Asia Tech Review

Asia Tech Review

September 2026

Google ordered to pay $44 million in Indonesia’s Chromebook case
After sentencing former education minister and Gojek founder to prison, court turns attention to US tech giant
 • Jon Russell
Mynt moves closer to record billion-dollar Philippine IPO
Global investors including HSBC and IFC sign up for the country’s largest ever listing
 • Jon Russell
Alibaba doubles down on AI with ambitious new chip and Qwen model targets
Chips, models and data centre push show Chinese e-commerce firm’s clear ambition
 • Jon Russell
Google’s Waymo is bringing its driverless taxis to Singapore
Singapore will become newest test market, but full rollout isn’t likely until at least 2028
 • Jon Russell
Anthropic is finally opening an office in Singapore
The Claude maker poaches OpenAI executive to raise its game in Southeast Asia
 • Jon Russell
Grab doubles down on fintech with $1.5B deal to acquire Atome
The ride-hailing giant is spending big on a neighbour to finally deliver on its fintech growth promise
 • Jon Russell
AI helped Pocket FM double its revenue but it can’t buy taste
Indian audio platform claims $500M in ARR, with AI powering 90% of its content, and it shows…
 • Jon Russell
Alibaba eyes former intern’s AI infrastructure company in $300 million deal
UniPat AI could be valued at $2.5 billion following huge exits for platforms acquired by Stripe and Nvidia
 • Jon Russell
Circle is buying Singapore’s Tazapay for $400 million
It’s a big deal for Southeast Asia, but Southeast Asia isn’t a big part of the deal
 • Jon Russell
Moonshot’s massive IPO means Chinese AI companies need to start making big money
No longer a novelty, publicly traded Chinese AI firms will need to justify huge new valuations and that will take time
 • Jon Russell
MiniMax and Z.ai are growing up with big revenue jumps but a lot more spending
China’s public AI companies are now playing in the global market as their first financial reports show
 • Jon Russell
© 2026 Jon Russell · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture