Global headlines summary
Critical and emerging technologies in the news, globally, across June of 2025, looking at semiconductors, supply chains, security concerns, trade and investment, risks and beyond.
Also available:
• Critical technologies news across Q2 of 2025
MIT Quantum Index Report 2025
- ‘Finland will lead a new EU defense initiative called Quest to explore military applications of quantum technologies, focusing on computing, sensing, and metrology’ / full item
- “By weakening cryptography, quantum computing would present a serious threat to our everyday cybersecurity. So is a quantum-cryptography apocalypse imminent?” / full item
- Here’s a quick intro to 8 robotic hand startups, many of them driven by artificial intelligence systems / full item
“French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that France must gain mastery over advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes in the 2 to 10-nanometer range…” / full item
- US may be set to roll out updated rule providing US allies access to AI chips, based on requirement that chips are run by approved US cloud and data center operators / full item
Int’l Energy Agency: Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025
“NVIDIA now faces a significant setback with a $4.5 billion write-off due to US export restrictions, rendering its China-specific H20 chips unusable. Designed to comply with previous regulations…” / full item
- The next Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum meeting is set for November 18-21 in The Philippines – provisional details are linked below / full item
‘As data center energy demand soars, startups are plotting their way into space-based computing with its promise of low-cost power and cooling.’ / full item
- European Space Agency targets $1 billion in investment for European Resilience from Space (ERS) program, available for both civil and military uses / full item
- US Commercial Space Federation launches Space Supply Chain Council – S2C2 – aiming to define industry priorities, recommend policy, and update on member impacts / full item
- NVIDIA and Taiwan’s Foxconn are in talks to deploy humanoid robots at US AI server-making plant / full item
“Battery makers in America have started to feel the pinch from China’s ban of exports of the critical mineral antimony, to the point of seeing the shortage as a national emergency.” / full item
- India: Defence R&D Organisation formally opens Quantum Technology Research Centre to advance indigenous capabilities for defense and strategic applications / full item
- China: QuantumCTek Co claims to have activated a 1000-qubit quantum system, taking it within sight of IBM quantum tech standards / full item
- China Telecom Quantum Group has launched a commercial-grade distributed cryptography system integrating quantum key distribution with post-quantum cryptography’ / full item
China’s AI Infrastructure Surge: Data Centers, AI Models, Military, Global
- Download: ‘Technology Convergence Report’ from the World Economic Forum / full item
- Robotics: “By 2050, about 90% of humanoids… will likely be used for repetitive, simple, and structured work—primarily industrial and commercial purposes. China is likely to have the highest number…” / full item
“…ASML has launched a project designed to discover and foster key engineering talent in China, in the latest show of its commitment to the market despite intensified US restrictions…” / full item
- Malaysia: In May, Belgium’s Melexis chipmaker expanded global operations in Sarawak, with plans to boost local hiring over 3-5 years / full item
- Huawei’s new laptop “is powered by a chip manufactured using years-old technology, suggesting US sanctions are still preventing China from developing cutting-edge semiconductor technologies” / full item
China: “The 2030 action plan, released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, focuses on breakthroughs in chip technology and quantum-scale measurement…” / full item
- Japan’s Rapidus and Siemens partner to develop 2-nanometer semiconductor design and manufacturing processes / full item
“Taiwanese cleanroom companies are receiving a wave of new orders as major global chipmakers expand production around the world, especially in the United States and Southeast Asia” / full item
- China: Shanghai Jiao Tong University-affiliated institute is now producing photonic chips, marking a milestone in China’s semiconductor and quantum computing capabilities / full item
- Taiwan: TSMC will start 2nm chips production at Baoshan and Kaohsiung facilities in H2 2025, with 2nm process seeing the first use of GAA – Gate All-Around – tech at scale / full item
- China’s leading science institution unveils AI-driven chip design system with potential to significantly accelerate semiconductor development, and replace human programmers / full item
Stanford: Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025
- China claims world-first with large-scale application of non-binary AI chips, delivered using proprietary ‘hybrid computing’ tech / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC is evaluating construction of an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates, a complex of 6 factories similar to facilities TSMC is building in Arizona / full item
- Amazon Project Kuiper’s second batch of satellites, 27 in this launch, successfully entered orbit / full item
- China has launched a second seismo-electromagnetic satellite for detecting precursors to natural disasters such as earthquakes, in collaborative launch with Italy and Austria / full item
- Video: ‘Australia’s next space port emerging in North Queensland’, an interview-based overview from Space Centre Australia / full item
- Taiwan’s RunSpace Innovation Challenge is now open for domestic and international teams in space and satellite innovation, with a focus on CubeSats / full item
“Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to make history as only the third private firm – and the first outside the United States – to achieve a controlled arrival on the lunar surface.” / full item
- Singapore Space & Technology Ltd relaunches as SST Think Tank, dedicated to mainstreaming space and commercialising space technologies across non-space sectors / full item
- China: Astronstone, launched in 2024, has raised over $13M with stainless steel, reusable launch vehicle modeled on SpaceX Starship and ‘chopsticks’ recovery system / full item
FPRI: Russia’s use of the instruments of statecraft in the Indo-Pacific
- Supply chains: Korea Zinc has made its first export of 20 tons of the strategically important critical mineral, antimony, to the United States / full item
“The responses of countries in the Asia-Pacific to Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs are converging around three distinct strategies: negotiation, retaliation, or a wait-and-see approach.” / full item
- Taiwan: Hon Hai Research Institute unveils critical AI server single-chip integrated circuit tech, and power management, in Japan, capable of chip operation above 150 degrees Celsius / full item
“This month, New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to build an advanced nuclear plant with the ability to produce at least 1 GW of power…” / full item
- South Korea’s Samsung is reportedly preparing for production at its US foundry, with plans to begin installing cleanroom and other equipment for 2-nanometer chips in 2026 / full item
- Japan’s Fujitsu is reportedly developing a 2nm CPU, MONAKA, based on designs from Arm and intended for AI and data center applications, with TSMC flagged for manufacturing / full item
- Tesla may be preparing for production of its new AI5 FSD computer, featuring performance target of 2K to 2.5K Trillion Operations Per Second using Samsung and TSMC / full item
“Chinese automakers… are reportedly preparing to launch vehicles equipped entirely with domestically produced chips, with at least 2 brands targeting mass production as early as 2026” / full item
- US chip giant NVIDIA is to attend the China International Supply Chain Expo for the first time in July / full item
- Vietnam: Qualcomm formally opened a new AI R&D centre in Vietnam in June / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC has opened a joint research lab with the University of Tokyo, TSMC-UTokyo Lab, TSMC’s first collaboration with an academic institute outside of Taiwan / full item
- ‘Samsung’s grasp on foundry market’s No. 2 spot grows precarious as SMIC plays catchup’ / full item
- TSMC flags delays in Japan expansion due to local community impacts, while US plans advance / full item
- Philippine Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are to partner on projects including agricultural monitoring and disaster management / full item
- Australia: Space Machines Company and partners, University of Technology Sydney, announce ‘Australia’s largest industrial-scale spacecraft manufacturing facility’ / full item
- Japan’s SoftBank founder looks to partner Taiwan’s TSMC to explore development of a trillion-dollar industrial complex, ‘Project Crystal Land’, in Arizona to build robots and AI systems / full item
- China: Patent reveals Huawei’s AI-accelerator quad-chiplet rival for NVIDIA’s Rubin AI GPUs could use packaging tech on a par with TSMC / full item
Belfer Center: Critical and Emerging Technologies – June 2025
