A deep-dive look at critical, and emerging, technologies in the news, globally, in April of 2025, touching on space technologies, data security, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and many more.
Belfer Center: Critical and Emerging Technologies Index – June 2025
- Brazil’s Anatel telecoms regulator has authorized SpaceX to introduce 7500 Starlink satellites to operate in the nation, more than doubling the current number / full item
- Amazon is preparing to launch initial batch of Kuiper satellites into orbit, marking the first step by a US provider towards providing an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink service / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC unveils new A14 tech for faster chips, assembling in packages that boost performance for artificial intelligence and other high-performance applications / full item
Semiconductor startup funding in Q1 2025: “The first quarter of 2025 saw six companies raise at least $100 million in investment. Of those, three went to quantum hardware companies…” / full item
- Taiwan’s MediaTek leads $10M seed round in Egypt’s InfiniLink semiconductors firm, seeing promise in InfiniLink’s silicon photonics chiplets for data centres / full item
‘Space is becoming ever more central to human communications… But how secure are these satellite connections, really?’ / full item
- ‘Astronauts Can Now Print Metal in Space and It’s a Game Changer for Future Missions’ / full item
- Commercial space station developer, Vast, signs 3 new payload customers for its Haven-1 station, set to launch in 2026 / full item
China’s PLA is using DeepSeek AI for non-combat support. Will actual combat be next?’ “The article also used an amphibious-landing scenario to illustrate how DeepSeek could dynamically adjust…” / full item
- China is finalizing construction on what will be the world’s brightest X-ray light source, powering research across materials science, biomedicine, and physics / full item
- Singapore: Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency partners Oracle to pilot and test an air-gapped cloud platform / full item
- Australia: Q-CTRL successfully completes field trials of a new generation of quantum-assured navigation solutions, overcoming GPS-denial / full item
- New Zealand and US state of Colorado ink cooperation agreement around aerospace, quantum and geothermal technologies / full item
World Bank Group: Future Jobs – Robots, AI, and Digital Platforms
- Semiconductor startup funding in Q1 2025: “The first quarter of 2025 saw six companies raise at least $100 million in investment. Of those, three went to quantum hardware companies…” / full item
- Australia: DeteQt ‘quantum sensing’ firm raised $750K pre-seed funding to commercialize diamond-on-silicon quantum magnetometer technology / full item
- DARPA awards contracts to two Australian startups, Diraq and Silicon Quantum Computing, for research as part of Quantum Benchmarking Initiative / full item
- Taiwan’s United Microelectronics and US’ GlobalFoundries are reportedly mulling a merger, resulting in a larger US-based firm with manufacturing in Asia, the US and Europe / full item
- Taiwan: TSMC’s newly-built chip fabrication facility is expected to add 7000 tech jobs to the island’s economy, with production of 2nm chips a focus / full item
“Taiwan’s semiconductor industry reached unprecedented heights in 2024, with production soaring to NT$5.3 trillion (around US$160.6 billion) in 2024, a robust 22% increase…” / full item
- Qualcomm, major US tec multinational, is partnering China’s autonomous driving developer, DeepRouteAI, to develop advanced driver assistance solutions / full item
- South Korea: Samsung has reportedly begun 1-nanometre chip process development, targeting 2029 for mass production, with 1.4nm development potentially being shelved / full item
China’s semiconductor industry: “…nearly 100 financing events have taken place… over the past two months, with nearly 30 of them reaching the billion-yuan level…” / full item
- China: Researchers publish study claiming chips breakthrough with 2D transistor said to be 40% faster than 3-nanometre chips from Intel and TSMC, while consuming 10% less energy / full item
- TSMC’s 2nm chips are projected to outclass 3nm chips with 10%-15% boost in computing speed at the same power level, or 20-30% reduction in power usage at the same speed / full item
- China: Huawei patents ‘ternary logic’ chips, looking at potential to reduce the number of transistors on a chip, reducing energy consumption / full item
China’s AI Infrastructure Surge: Data Centers, AI Models, Military, Global
- Taiwan’s TSMC moves forward with new chips packaging method using a square substrate that may potentially accommodate more semiconductors, set for 2027 roll-out / full item
- South Korea announces increase to semiconductor industry support package, raising total to $23.25 billion, up 1/4 from a previous package rolled out in 2024 / full item
“Thailand has ambitious plans to expand into higher-end segments of the semiconductor manufacturing chain… There are, however, significant challenges ahead…” / full item
- India: L&T Semiconductor Technologies fabless chip firm, backed by Indian engineering firm Larsen & Toubro, is planning a $10BN wafer fabrication facility / full item
- Qualcomm, major US tec multinational, is partnering China’s autonomous driving developer, DeepRouteAI, to develop advanced driver assistance solutions / full item
- South Korea: Samsung has reportedly begun 1-nanometre chip process development, targeting 2029 for mass production, with 1.4nm development potentially being shelved / full item
- Japan: Nippon Electric Glass announces plans to develop samples of larger glass substrates for semiconductor devices by as early as 2026, touting superior heat resistance / full item
“According to Chinese media outlet, mydrivers, Huawei’s upcoming AI chip, the Ascend 920, could serve as a potential replacement for NVIDIA’s H20…” / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC has reportedly been mulling a price hike of up to 30% for 4nm chip production at its Arizona plant / full item
- China: RIVAI unveils next-gen high-performance RISC-V server chip, Lingyu, focusing in part on AI LLMs like DeepSeek / full item
- Aetherflux has raised $50M Series A funding with tech that utilises small satellites to transmit power from low Earth orbit via infrared lasers / full item
- ‘China launches internet technology test satellites with Long March 2D’ / full item
- Japan: Space agency and partner firm commence work on Mars landing spacecraft using inflatable decelerators / full item
HBR: Realizing the Generative AI Opportunity
- China’s two primary megaconstellations are now under construction, with 2025 set to be a turning point for the projects’ / full item
- China: iSpace launch company, aka Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd, secures ‘several hundred million yuan’ in new funding, with sights on first launch of Hyperbola-3 reusable rocket / full item
‘China’s megaconstellation launches could litter orbit for more than a century, analysts warn’ / full item
- Amazon targets April 9th for launch of the first batch of 27 Kuiper internet satellites / full item
- Taiwan: Chunghwa Telecom partners Astranis satellite firm to build dedicated MicroGEO system, with Chunghwa investing around $115M in Astranis / full item
- China: Three Chinese astronauts arrived at Tiangong space station Thursday, taking over at the end of the current crew’s 6-month deployment / full item
ECIPE: AI and India’s National Interest
- China: 6 experimental Shiyan series satellites enter orbit via Long March 6A rocket intended for ‘space environment detection and related technical tests’ / full item
- India: An intro to PierSight, using satellites for sea-level intelligence, monitoring illegal fishing, oil spills and more / full item
- China: Newly-released mission roadmap shows long-term deep space strategy built around planetary habitability and the search for extraterrestrial life / full item
- An intro to Crusoe Energy, the company building the first phase of the $500 billion Project Stargate, set to be the world’s biggest AI datacentre, for OpenAI and Oracle / full item
- Vietnam allows SpaceX to trial Starlink low-orbit satellite internet service in the country on an extended basis until 2031 / full item
- Taiwan’s UMC semiconductor firm announces new fabrication facility for Singapore, looking at investing up to $5 billion in phase 1, with the possibility of second phase expansion / full item
McKinsey: The State Of AI – March 2025
- China: Companies including ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent placed at least $16BN in orders for China-market NVIDIA H20 server chips in Q1 2025, likely driven by DeepSeek competition / full item
- Taiwan: TSMC’s new 2nm-focused fabrication plant in Kaohsiung is projected to create 7000 new technology jobs for the country / full item
- NVIDIA has commissioned over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space in Arizona and Texas to build and test AI chips as part of a move towards US production / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC may face penalty of $1BN or more to settle US export control investigation over TSMC chips found in Huawei AI processors, sourced by China’s Sophgo / full item
- Samsung has reportedly told clients it will phase out DDR4 chips to focus on higher-end memory, citing fierce price competition from Chinese rival firms / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC unveils new A14 tech for faster chips, assembling in packages that boost performance for artificial intelligence and other high-performance applications / full item
Intel-TSMC JV rumours dispelled: “TSMC is not engaged in any discussion with other companies regarding any joint venture, technology licensing or technology” / full item
- Asia Tech Weekly: Starlink & India, China’s space developments, Vietnam’s first chip wafer facility, Taiwan gets Google TPUs, data centres in Thailand, BMW partners Huawei… / full item
NATO StratCom COE: Virtual Manipulation Brief 2025
Plus: Asia’s Tech News, Weekly in April
- April 26th: LinkedIn newsletter / Substack newsletter
- April 19th: LinkedIn newsletter / Substack newsletter
- April 12th: LinkedIn newsletter / Substack newsletter
- April 5th: LinkedIn newsletter / Substack newsletter
