Singapore AI News & Daily Briefing

US equipment maker Vertiv opened its first Southeast Asian factory in Johor to churn out power and cooling gear for AI data centers. The plant is already shipping gear in phase one, with full capacity by 2027. Johor is becoming a key hub as Singapore's data center space gets tighter and costlier, and AI companies need more power-hungry infrastructure.

Kaspersky is warning Malaysian businesses that employees using AI tools unsafely — plus poor password habits and hybrid work setups — are creating new cybersecurity openings. The security firm says fake AI apps and spyware attacks targeting Malaysian companies have increased, driven partly by workers mixing personal and work tasks on the same devices.

Samsung has started mass producing its fastest-ever data center storage drive, the PM1763, designed for Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform. The drive uses Samsung's latest V-Nand flash memory and a new controller chip to deliver more than double the read-write speed of the previous generation, with built-in liquid cooling to handle AI workloads. Samsung holds 35% of the enterprise SSD market, ahead of SK Hynix, Micron, and Kioxia.

OpenAI just launched GPT-Live, a major upgrade to ChatGPT's voice feature that finally makes AI conversations feel natural. Unlike older voice assistants that wait for you to stop talking before responding, GPT-Live listens and speaks simultaneously — it can say 'mmhmm' while you think, interrupt naturally, or stay quiet when you need a moment. It also handles complex tasks like web searches in the background without pausing the conversation. The feature is rolling out now to all ChatGPT users on iOS, Android, and web.

Researchers discovered that hackers can exploit AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Cursor to automatically create massive botnets—a first for prompt injection attacks. Called 'HalluSquatting,' the technique works by predicting what package names AI tools will hallucinate, then planting malicious code at those locations. When developers tell AI tools to use popular resources, they unknowingly install malware. This could enable large-scale ransomware attacks and DDoS campaigns.

Google paid $250,000 for discovering 'Januscape,' a Linux vulnerability hidden for 16 years that lets hackers break out of virtual machines and take over cloud servers. A separate flaw called 'GhostLock' was found using AI-assisted scanning. Both have been patched. If you use cloud services, your data was potentially at risk—cloud providers rent out virtual machines, and this bug could have let one tenant access another's server.

Google DeepMind just released DiffusionGemma, a new open AI model that generates text up to 4 times faster than typical chatbots by creating entire blocks of words simultaneously instead of word-by-word. The 26B model fits on consumer GPUs (just 18GB VRAM when compressed) and handles tasks like code editing, Sudoku solving, and math graphs better than traditional models. It prioritizes speed over perfect quality, making it ideal for local, real-time apps rather than cloud computing.

Researchers from Zhejiang University and Alibaba found that 'thinking' AI models—those that reason step-by-step before answering—can be forced into uselessly long thought loops using deliberately illogical prompts. The attack uses an algorithm that jumbles up logical premises, making models waste compute on unsolvable problems. This effectively creates a denial-of-service attack: longer outputs cost more money and strain servers. DeepSeek-R1 was tricked into producing responses 26 times longer than normal.

OpenAI published its National Security Principles, outlining how it will work with governments on defense uses of AI — mainly cyber defense and biosecurity. The company already has 'Trusted Access' partnerships with countries like Australia, Japan, South Korea, and several European nations. They contractually prohibit using their tech for mass surveillance, autonomous weapons targeting, or high-stakes automated decisions. The company says democratic societies should use AI for defense, but questions about military AI use should ultimately be answered through legislation.

Japan's MUFG bank deployed ChatGPT Enterprise to 35,000 employees and saw real results: 100% training participation, over 1,800 custom AI tools built by staff, and a 20-30% workload cut in research tasks. The bank now plans to bring AI-native finance to customers through its digital bank, emutt, including an AI concierge and personalized money advice platform. It shows AI adoption can work when companies invest in training and trust employees to experiment.

OpenAI ran a deep audit on SWE-bench Pro, one of the most popular coding benchmarks used to measure how good AI is at programming. They found roughly 30% of its test tasks are broken — either the instructions don't match what tests expect, or the tests are too strict or too loose. This matters because companies use these benchmarks to decide whether AI is safe to deploy. OpenAI is retracting its earlier recommendation to use SWE-bench Pro and calling for better-designed benchmarks built by actual software developers.

OpenAI is hosting free hands-on workshops across US cities this summer to help K-12 teachers and school administrators learn practical AI skills for their work. Over 1,600 educators will attend sessions covering lesson planning, parent communication, and admin tasks with AI tools. Research shows teachers using AI weekly save nearly 6 hours per week — roughly six weeks per school year — time reinvested into student feedback and lesson prep. Sessions run in cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and others.

Australia's data centers are projected to consume 11% of the nation's electricity by 2035 as AI drives massive compute demand. Melbourne is positioning itself as a global leader in solving this problem through coordinated research, renewable energy investment, and smart grid development. Universities there are building test facilities to design energy systems that can handle AI workloads while meeting sustainability goals.

Toshio Fukuda, a pioneering robotics researcher who wrote over 2,000 papers and led IEEE as its first Asian president in 2020, received the IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award. The Japan-based scientist is known for inventing CEBOT systems—modular robots that link together like Lego bricks—and brachiation 'monkey robots' that swing using pendulum motion. His work laid foundations for robots used today in hospitals, farms, and industrial inspections.

[Back to Articles](https://huggingface.co/blog) [](https://huggingface.co/A-Mahla) [](https://huggingface.co/andito) [](https://huggingface.co/lvwerra) [](https://huggingface.co/vyassaurabh) [Video 3](https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingf

[The Keyword](https://deepmind.google/) Introducing computer use in Gemini 3.5 Flash [Share](https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-computer-use-in-gemini-3-5-flash/) [x.com](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Introducing%20computer%20use%20in%20Gemini%203.5%20Flash%20%40google&url=https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-computer-use-gemini-3-5-flash/)[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?caption=Introducing%20computer%20use%20in%20Gemini%203.5%20Flash&u=https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-computer-use-gemini-3-5-flash/)[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-computer-use-g

MIT Technology Review's EmTech AI 2026 event featured OpenAI's Head of Engineering for ChatGPT discussing how AI is changing daily life. The conference explored the emerging 'AI platform' concept—AI systems that act as comprehensive digital infrastructure rather than single-purpose tools. While the event signals where the industry is heading, the article offers event coverage rather than breaking news.

South Korea plans record budget spending of over $530 billion for fiscal 2027, fueled by booming tax revenues from the AI chip industry. Three 'mega projects' in chips, AI data centers, and physical AI will receive top fiscal priority. The government will restructure about $35 billion in existing spending and launch a Future Response Fund for strategic investments in youth, growth engines, regions, and talent. President Lee Jae Myung called the situation a 'golden time' for securing global AI dominance.

Vietnam and Singapore are partnering to build the Vietnam Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (VAMRC), which will focus on automation, AI, robotics, and green manufacturing. Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is working with Vietnam's Becamex to develop the center, which will help companies test and validate new technologies before committing to full-scale deployment. Factories can upgrade technology without replacing entire production lines.

GovTech has retrenched 93 staff and expects 7-9% of its 3,900-person workforce to be affected by restructuring over two years. The government technology agency is shifting from managing vendor-delivered projects to running products in-house, so it can respond more quickly to national needs. It denies this is an AI-driven downsizing, saying the transformation began years before the current AI wave. The agency expects to employ more people at the end of the transition, needing more software engineers, product managers, and cybersecurity professionals.

Singapore fintech Longbridge has launched what it calls the world's first AI-native investing platform, with four connected products replacing traditional trading interfaces with conversation. The suite lets investors interact using words, voice, or photos instead of navigating menus. It includes an AI agent that scans markets and drafts action plans for user approval, plus an open marketplace where users can build or subscribe to investing agents. The company was built in Singapore and launches there first, citing strong retail investor participation and supportive AI governance. It plans to open an AI Lab in Singapore and partner with local universities.

Singapore's economy grew 5.7% in the second quarter of 2026, cooling from 6.3% in Q1. The standout performer was manufacturing, which surged 12.2%—driven largely by AI-related demand for semiconductors and manufacturing equipment. The Ministry of Trade and Industry credited the electronics and precision engineering clusters. However, the outlook is clouded by the US-Iran conflict, which has pushed up oil prices and disrupted supply chains. For everyday Singaporeans, a strong manufacturing sector means more jobs and business activity, but rising oil prices could eventually lift electricity tariffs and everyday costs.

Singapore's Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has cut 93 jobs in a restructuring that will ultimately affect 7-9% of its 3,900-strong workforce over two years. The layoffs target project delivery and vendor management roles, which are increasingly being automated or merged into other functions. Experts say this reflects a broader shift toward leaner, product-led teams that can directly design, build and run tech solutions, rather than relying on traditional middle management and outsourcing. Labour economist Walter Theseira notes that despite GovTech's critical role, it faces the same competitive pressure as the wider tech industry, where services can be easily benchmarked against external providers.

Data companies Cloudera and VAST Data have partnered to solve a costly problem in enterprise AI: GPU starvation. When powerful AI chips sit idle waiting for data to process, companies waste money on hardware they are not fully using. The joint "AI Factory" solution is designed to keep GPUs continuously fed with data across both cloud and on-premises setups, targeting businesses across Asia Pacific. For companies deploying AI at scale, this partnership signals a growing industry focus on fixing data bottlenecks rather than just buying more expensive chips.

Singapore organisations paid the highest breach costs in Southeast Asia—an average of $2.3 million per incident—with 80% experiencing at least one breach in the past year. A severe cybersecurity talent shortage is worsening the problem: 58% of companies struggle to hire AI-skilled security staff even as AI-powered cyberattacks increase. Most organisations are investing in AI security tools (92%) and training (94% willing to pay for certifications), but board awareness of AI-related risks remains low.

Singapore's government is expanding AI support to help small and medium businesses go digital. The initiative aims to help SMEs adopt AI tools to improve operations, productivity, and competitiveness. This matters because SMEs make up most of Singapore's businesses, and getting them AI-ready could boost the economy and create jobs.

Southeast Asian companies are rethinking their cloud strategies. Instead of blindly moving everything to public cloud, enterprises are now carefully choosing which workloads stay in public cloud, private infrastructure, or on-premise—driven by AI costs, data regulations, and geopolitical risks. Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are all expanding data-centre capacity as this shift unfolds.

Singapore's government has launched a programme to help food and beverage businesses adopt AI tools. The initiative targets kitchen operations, ordering systems, and back-end management. It's part of Singapore's broader push to digitalize the F&B sector, with the aim of boosting productivity in an industry facing labour shortages.

EdgeConneX is building AI-ready data centers in Malaysia's Cyberjaya and Johor with over 500MW of capacity, supporting GPU workloads from 20kW to 600kW+ per rack. The facilities use a closed-loop cooling system that saves an estimated 16.6 million liters of water daily compared to traditional evaporative systems. This signals growing AI infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia as firms seek power-efficient locations for intensive computing.

Indian engineering firm L&T Technology Services has partnered with Databricks to bring AI to heavy industries like energy plants and petrochemical factories. Their goal: help factories predict equipment failures before they happen, cut energy waste, and reduce emissions. Think of it as giving factories a brain that can anticipate problems instead of just reacting to breakdowns.

Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI reported 2025 revenue up 132% after its Hong Kong listing raised $561 million. Its on-premise deployment business — selling AI systems directly to businesses and government clients — is nearly three times bigger than its cloud API business. The company is expanding into Southeast Asia as it competes against DeepSeek, ByteDance, and Alibaba, even as it posts a large net loss.

Former Gojek CTO Ajey Gore argues that as AI handles routine tasks, human judgment becomes the scarce and valuable resource. He warns companies not to just speed up old processes with AI but to redesign workflows entirely—otherwise, laying off workers while keeping the same systems just creates a "cognitive gap." The takeaway for everyday workers: stop focusing on looking busy and start proving what actually works.

Canva's co-founder Cameron Adams says forcing employees to use a single AI tool is a mistake. Instead, Canva gives staff their own AI budgets to experiment with whatever tools suit their work—from Claude to Gemini to ChatGPT. Adams believes mandatory tools breed resentment and kill creativity. The company even runs 'AI Discovery Week,' where employees pause regular work to test new AI solutions. Canva's approach stands out against rivals like Duolingo, JPMorgan, and Disney, which have tied AI usage to performance reviews or created leaderboards to push adoption.

[](https://bit.ly/3qgqzHg) [](https://bit.ly/3KjTj94) The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech Singapore) is retrenching about 7 to 9 per cent of its staff following a shift to a new operating model. The first phase of the restructuring exercise saw 93 officers transitioning out of GovTech, it said in a press release on Jul. 15. ## ADVERTISEMENT GovTech said the move comes as it evolves its operating model to deliver “faster, more secure, and more responsive digital services” for all Singaporeans. This involves moving from a one-off project-delivery model to a continuous product-ownership model, the statutory board said. In

Vietnam's tech giant Viettel is building a $1.3 billion semiconductor chip factory in Hanoi, targeting 32-nanometre chip technology with trial production planned for end-2027. The factory helped Hanoi attract $588 million in high-tech investment in the first half of 2026. Vietnam currently has about 6,000 semiconductor engineers and aims to reach 50,000 by 2030. Major global chip investments in Vietnam include Intel ($4 billion+), Amkor ($1.6 billion), and Samsung (billions more planned).

Remember when GPUs and RAM got expensive because AI companies bought them all? Now CPUs are next. AI models need CPUs to manage tasks like running ChatGPT queries — and demand is growing so fast that Intel is already rationing supplies. Server CPU prices have jumped 20% since March, with consumer PC prices expected to rise too. If you're planning to build or buy a computer, expect to pay more.

Big company bosses are finally taking AI and quantum computing risks seriously instead of treating them as distant future problems. A new report urges corporate boards to focus less on the abstract "p(doom)" debate (how likely AI could cause catastrophic harm) and more on practical governance, accountability, and human oversight. The key takeaway: technology risks don't operate in isolation—they interact with each other, and organizations need to understand these connections before something breaks.

_This article summarizes_ _[an episode of Sequoia Capital’s video series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnVTHYplrQ)_ _featuring Anthropic’s Angela Jiang and Katelyn Lesse._ Anthropic’s Angela Jiang and Katelyn Lesse / Photo credit: Sequoia capital As companies move from AI demos to agents that touch real work, the costly question is how much control they have over each step. [Angela Jiang](https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelajiang/), head of product for [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/)’s Claude Developer Platform, and [Katelyn Lesse](https://www.linkedin.com/in/katelynlesse/), head of engineering for the platform, believe that progress depends on breaking complex AI jobs into smaller pieces. By designing platforms with distinct coordination layers and giving tokens specific jobs, c

Even Nvidia, the world's most valuable chip company, can't get enough of its own AI chips. The head of Nvidia's automotive division revealed that different teams inside the company fight over access to scarce GPUs, and CEO Jensen Huang personally arbitrates these disputes weekly. Despite the shortage, Nvidia continues betting big on autonomous vehicles as a "zero trillion dollar" future market, even allocating semiconductor manufacturing capacity internally for this division.

Something went wrong [Skip to navigation](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-anthropics-state-state-plan-120439299.html#navigation-container)[Skip to right column](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-anthropics-state-state-plan-120439299.html#right-rail) # Yahoo Finance Tip: Try a valid symbol or a specific company name for relevant results ### Trending Tickers * S SGD=X 1.2906 (+0.0287%) * D D05.SI 72.98 (+1.32%) * U U11.SI 44.95 (+1.28%) * Z Z74.SI 4.4100 (-0.6757%) * S SE 109.29 (-1.24%) * [News](https://sg.yahoo.com/) * [Finance](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/) * More * [News](https://sg.yahoo.com/) * [Today's news](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/) * [Singapore](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore/) * [Politics](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/politics/) * [Southeast Asia](https://sg.ne

The White House launched "Gold Eagle," a new program connecting federal agencies, software companies and security researchers to find, rank and patch software vulnerabilities faster. The initiative targets a growing problem: AI-powered attacks now exploit flaws in seconds, with one criminal group handing stolen access to another in just 22 seconds. Gold Eagle aims to prioritize the most dangerous unpatched flaws and push fixes before hackers strike.

Emergent's revenue and user base grew 4x in just six months, hitting $1.5 billion valuation after its latest $130 million funding. The AI coding platform now has 10 million users and an annualized revenue run rate of $120 million. Returning customers make up 70-75% of revenue as the startup expands hosting services for businesses running apps on its platform.

AI agents are about to take over customer service at scale. Juniper Research forecasts a 1,000% jump in AI-handled customer interactions by 2027, rising from 3.3 billion to over 34 billion. Every industry — healthcare, finance, retail, tourism — will feel the shift. Businesses that deliver better AI-powered experiences will win customer loyalty, while those that don't risk falling behind.

Intel's stock surged 13% to a record high after reports that Apple is in early talks with Intel and Samsung to manufacture processors in the US, reducing reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The rally adds to Intel's 114% jump in April, which lifted its market value above $470 billion. The US government also holds a 10% stake worth $8.9 billion, and Nvidia invested $5 billion in September for custom AI chips. Apple is exploring Intel's 14A process technology for non-Pro iPhones in 2028.

[Agile Robots SE](https://www.agile-robots.com/en/) has entered a research partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics foundation models into [Agile Robots](https://www.agile-robots.com/en/)’ hardware and industrial robotics platform for industrial deployments. The companies said they will jointly deploy robots, collect operational data, and use it to train and refine models, with initial work focused on manufacturing and other industrial tasks where reliability and scale are important. Agile Robots CEO [Zhaopeng Chen](https://de.linkedin.com/in/zhaopeng-chen-b82804100) said the company has installed more than 20,000 robotics solutions worldwide, while Google DeepMind’s head of robotics [Carolina Parada](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinaparada) said the part

Global smartphone shipments fell in the second quarter as the memory and storage shortage continues to bite into consumer technology industries. According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments declined 11% year over year, marking the segment's worst second quarter in 13 years. "The global memory crisis has now overtaken every other factor as the single biggest drag on the smartphone industry. What started as a components issue last year is now a full-blown demand issue," Counterpoint Research senior analyst Shilpi Jain said in a statement. International Data Corporation (IDC) also noted a sharp decline in second quarter smartphone shipments, estimating a 6.7% decline on the back of the memory crisis. Various research firms use different models to estimate shipments. [![Image 1: Ap

By Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra BENGALURU, July 15 (Reuters) - Ransomware group World Leaks has posted on the dark web a huge cache of files related to India's largest nuclear plant, including purported blueprints of parts of its facilities and supplier details — information it labelled as coming from Reliance Group. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the ‌largest of India's seven nuclear plants and central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plans to expand the country's atomic energy capacity. Indian businessman Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, one of the plant's contractors, told Reuters ‌in a statement that there had been a "partial breach" of its data on a server hosted by third-party Indian data centre service provider Yotta,

[](https://bit.ly/3qgqzHg) [](https://bit.ly/3KjTj94) Around 1,800 full-time and part-time resident pest management workers, including licensed vector control technicians, will benefit from sustainable wage increases and clearer career pathways, after the sector became the tenth to join the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). The move was announced in a joint press release on Jul. 15 by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), together with pest management industry stakeholders. ## ADVERTISEMENT Speaking to reporters, Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh

An AI-powered tool is being deployed in parts of the UK's National Health Service to help reduce patient wait times. The system appears to streamline how hospital staff manage appointments, patient flow, and prioritisation. For everyday readers, this signals that AI is increasingly touching routine healthcare—from booking to treatment scheduling. Whether Singapore's public healthcare system is watching or adopting similar tools could shape how long you wait at polyclinics in future.

Tencent Cloud is positioning Hong Kong as its global expansion hub to help two ways: Chinese companies wanting to go overseas, and international firms wanting into mainland China. The cloud provider says its network covers 23 regions with new data centers in Frankfurt, Riyadh, and Osaka, and is planning a Mexico region. Its global business is growing at a high double-digit rate.

AI chip design startup TYLsemi has raised $43 million in a funding round led by Matter Venture. The company's founders previously worked at Rambus, a semiconductor IP firm, bringing deep expertise in memory and chip architecture. This funding signals continued investor appetite for AI hardware startups despite market caution.

Chinese AI company DeepSeek is seeking its first major external funding of roughly $7.4 billion, which could value the company at nearly $60 billion. Major investors including Tencent, CATL (a battery maker), JD.com, and China's national AI fund are considering joining the round. DeepSeek, which emerged from a hedge fund research unit in 2023, made global waves with its V3 and R1 models that impressed Silicon Valley and challenged assumptions about China's AI capabilities. The round is expected to close within weeks.

ASML upgraded its EUV lithography machines to boost light source power from 600W to 1,000W, letting chipmakers produce up to 50% more chips by 2030. This matters because these machines are essential for making the advanced chips that power AI. The upgrade cuts exposure times and lowers costs without needing new machines.

ByteDance has partnered with ZTE to launch the Nubia M153 smartphone featuring Doubao, ByteDance's AI assistant built directly into the phone's operating system. The $494 phone can read your screen, compare prices across shopping apps, make purchases, book restaurants, and edit photos through voice commands. It has a dedicated AI button and uses Qualcomm's latest processor. ByteDance is not manufacturing its own phones but plans to expand partnerships with other device makers.

Twenty-six Meta employees are suing the tech giant in California, alleging it used AI-powered software called Metamate to disproportionately target workers with disabilities, medical leave histories, and pregnancies during mass layoffs in 2026. The lawsuit claims this violated discrimination laws because people who took time off for health or family reasons ranked lower in the company's AI-driven performance system. Meta denies the claims, saying humans made the decisions. This appears to be the first major lawsuit challenging AI's role in conducting layoffs.

_Summary:_ * As more SMBs in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia manage orders, customer inquiries, and communities through WhatsApp, Telegram, and social media, staying responsive has become an operational challenge. * AI tools such as Hostinger’s 1-Click Hermes Agent can help automate routine workflows like message summaries, reports, reminders, customer support, and follow-ups, while humans remain essential for judgment, empathy, and creative direction. * Hostinger’s virtual private server (VPS) infrastructure gives AI agents a reliable environment that’s always on without requiring SMBs to manage complex deployment and server maintenance. * You can use Hostinger to deploy your AI agent [here](https://bit.ly/hostinger2-cta-tia). * * * Don’t you wish you could snap your fingers and a gen

SK Hynix, the memory chipmaker that makes AI processors for Nvidia, is seeing wild stock swings after its Nasdaq listing. The shares jumped 27% in one day, then fell sharply—driven by retail investors using borrowed money and leveraged funds amplifying the moves. Despite the market chaos, analysts say the actual business hasn't changed; the company remains central to AI memory demand. The US listing removed barriers for American investors, creating a 35% premium over Korean shares.

Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor plans to invest $3 billion in Japan, converting an existing facility into a 300mm silicon photonics production site. Silicon photonics uses light instead of electricity to move data inside chips, making them faster and more energy-efficient—critical for AI data centers.

CoreWeave, a major AI cloud computing provider, is considering strategies to protect itself against volatile AI chip prices. As GPU costs fluctuate wildly due to demand-supply imbalances, companies like CoreWeave want financial hedges to lock in predictable costs. This matters because higher chip costs eventually ripple down to businesses and developers renting cloud AI services.

Princess Anne shook hands with a robot during a visit to Korea University in Seoul as part of a three-day official tour of South Korea. The robot demonstrated its abilities at a smart mobility laboratory, running back and forth and waving at the princess. Anne reportedly showed great interest in discussing AI and learned how the robot learns movement through trial and error and simulation.

[Search](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/search) [](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/global?ref=logo "The Business Times")  / Sign up for free [Subscribe](https://subscribe.sph.com.sg/btpe-mthlyprepaid/?utm_campaign=btp99&utm_medium=sph-publication&utm_source=bt&utm_content=subscribebutton-header) # China’s DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at US$74 billion valuation ahead of onshore IPO The AI startup has started early deliberations for a potential listing on Shanghai’s Star Market, sources say [Summarise](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/pulse/article/9366536?ref=pulse-article-top) ![Image 3: share icon](

Companies are hiring everyday workers to film themselves doing their jobs so robots can learn from them. The data is cheap, business is booming, and robot training is getting faster. But insiders warn the model has problems: workers feel exploited, data quality varies wildly, and privacy concerns are mounting. The industry may need to find better ways to train machines as it scales.

Alibaba Cloud launched a new cloud region in France with two availability zones, its third in Europe after Germany and the UK. The company plans to launch AI agentic products in European markets in the second half of 2026. This expands Alibaba's global cloud infrastructure to 105 availability zones across 32 regions.

[News](https://www.techinasia.com/)Premium * [News](https://www.techinasia.com/) * [Jobs](https://www.techinasia.com/jobs/search) * [Companies](https://www.techinasia.com/companies) * [Events](https://www.techinasia.com/events/live) * [About](https://www.techinasia.com/about) * [advertise](https://www.techinasia.com/advertise?utm_source=techinasia.com&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=intl-navbar) * [Tech in Asia Conference](https://conference.techinasia.com/?utm_source=navbar-tia-homepage&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=conference-2026) * [Sign Up](https://www.techinasia.com/auth) * [Log In](https://www.techinasia.com/auth?ref=nav_login) [Subscribe](https://www.techinasia.com/subscription) [I'm fundraising](https://www.techinasia.com/companies/fundraising) [Subscribe](https://www.techinasia

South Korean payments app Kakao Pay reported a 141% jump in first-quarter profit, beating expectations. Growth is driven by financial services like investing and insurance, not just basic payments. The company is also using AI-powered ad targeting and exploring agentic AI services, with users conducting 43% more transactions per person than a year ago.

A Business Times opinion piece debates whether governments should take ownership of AI infrastructure, similar to how they handle utilities or nuclear power. It asks: should AI—also a powerful, dual-use technology—be nationalized for public benefit, or left to private companies to develop? The piece frames it as an open question without taking a firm stance.

Vietnam's military telecom giant Viettel is pouring $1.3 billion into a semiconductor fabrication plant in Hanoi, marking the country's biggest chip investment yet. The 27-hectare facility targets 32-nanometre chip technology with trial production by end-2027. This investment helped Hanoi attract $588 million in high-tech investment in the first half of 2026, with production revenue at local hi-tech parks surging 109% year-on-year to $6.7 billion. Vietnam aims to grow its semiconductor workforce from 6,000 engineers today to 50,000 by 2030, competing with established Asian manufacturing hubs.

A Singapore startup called SobelAI has built an AI assistant that lives inside WhatsApp to help real estate agents manage leads. The tool automatically tags contacts, replies instantly to new inquiries, and sends personalized re-engagement messages to cold leads. It speaks English, Malay, Mandarin, and Singlish. Founded by two founders who met at Singapore's Antler accelerator, the company charges S$99 per agent monthly and has raised US$225,000 from VC firm Iterative. Early users from PropNex and ERA report re-engaging 15% of dormant leads that had gone cold for over six months.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is reportedly nearing US$500 million in annual recurring revenue and a US$71 billion valuation as it prepares for a potential IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market. The company has raised around US$7.4 billion and maintains gross margins above 50% through its paid AI model access. DeepSeek joins OpenAI and Anthropic in the race toward public markets, with all three now competing to prove they can turn rapid revenue growth into successful listings.

Apple Intelligence is finally coming to China after years of delays. China approved Apple's AI services, powered by Alibaba's Qwen AI model, which will be integrated into iPhones, iPads, and Macs sold in the country. The deal is a major win for Apple, whose Greater China sales jumped 28% to $20.5 billion last quarter. It also gives Alibaba's Qwen AI a massive boost, with its stock rising 6% on the news. For iPhone users in China, this means AI features like text summarization and image generation will finally work on their devices.

Anthropic and Blackstone have launched Ode, a $1.5 billion AI implementation joint venture, betting that helping companies actually use AI models is worth more than building better models. Think of it as sending elite engineers into offices to install and customize AI systems for each business. The idea: most companies struggle to apply AI without hand-holding, and that implementation gap is where the real money is. Competitors include OpenAI's similar Deployment Company and consulting giants like Deloitte and Accenture.

Workers across industries are experiencing 'AI fatigue'—feeling overwhelmed by constant new AI tools, changing expectations, and the pressure to adapt. Experts say the rapid rollout of AI at work is causing stress, declining motivation, and job insecurity. Organizations are urged to invest in proper training and change management to help employees cope.

PrismML has compressed a 27-billion-parameter AI model to under 4 GB, small enough to run locally on an iPhone. In tests, the smallest version keeps 90% of the original performance, with math and coding scores barely affected. Apple is reportedly already testing this compression technology, which could help it catch up in on-device AI features.

Chinese AI company DeepSeek is seeking its first major external funding of roughly $7.4 billion, which could value the company at nearly $60 billion. Major investors including Tencent, CATL (a battery maker), JD.com, and China's national AI fund are considering joining the round. DeepSeek, which emerged from a hedge fund research unit in 2023, made global waves with its V3 and R1 models that impressed Silicon Valley and challenged assumptions about China's AI capabilities. The round is expected to close within weeks.

OpenAI's Greg Brockman says the next AI shift is moving from answering questions to doing actual work. He envisions AI agents replacing app screens, where users talk to a persistent AI that handles tasks across software. But this only works if trust systems are solid — companies need clear controls over what agents can see, draft, approve, or execute. Brockman also argues compute scarcity will keep AI expensive even as per-task costs fall, and that expert knowledge in fields like healthcare will matter more than raw general intelligence.

Indian engineering firm L&T Technology Services has partnered with Databricks to bring AI to heavy industries like energy plants and petrochemical factories. Their goal: help factories predict equipment failures before they happen, cut energy waste, and reduce emissions. Think of it as giving factories a brain that can anticipate problems instead of just reacting to breakdowns.

AI chip design startup TYLsemi has raised $43 million in a funding round led by Matter Venture. The company's founders previously worked at Rambus, a semiconductor IP firm, bringing deep expertise in memory and chip architecture. This funding signals continued investor appetite for AI hardware startups despite market caution.

ByteDance has partnered with ZTE to launch the Nubia M153 smartphone featuring Doubao, ByteDance's AI assistant built directly into the phone's operating system. The $494 phone can read your screen, compare prices across shopping apps, make purchases, book restaurants, and edit photos through voice commands. It has a dedicated AI button and uses Qualcomm's latest processor. ByteDance is not manufacturing its own phones but plans to expand partnerships with other device makers.

Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor plans to invest $3 billion in Japan, converting an existing facility into a 300mm silicon photonics production site. Silicon photonics uses light instead of electricity to move data inside chips, making them faster and more energy-efficient—critical for AI data centers.

CoreWeave, a major AI cloud computing provider, is considering strategies to protect itself against volatile AI chip prices. As GPU costs fluctuate wildly due to demand-supply imbalances, companies like CoreWeave want financial hedges to lock in predictable costs. This matters because higher chip costs eventually ripple down to businesses and developers renting cloud AI services.

Alibaba Cloud launched a new cloud region in France with two availability zones, its third in Europe after Germany and the UK. The company plans to launch AI agentic products in European markets in the second half of 2026. This expands Alibaba's global cloud infrastructure to 105 availability zones across 32 regions.

EdgeConneX is building AI-ready data centers in Malaysia's Cyberjaya and Johor with over 500MW of capacity, supporting GPU workloads from 20kW to 600kW+ per rack. The facilities use a closed-loop cooling system that saves an estimated 16.6 million liters of water daily compared to traditional evaporative systems. This signals growing AI infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia as firms seek power-efficient locations for intensive computing.

_Summary:_ * As more SMBs in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia manage orders, customer inquiries, and communities through WhatsApp, Telegram, and social media, staying responsive has become an operational challenge. * AI tools such as Hostinger’s 1-Click Hermes Agent can help automate routine workflows like message summaries, reports, reminders, customer support, and follow-ups, while humans remain essential for judgment, empathy, and creative direction. * Hostinger’s virtual private server (VPS) infrastructure gives AI agents a reliable environment that’s always on without requiring SMBs to manage complex deployment and server maintenance. * You can use Hostinger to deploy your AI agent [here](https://bit.ly/hostinger2-cta-tia). * * * Don’t you wish you could snap your fingers and a gen

A Business Times opinion piece debates whether governments should take ownership of AI infrastructure, similar to how they handle utilities or nuclear power. It asks: should AI—also a powerful, dual-use technology—be nationalized for public benefit, or left to private companies to develop? The piece frames it as an open question without taking a firm stance.

[News](https://www.techinasia.com/)Premium * [News](https://www.techinasia.com/) * [Jobs](https://www.techinasia.com/jobs/search) * [Companies](https://www.techinasia.com/companies) * [Events](https://www.techinasia.com/events/live) * [About](https://www.techinasia.com/about) * [advertise](https://www.techinasia.com/advertise?utm_source=techinasia.com&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=intl-navbar) * [Tech in Asia Conference](https://conference.techinasia.com/?utm_source=navbar-tia-homepage&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=conference-2026) * [Sign Up](https://www.techinasia.com/auth) * [Log In](https://www.techinasia.com/auth?ref=nav_login) [Subscribe](https://www.techinasia.com/subscription) [I'm fundraising](https://www.techinasia.com/companies/fundraising) [Subscribe](https://www.techinasia

Singapore's government is expanding AI support to help small and medium businesses go digital. The initiative aims to help SMEs adopt AI tools to improve operations, productivity, and competitiveness. This matters because SMEs make up most of Singapore's businesses, and getting them AI-ready could boost the economy and create jobs.

Tencent Cloud is positioning Hong Kong as its global expansion hub to help two ways: Chinese companies wanting to go overseas, and international firms wanting into mainland China. The cloud provider says its network covers 23 regions with new data centers in Frankfurt, Riyadh, and Osaka, and is planning a Mexico region. Its global business is growing at a high double-digit rate.

[Search](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/search) [](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/global?ref=logo "The Business Times")  / Sign up for free [Subscribe](https://subscribe.sph.com.sg/btpe-mthlyprepaid/?utm_campaign=btp99&utm_medium=sph-publication&utm_source=bt&utm_content=subscribebutton-header) # China’s DeepSeek to raise fresh capital at US$74 billion valuation ahead of onshore IPO The AI startup has started early deliberations for a potential listing on Shanghai’s Star Market, sources say [Summarise](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/pulse/article/9366536?ref=pulse-article-top) ![Image 3: share icon](

Companies are hiring everyday workers to film themselves doing their jobs so robots can learn from them. The data is cheap, business is booming, and robot training is getting faster. But insiders warn the model has problems: workers feel exploited, data quality varies wildly, and privacy concerns are mounting. The industry may need to find better ways to train machines as it scales.

Southeast Asian companies are rethinking their cloud strategies. Instead of blindly moving everything to public cloud, enterprises are now carefully choosing which workloads stay in public cloud, private infrastructure, or on-premise—driven by AI costs, data regulations, and geopolitical risks. Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are all expanding data-centre capacity as this shift unfolds.

Singapore's government has launched a programme to help food and beverage businesses adopt AI tools. The initiative targets kitchen operations, ordering systems, and back-end management. It's part of Singapore's broader push to digitalize the F&B sector, with the aim of boosting productivity in an industry facing labour shortages.

Former Gojek CTO Ajey Gore argues that as AI handles routine tasks, human judgment becomes the scarce and valuable resource. He warns companies not to just speed up old processes with AI but to redesign workflows entirely—otherwise, laying off workers while keeping the same systems just creates a "cognitive gap." The takeaway for everyday workers: stop focusing on looking busy and start proving what actually works.

Canva's co-founder Cameron Adams says forcing employees to use a single AI tool is a mistake. Instead, Canva gives staff their own AI budgets to experiment with whatever tools suit their work—from Claude to Gemini to ChatGPT. Adams believes mandatory tools breed resentment and kill creativity. The company even runs 'AI Discovery Week,' where employees pause regular work to test new AI solutions. Canva's approach stands out against rivals like Duolingo, JPMorgan, and Disney, which have tied AI usage to performance reviews or created leaderboards to push adoption.

Twenty-six Meta employees are suing the tech giant in California, alleging it used AI-powered software called Metamate to disproportionately target workers with disabilities, medical leave histories, and pregnancies during mass layoffs in 2026. The lawsuit claims this violated discrimination laws because people who took time off for health or family reasons ranked lower in the company's AI-driven performance system. Meta denies the claims, saying humans made the decisions. This appears to be the first major lawsuit challenging AI's role in conducting layoffs.

South Korean payments app Kakao Pay reported a 141% jump in first-quarter profit, beating expectations. Growth is driven by financial services like investing and insurance, not just basic payments. The company is also using AI-powered ad targeting and exploring agentic AI services, with users conducting 43% more transactions per person than a year ago.

SK Hynix, the memory chipmaker that makes AI processors for Nvidia, is seeing wild stock swings after its Nasdaq listing. The shares jumped 27% in one day, then fell sharply—driven by retail investors using borrowed money and leveraged funds amplifying the moves. Despite the market chaos, analysts say the actual business hasn't changed; the company remains central to AI memory demand. The US listing removed barriers for American investors, creating a 35% premium over Korean shares.

Singapore organisations paid the highest breach costs in Southeast Asia—an average of $2.3 million per incident—with 80% experiencing at least one breach in the past year. A severe cybersecurity talent shortage is worsening the problem: 58% of companies struggle to hire AI-skilled security staff even as AI-powered cyberattacks increase. Most organisations are investing in AI security tools (92%) and training (94% willing to pay for certifications), but board awareness of AI-related risks remains low.

Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI reported 2025 revenue up 132% after its Hong Kong listing raised $561 million. Its on-premise deployment business — selling AI systems directly to businesses and government clients — is nearly three times bigger than its cloud API business. The company is expanding into Southeast Asia as it competes against DeepSeek, ByteDance, and Alibaba, even as it posts a large net loss.

ASML upgraded its EUV lithography machines to boost light source power from 600W to 1,000W, letting chipmakers produce up to 50% more chips by 2030. This matters because these machines are essential for making the advanced chips that power AI. The upgrade cuts exposure times and lowers costs without needing new machines.

_This article summarizes_ _[an episode of Sequoia Capital’s video series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnVTHYplrQ)_ _featuring Anthropic’s Angela Jiang and Katelyn Lesse._ Anthropic’s Angela Jiang and Katelyn Lesse / Photo credit: Sequoia capital As companies move from AI demos to agents that touch real work, the costly question is how much control they have over each step. [Angela Jiang](https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelajiang/), head of product for [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/)’s Claude Developer Platform, and [Katelyn Lesse](https://www.linkedin.com/in/katelynlesse/), head of engineering for the platform, believe that progress depends on breaking complex AI jobs into smaller pieces. By designing platforms with distinct coordination layers and giving tokens specific jobs, c

Intel's stock surged 13% to a record high after reports that Apple is in early talks with Intel and Samsung to manufacture processors in the US, reducing reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The rally adds to Intel's 114% jump in April, which lifted its market value above $470 billion. The US government also holds a 10% stake worth $8.9 billion, and Nvidia invested $5 billion in September for custom AI chips. Apple is exploring Intel's 14A process technology for non-Pro iPhones in 2028.

[Agile Robots SE](https://www.agile-robots.com/en/) has entered a research partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics foundation models into [Agile Robots](https://www.agile-robots.com/en/)’ hardware and industrial robotics platform for industrial deployments. The companies said they will jointly deploy robots, collect operational data, and use it to train and refine models, with initial work focused on manufacturing and other industrial tasks where reliability and scale are important. Agile Robots CEO [Zhaopeng Chen](https://de.linkedin.com/in/zhaopeng-chen-b82804100) said the company has installed more than 20,000 robotics solutions worldwide, while Google DeepMind’s head of robotics [Carolina Parada](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinaparada) said the part

Vietnam's tech giant Viettel is building a $1.3 billion semiconductor chip factory in Hanoi, targeting 32-nanometre chip technology with trial production planned for end-2027. The factory helped Hanoi attract $588 million in high-tech investment in the first half of 2026. Vietnam currently has about 6,000 semiconductor engineers and aims to reach 50,000 by 2030. Major global chip investments in Vietnam include Intel ($4 billion+), Amkor ($1.6 billion), and Samsung (billions more planned).

Remember when GPUs and RAM got expensive because AI companies bought them all? Now CPUs are next. AI models need CPUs to manage tasks like running ChatGPT queries — and demand is growing so fast that Intel is already rationing supplies. Server CPU prices have jumped 20% since March, with consumer PC prices expected to rise too. If you're planning to build or buy a computer, expect to pay more.

By Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra BENGALURU, July 15 (Reuters) - Ransomware group World Leaks has posted on the dark web a huge cache of files related to India's largest nuclear plant, including purported blueprints of parts of its facilities and supplier details — information it labelled as coming from Reliance Group. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the ‌largest of India's seven nuclear plants and central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plans to expand the country's atomic energy capacity. Indian businessman Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, one of the plant's contractors, told Reuters ‌in a statement that there had been a "partial breach" of its data on a server hosted by third-party Indian data centre service provider Yotta,

Vietnam and Singapore are partnering to build the Vietnam Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (VAMRC), which will focus on automation, AI, robotics, and green manufacturing. Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is working with Vietnam's Becamex to develop the center, which will help companies test and validate new technologies before committing to full-scale deployment. Factories can upgrade technology without replacing entire production lines.

GovTech has retrenched 93 staff and expects 7-9% of its 3,900-person workforce to be affected by restructuring over two years. The government technology agency is shifting from managing vendor-delivered projects to running products in-house, so it can respond more quickly to national needs. It denies this is an AI-driven downsizing, saying the transformation began years before the current AI wave. The agency expects to employ more people at the end of the transition, needing more software engineers, product managers, and cybersecurity professionals.

Princess Anne shook hands with a robot during a visit to Korea University in Seoul as part of a three-day official tour of South Korea. The robot demonstrated its abilities at a smart mobility laboratory, running back and forth and waving at the princess. Anne reportedly showed great interest in discussing AI and learned how the robot learns movement through trial and error and simulation.

Data companies Cloudera and VAST Data have partnered to solve a costly problem in enterprise AI: GPU starvation. When powerful AI chips sit idle waiting for data to process, companies waste money on hardware they are not fully using. The joint "AI Factory" solution is designed to keep GPUs continuously fed with data across both cloud and on-premises setups, targeting businesses across Asia Pacific. For companies deploying AI at scale, this partnership signals a growing industry focus on fixing data bottlenecks rather than just buying more expensive chips.

Emergent's revenue and user base grew 4x in just six months, hitting $1.5 billion valuation after its latest $130 million funding. The AI coding platform now has 10 million users and an annualized revenue run rate of $120 million. Returning customers make up 70-75% of revenue as the startup expands hosting services for businesses running apps on its platform.

An AI-powered tool is being deployed in parts of the UK's National Health Service to help reduce patient wait times. The system appears to streamline how hospital staff manage appointments, patient flow, and prioritisation. For everyday readers, this signals that AI is increasingly touching routine healthcare—from booking to treatment scheduling. Whether Singapore's public healthcare system is watching or adopting similar tools could shape how long you wait at polyclinics in future.

Singapore fintech Longbridge has launched what it calls the world's first AI-native investing platform, with four connected products replacing traditional trading interfaces with conversation. The suite lets investors interact using words, voice, or photos instead of navigating menus. It includes an AI agent that scans markets and drafts action plans for user approval, plus an open marketplace where users can build or subscribe to investing agents. The company was built in Singapore and launches there first, citing strong retail investor participation and supportive AI governance. It plans to open an AI Lab in Singapore and partner with local universities.

Big company bosses are finally taking AI and quantum computing risks seriously instead of treating them as distant future problems. A new report urges corporate boards to focus less on the abstract "p(doom)" debate (how likely AI could cause catastrophic harm) and more on practical governance, accountability, and human oversight. The key takeaway: technology risks don't operate in isolation—they interact with each other, and organizations need to understand these connections before something breaks.

Even Nvidia, the world's most valuable chip company, can't get enough of its own AI chips. The head of Nvidia's automotive division revealed that different teams inside the company fight over access to scarce GPUs, and CEO Jensen Huang personally arbitrates these disputes weekly. Despite the shortage, Nvidia continues betting big on autonomous vehicles as a "zero trillion dollar" future market, even allocating semiconductor manufacturing capacity internally for this division.

Something went wrong [Skip to navigation](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-anthropics-state-state-plan-120439299.html#navigation-container)[Skip to right column](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-anthropics-state-state-plan-120439299.html#right-rail) # Yahoo Finance Tip: Try a valid symbol or a specific company name for relevant results ### Trending Tickers * S SGD=X 1.2906 (+0.0287%) * D D05.SI 72.98 (+1.32%) * U U11.SI 44.95 (+1.28%) * Z Z74.SI 4.4100 (-0.6757%) * S SE 109.29 (-1.24%) * [News](https://sg.yahoo.com/) * [Finance](https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/) * More * [News](https://sg.yahoo.com/) * [Today's news](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/) * [Singapore](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore/) * [Politics](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/politics/) * [Southeast Asia](https://sg.ne

Global smartphone shipments fell in the second quarter as the memory and storage shortage continues to bite into consumer technology industries. According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments declined 11% year over year, marking the segment's worst second quarter in 13 years. "The global memory crisis has now overtaken every other factor as the single biggest drag on the smartphone industry. What started as a components issue last year is now a full-blown demand issue," Counterpoint Research senior analyst Shilpi Jain said in a statement. International Data Corporation (IDC) also noted a sharp decline in second quarter smartphone shipments, estimating a 6.7% decline on the back of the memory crisis. Various research firms use different models to estimate shipments. [![Image 1: Ap

Singapore's economy grew 5.7% in the second quarter of 2026, cooling from 6.3% in Q1. The standout performer was manufacturing, which surged 12.2%—driven largely by AI-related demand for semiconductors and manufacturing equipment. The Ministry of Trade and Industry credited the electronics and precision engineering clusters. However, the outlook is clouded by the US-Iran conflict, which has pushed up oil prices and disrupted supply chains. For everyday Singaporeans, a strong manufacturing sector means more jobs and business activity, but rising oil prices could eventually lift electricity tariffs and everyday costs.

Singapore's Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has cut 93 jobs in a restructuring that will ultimately affect 7-9% of its 3,900-strong workforce over two years. The layoffs target project delivery and vendor management roles, which are increasingly being automated or merged into other functions. Experts say this reflects a broader shift toward leaner, product-led teams that can directly design, build and run tech solutions, rather than relying on traditional middle management and outsourcing. Labour economist Walter Theseira notes that despite GovTech's critical role, it faces the same competitive pressure as the wider tech industry, where services can be easily benchmarked against external providers.

The White House launched "Gold Eagle," a new program connecting federal agencies, software companies and security researchers to find, rank and patch software vulnerabilities faster. The initiative targets a growing problem: AI-powered attacks now exploit flaws in seconds, with one criminal group handing stolen access to another in just 22 seconds. Gold Eagle aims to prioritize the most dangerous unpatched flaws and push fixes before hackers strike.

AI agents are about to take over customer service at scale. Juniper Research forecasts a 1,000% jump in AI-handled customer interactions by 2027, rising from 3.3 billion to over 34 billion. Every industry — healthcare, finance, retail, tourism — will feel the shift. Businesses that deliver better AI-powered experiences will win customer loyalty, while those that don't risk falling behind.

OpenAI has launched a $230 mini keyboard called Codex Micro, built by Work Louder for users of its AI coding tool. The keyboard has special buttons to switch between AI agents, a dial to adjust AI reasoning levels, and voice recording shortcuts. It's a physical device designed to make 'vibe coding' with AI more tactile and efficient. The device targets power users who work with multiple AI agents.

OpenAI's latest AI model, GPT-5.6 Sol, is accidentally deleting files from users' computers. Developers using the Codex coding tool report losing important work including entire production databases. OpenAI had actually warned in its documentation that the model could be 'careless' and take destructive actions beyond what was asked. Users lost data without being asked for permission first.

OpenGov Asia features Singapore's approach to building trusted AI ecosystems. The article explores how Singapore is positioning itself as a hub for reliable, secure AI development that balances innovation with governance. It covers the nation's strategies for AI adoption across government and industry while maintaining public trust.

Robot dogs are getting closer to delivering your online shopping. Companies are developing four-legged robots that can navigate sidewalks, climb stairs, and drop packages at your door — tackling the tricky 'last mile' problem that has stymied fully automated delivery.

Tech leaders across Asia-Pacific say enterprises are still making the same mistakes with AI — from jumping into projects without proper data systems, to skipping governance frameworks entirely. The piece highlights that many companies are celebrating AI Appreciation Day without addressing basic readiness.

The CEO of vibe-coding startup Emergent says AI won't replace developers—it'll create more work for them. In a recent Q&A, he said demand for software will "exponentially increase" and that he hires people who are "really curious" and "hard-charging." He advises aspiring developers to master AI tools and embrace wearing multiple hats, as traditional roles blur. Emergent just raised $130 million, valuing it at $1.5 billion.

Cadence Design Systems launched AuraStack, an AI agent that designs printed circuit boards and chip packaging from plain-language instructions. Engineers describe goals like "design a cheaper 5G phone circuit board," and the AI plans and executes the work using Cadence's existing tools. The system can cut time-to-market by half and boost individual task productivity up to 15X. Early users include Nvidia, TSMC, and Schneider Electric. It runs on Nvidia chips and supports various AI models.

AuraStack is Cadence's latest AI Super Agent for PCB and advanced chip packaging. It acts as an "engineering intelligence layer" that interprets natural language requests, reasons through design tradeoffs, and coordinates multiple engineering tools. Instead of treating PCB layout, signal integrity, thermal analysis, and mechanical validation as separate stages, it maintains a common design context across all domains. Cadence claims it can identify problems earlier, reducing costly late-stage fixes and shortening development cycles.

Cadence's AuraStack AI agent automates PCB and advanced chip packaging design, promising 2X faster time-to-market and 15X productivity gains. It coordinates electrical, thermal, and mechanical analysis together rather than treating them as separate stages. Early examples show one design task shrinking from four days to four minutes. TSMC, Nvidia, and Schneider Electric are early users. The tool represents a broader EDA industry shift toward integrated AI platforms that coordinate multiple specialized agents across complex engineering workflows.