China’s Wild West of cheap access to Claude, ChatGPT and more
Plus, a recap of all the major Asia tech news from last week.
Welcome back—China has blocked its population from accessing US AI services, but did you know that Chinese developers have found ways to not just use Claude and ChatGPT, but to do so at heavily discounted prices?
That’s the one line takeaway from an insightful China Talk article on the grey market of cheap AI tokens in China.
Transfer stations, the value of logs (“the logs are the product”) and the levels of fraud/test paint a picture of a Wild West that lives below the surface of Anthropic and OpenAI’s token requests. I’ve always enjoyed reading about and seeing the underbelly of technology, there’s plenty of it in Asia, and this piece gets into the workings within the shadows of the reef.
There’s also an SCMP version for those who want a higher level take that’s less in the weeds.
It’s little wonder that Singapore is a global hot spot for AI usage, when so much of mainland China’s activity flows through Southeast Asia using VPNs or other proxies.
If you missed our emails last week, we covered a lot of topics you’ll want to read: Grab’s newest profitable quarter, Thailand’s top payment app’s blockchain strategy, TikTok’s $25 billion Southeast Asia data play and two notable startup exits, including Reap being bought for $600 million. Plus why DeepSeek is China’s AI winner, an IPO for India’s Nvidia champion and more.
Have a great week and see you tomorrow,
Jon
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China
DeepSeek could be valued at up to $50B in its first fundraising round, with China’s national AI fund in talks to lead an investment that could raise $3B-$4B link
Moonshot AI raised about $2B in a Meituan-led round that valued the Chinese startup at more than $20B link
Alibaba is outpacing Tencent in the AI rally as investor bets shift toward chip exposure over applications link
China’s early lead in humanoid robots is set to strengthen its manufacturing and export dominance, according to Morgan Stanley link
The country is set to source more than 70% of the silicon wafers used by its chipmakers from domestic suppliers this year, as Beijing pushes harder to localise its semiconductor supply chain link
Kaspersky suspects Chinese hackers planted a backdoor in Daemon Tools in a widespread attack link
Shein is under investigation by Ireland’s data regulator over transfers of user data to China link
Rivian is considering making its own lidar sensors and could partner with a Chinese firm link
The US and China are considering formal talks on AI ahead of next week’s Trump-Xi summit, amid concerns their rivalry could spiral into crisis link
The Pentagon’s reversal on blacklisting Alibaba and Baidu exposed divisions within the Trump administration over how hard to confront Beijing link
Robot Era raised more than $200M in a funding round led by SF Express as investors pour capital into China’s humanoid robot sector link
China will require new data centres to use green electricity under a fresh action plan aimed at curbing the carbon footprint of its AI boom link
ByteDance is raising planned capital expenditure this year to more than 200B yuan ($30B) as it increases AI spending link
Alibaba is preparing to integrate Qwen with Taobao so shoppers can browse and buy products through AI conversations link
TikTok is emerging as a propaganda and possible recruitment tool for Mexico’s CJNG drug cartel, according to a Graphika report link
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is nearing a deal with TikTok to settle a child privacy lawsuit for about $400M link
India
Motorola is asking Indian courts to force Google, Meta and X to remove hundreds of posts it says are defamatory, in a legal push that has alarmed digital rights advocates link
Yotta Data Services is planning a Mumbai IPO that could raise up to $900M at a valuation of as much as $6B, alongside a potential $300M pre-IPO round, as demand for AI infrastructure rises link
Ola’s Krutrim has been hit by senior exits across its AI and semiconductor teams, dealing a blow to the startup’s AI and chip ambitions link
Emergent is in talks to raise $250M at a $1.5B valuation, five months after raising $70M link
Truecaller said it will cut 70 jobs, or about 15% of its workforce, after reporting declines in revenue and profit link
Peak XV Partners hired former Fractal executive Shelly Singh as an operating partner in San Francisco as it deepens its push into US AI investments link
Home help startup Pronto raised $20M at a $200M valuation link
Freshworks is cutting 11% of jobs as AI reshapes the software industry link
BigEndian Semiconductors raised $6M to commercialise its first system-on-chip and scale indigenous VisionAI chips link
Meesho reported Q4 revenue jumped 47% while operating losses widened link
Apple pledged an initial Rs 100 crore ($12M) investment to develop more than 150MW of renewable energy capacity in India link
Amazon is integrating MX Player into Prime Video in India and phasing out the standalone brand link
Tata Group and JSW Group are set to spend nearly $1B on electric vehicle and battery research as India pushes to cut reliance on Chinese technology link
Skyroot Aerospace raised $60M and became India’s first space-tech unicorn as it prepares for the maiden launch of Vikram-1 link
Razorpay has reportedly scaled back its offline payments expansion after sluggish growth in the business stalled its point-of-sale push link
India’s Enforcement Directorate arrested the three founders of Gameskraft in a money laundering probe tied to its real-money gaming business link
Ola Consumer, has begun its IPO process despite declining revenue and rising losses link
Zepto secured regulatory approval for its IPO and is preparing to update its prospectus for a listing that could raise Rs 8,000-9,000 crore ($950M-$1.1B) link
Wispr Flow said India has become its fastest-growing market as it bets on the country’s heavy use of voice notes, voice search and multilingual messaging link
Southeast Asia
Amazon is cutting staff in Singapore and closing its local operations, which launched in 2019 link
Thailand approved 958B baht ($29B) in investment projects led by TikTok’s 842B baht ($25.5B) data infrastructure expansion, as it pushes to become a regional AI and cloud hub link
Singapore’s parliament unanimously backed a motion calling for the city-state to avoid jobless growth in the AI era link
Malaysia is grappling with how to secure real-time payments as AI takes a bigger role in how money moves link
Crypto exchange Bithumb is expanding into Vietnam under a new partnership with SSID link
Thailand’s OBON Corp allegedly helped channel up to $2.5B of restricted Nvidia AI servers into China, in a suspected sanctions-evasion scheme link
Malaysia is weighing action against Meta over fake accounts impersonating the country’s Malay rulers link
Taiwan
MediaTek is building Taiwan’s most advanced AI data centre with Nvidia’s B200 chips and the island’s first large-scale immersion-cooling system link
Taiwan prosecutors indicted a news anchor for allegedly taking cryptocurrency from a Chinese agent to produce news shows and bribe soldiers for military secrets link
TSMC and Sony plan to form a joint venture to produce next-generation image sensors link
Japan and Taiwan are stepping up drone cooperation as both seek to cut reliance on Chinese supply chains link
Japan
SoftBank has launched JVs and local offerings with portfolio companies in the past, and now it is said to be exploring plans to build AI servers in Japan with support from Nvidia and Foxconn link
Japan is deploying $2,000 cardboard drones for swarm warfare, betting on cheap expendable systems to overwhelm adversaries at scale link
Kyoto Fusioneering is testing industrial uses for its nuclear fusion technology, including geothermal drilling, as Japan’s fusion startups look for commercial spin-offs link
Sony forecast full-year net profit will rise 12.5% to 1.16T yen ($7.39B) despite concerns over higher memory chip prices and supply constraints link
South Korea
South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung are central to a US-led supply chain bloc aimed at easing the global memory chip shortage and cutting reliance on China link
An inheritance dispute within LG has escalated into a criminal complaint over the division of the late chairman’s estate link
Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics unveiled a production-ready Atlas humanoid robot performing advanced gymnastics in a live demonstration link
Samsung passed a $1T market value on surging demand for AI memory chips, becoming the second Asian company after TSMC to cross the threshold link
North Korean hackers targeted ethnic Koreans in China’s Yanbian region with spyware hidden in an Android card game, in a campaign researchers say likely targeted refugees and defectors link
Coupang warned revenue growth will slow this year after a cyber breach involving nearly 34M accounts hit spending, and it posted a $242M operating loss for the March quarter link
Jogye Order has introduced its first robot monk as it turns to technology to revive interest in Buddhism link
Samsung Electronics is facing the threat of a prolonged strike as unions demand a bigger share of profits from the AI-driven chip boom link
South Korea has surpassed Canada to become the world’s seventh-largest stock market link
SK Hynix is receiving unprecedented offers from tech giants to help finance new chip lines and ASML equipment as they scramble for AI memory supply link
Toss said 4.8M users have signed up for FacePay since September, and the service is now accepted at about 330,000 outlets in South Korea link
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s government-backed HKGAI Research and Development Centre is set to launch a DeepSeek-based AI model that runs on Chinese-made chips, as it pushes sovereign AI and cuts reliance on foreign hardware link
Kraken owner Payward acquired Hong Kong-based payments firm Reap Technologies for $600M in its biggest push into Asia link
Baidu is preparing IPOs in Shanghai and Hong Kong for its chip arm Kunlunxin link