remain free and small merchants will be exempt. More than 95% of merchant UPI transactions are currently worth Rs2,000 or less, according to industry analysts, meaning the vast majority will remain free of charge.

There are measures in the new bill to prevent merchants passing the costs onto consumers. UPI app providers have also been prohibited from introducing separate platform fees or hidden charges.

The move is intended to make UPI financially sustainable after years of explosive growth. UPI handles billions of transactions each month and has rapidly become the dominant way Indians pay for everything from groceries to utility bills.

However, banks, payment processors and fintech companies argue that the absence of merchant fees has made it difficult to fund infrastructure, innovation and fraud prevention.

Needless to say, the move will not be popular with larger vendors, although so far most criticism has come from opposition politicians, who allege the additional bureaucracy could hurt small merchants and entrepreneurs and that the changes could open the door for foreign card networks to compete with UPI.

But like many other digital public infrastructure projects worldwide, India is facing the question about how to fund additional improvements to national digital infrastructure after it achieves a critical mass. Many other nations will be monitoring its progress with interest.

Australia

Anthropic has signed an agreement to use part of a $32 billion data centre proposed for Queensland’s Western Downs, which would be the largest in Australia and draw power equivalent to 1.5 million households. Source
Firmus, an Australian neocloud company, is seeking to raise up to $5 billion in an IPO planned for October, following a recent $2 billion equity round that valued the company at over $10.5 billion. The funds will support its AI data centre projects in Australia and Southeast Asia, including a major agreement with OpenAI for Malaysian capacity. Source
Vocus’s Australia-Singapore cable suffered a break in Indonesian waters, forcing Melbourne-to-Singapore internet traffic to reroute via the US and Japan, resulting in latency spikes up to 400ms. Source
From 9th September 2026, all app stores in Australia must verify users’ ages before allowing downloads of apps rated 18+, with non-compliance risking fines up to $49.5 million; Apple, Google, and Microsoft have each implemented new age-check systems to comply with the law. Source
Australia’s intelligence chief has warned that the country’s outdated government technology is highly vulnerable to AI-driven cyberattacks, citing recent breaches by autonomous agents and calling for urgent investment to modernise legacy systems. Source
Australian artists and industry advocates are sounding the alarm over new AI copyright deals, urging the government not to dilute creative protections in pursuit of tech investment. Source

China

At the BRICS summit, President Xi Jinping proposed a collaborative open-source AI framework for emerging economies, positioning it as an alternative to US-led closed systems. Source
China’s State Security Minister, Chen Yixin, has publicly named Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber as AI models that could be used to find vulnerabilities and develop malware, warning that such technologies pose direct risks to China’s political and institutional security. Source
Beijing-based Z.AI has launched a $5 billion fundraising in Hong Kong, combining a $2 billion share placement and $3 billion in zero-coupon convertible bonds, to fund R&D, computing infrastructure, and expansion as it competes with US AI firms. Source
Shares of Shanghai Enflame Technology, a Tencent-backed AI chipmaker, surged 188% on their Shanghai debut, opening at 410 yuan after raising 6.12 billion yuan ($912 million) in an IPO. The company is part of a group of Chinese startups developing domestic alternatives to US chip suppliers. Source
China-linked hackers have exploited a chain of zero-day vulnerabilities in Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows to deploy surveillance tools and backdoors against NGOs and commercial targets, using a rapidly adopted exploit kit dubbed BlueMoon. Source
Chinese authorities have imposed new restrictions on overseas travel for citizens working in sensitive technology sectors, aiming to prevent the loss of cutting-edge expertise and capital. The new rules, which broaden exit bans to private citizens and lower-level officials. Source
Huawei has unveiled a four-layer 3D data centre in Wuhu, designed to support AI clusters with over 100,000 accelerator cards by vertically stacking cooling, computing, power, and backup systems. The company claims over 90% of the infrastructure can be prefabricated. Source

India

India will introduce a 0.4% merchant fee for UPI transactions above Rs2,000 ($21) from 15^th October 15, ending six years of free use for merchants, though person-to-person transfers remain free. The move is intended to make the UPI system self-sustaining. Source
Google has told all Indian developers selling to users outside India to complete KYC verification by 15th March 2027 to comply with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) framework. Source
RBI’s deputy governor asked banks, payment operators, fintechs and tech providers to move together to quantum proof the payments system, saying PQC must become part of India’s cyber resilience strategy rather than a separate exercise. Source
Yotta Data Services, India's largest GPU operator, has announced a $12 billion expansion to deploy 80,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin chips across two new facilities, timed with a $1.5 billion IPO. The plan will see 40,000 Vera Rubin chips at a new data centre in Greater Noida and 40,000 GB300 chips at its Navi Mumbai campus. Source

Japan

Japan and the US are discussing building a semiconductor factory as part of a $550 billion ⁠investment agreement. Source
A vulnerability in a VPN appliance used by Japan's Digital Agency led to a breach exposing around 246,000 personnel records from government employees, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers. The incident, which went undetected for nearly a month, has prompted the agency to overhaul its vulnerability management and warn affected individuals about potential phishing risks. Source
Fujitsu will begin selling its custom Monaka Arm-based processors and servers in November, targeting cloud operators and server manufacturers with a chip designed for data centres and AI workloads. Source

Malaysia

Malaysia has completed the draft of its AI Governance Bill, which proposes formal requirements for risk management, human oversight, data governance, and incident reporting for enterprises developing or deploying AI. The legislation, expected to reach Parliament by early 2027, introduces a three-tier risk framework and distinguishes between Developers and Deployers. Source
Malaysia ranked second in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore, in the GSMA's ASEAN Digital Nations Index, reflecting strong digital infrastructure, data governance, cybersecurity, and AI policy. . Source

South Korea

SK Hynix is in talks with Intel about manufacturing memory chips in the US for the first time, potentially leasing part of Intel's Ohio facility or forming a joint venture with major cloud firms. The deal could face opposition from Seoul due to the sensitivity of advanced memory technologies, and would mark a significant shift as SK Hynix responds to global demand and US pressure for domestic chip production. Source
South Korea’s prime minister announced that the country’s first US investment project could serve as a model for future bilateral cooperation, highlighting the strategic importance of the partnership for both nations. Source

Taiwan

Micron Technology offered it’s Taiwan-based employees bonuses worth 35 - 68 months of pay for fiscal 2026, with minimum cash compensation of T$1.7 million ($53,809), following a record-breaking year and amid ongoing union negotiations. Source
However, the workers rejected record payout package, demand 15% profit-sharing plan instead. Source