Trump's tariffs shake up China’s tech sector, but an exemption is granted—for now.
Tariffs jeopardise TikTok’s US negotiations; ShopUp merges with Middle Eastern competitor to strengthen market presence.
Welcome back,
That was quite a week as President Trump decided to put tariffs on seemingly the entire world—maybe even using ChatGPT to calculate the figures. He then decided to ‘pause’ most tariffs but double down on China, which saw its figure rocket to 120%.
Avoiding the politics—the “China has been here for 5,000 years” response is amazing, if you’re asking—and there’s a whole load happening around tech.
But that’s where we are leading this week with a recap of where we are at with the tech impact from tariffs. Then there’s also the impact that it is having on the TikTok USA deal.
Plus, we’ve talked about how AI has revived Alibaba and now it wants to take that push global. And an under-the-radar startup success from Bangladesh just scored a massive merger and a $100 million investment to go after growth.
All of that and more for you this week—have a great one!
Jon
Follow the Asia Tech Review LinkedIn page for updates on posts published here and interesting things that come our way. If you’re a news junkie, the ATR Telegram news feed has you covered with news as-it-happens or join the community chat here.
News in Focus
Trump tariffs cause tech chaos — but for now, Apple and co. are exempt.
Late on Friday, President Trump exempted phones, computers and other technology devices and components from his unprecedented tariff plans, which imposed 145% tariffs on products from China.
The focus was on Apple and other big US tech firms during the chaos before the tech exemption, and for good reason since it manufactures the majority of its products in China. Apple, like others, has moved some production to India, and parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Indonesia but fully diversifying requires staffing, increased production, experience, etc.
Yet the Trump administration said these exemptions will allow big tech firms to move production to the US.
“At the direction of the President, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told CNBC.
Ok then.
Some reading:
Apple is accelerating its iPhone production push in India—where it assembled $22B worth of phones during the last year, that’s up 60% year-on-year and it means around 20% of all iPhones are now made in India
Apple was so worried about tariffs that it charted a series of cargo flights so it could ship 1.5 million iPhones from India to the US so it could beat the introduction of the measures
Amazon, meanwhile, suddenly canceled orders for products made in China and other Asian countries, including beach chairs and air conditioners
Microsoft also abruptly cut access to its services for some Microsoft 365 customers in China
Still, there was chaos in factories and workers within ‘Shein villages’ continue to face an unclear future thanks to the trade war. Even with the respite, companies are having to redraw and adapt their supply chains to fit Trump’s approach to globalisation. At least one new Apple supplier, Luxshare, is considering moving manufacturing to the US.
The US has spared technology firms from potentially brutal tariffs but China isn’t making an exception for US firms that rely on its manufacturing, according to a report from Tom’s Hardware:
Amid a fierce trade war with the US, China's General Administration of Customs has changed its rules of how the origin of imported chips must be classified, now deeming that the wafer fabrication location should be counted as the origin of chips shipped to the country.
This rule exempts products from AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and other chipmakers who outsource wafer fabrication to Taiwanese companies from the punitive 125% tariff China now imposes on products from the U.S.
However, this badly hurts Intel, Global Foundries, Texas Instruments, and chip designers who produce chips in America.
As is the case with all things Trump, time and pragmatism will tell how this episode plays out. But it certainly seems like this is not the result that the administration expected one week ago.
Related and weird: Lip-Bu Tan, recently named CEO of Intel, has invested in hundreds of Chinese tech firms, including at least eight linked to the People’s Liberation Army, according to a Reuters review. It’s not clear how the Intel board missed this, given the current politics—or perhaps they looked the other way given the situation the company is in?!
TikTok US deal halted by Trump tariffs
Filed under more Trump-related matters is ByteDance and the resolution for TikTok USA
The Chinese firm is said to have agreed on a new ownership structure for its US business that is compliant with Washington. It’ll see American investors take a 50% ownership stake in TikTok USA, with ByteDance holding less than 20%.
The deal was set to be done with Beijing’s blessing until the tariffs were announced, after which China is said to have pulled its support for the deal. It may not be dead yet, though. China has said any deal must comply with its rules.
Meanwhile, ByteDance’s international revenue—which comes mostly from TikTok—rose by 63% to reach $39 billion last year. That means international income now represents one-quarter of all revenue, and that’s good timing as ByteDance’s China growth is slowing.
The firm is making some interesting moves on the AI front.
Firstly, it is using its troves of user data to fuel a major AI push. That data, it believes, can give it a real edge for training and developing useful AI services and future features, too. ByteDance plans to launch AI-powered smart glasses that would be similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses. ByteDance’s version, though, could include a chatbot and photo/video capabilities powered by its own AI models.
Alibaba targets global AI expansion to build on China lead
Alibaba’s AI assistant Quark might follow DeepSeek to become the next global AI phenomenon out of China.
Quark is already China’s top AI assistant. Rankings put it in the number one spot with almost 150 million active users in China, ahead of ByteDance’s Doubao on 100 million and DeepSeek’s 77 million users. But Alibaba isn’t satisfied with that and now it is said to be boosting its overseas AI offerings with two new products for Singapore area customers. That follows the same playbook as DeepSeek, aggressively affordable and developer friendly AI that can take on the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic for international users—both consumer and developer.
ShopUp raises $110M as it merges with Middle Eastern competitor
ShopUp is a company I often hear praised by investors and fellow founders. The first Bangladeshi startup to feature in Sequoia’s Surge accelerator program, it is a B2B commerce company that connects the supply chain—mills, brands, and manufacturers—to small neighborhood shops. It is often praised for its phenomenal yet under-the-radar growth, savvy management, and strong product-market fit.
While it has raised over $100 million and still been fairly low profile, ShopUp just picked up significant attention after it merged with Saudi Arabia-based B2B marketplace Sary—which has a similar model—to form SILQ Group. The goal is to combine expertise, share resources and deepen their presence in their two markets and beyond. The group created a financing arm to extend its business reach.
To help super charge growth, the group picked up $110 million in additional funding from Sanabil Investments—which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund—and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, which invested in ShopUp back in 2021.
The deal is pretty adventurous and it is certainly a unique one to track. Is there a potential exit via sale, or will SILQ ultimately look to go public, and if so in which market?
China
Shein filed papers to go public in the UK last June, but it is still slowly getting regulator approval to move ahead with the IPO—the latest green light comes from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The big nod it needs is from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and there’s no timeframe on when that might happen link
China’s regulators are also clouding Synopsys’s $34 billion takeover of Ansys—the deal is a major piece of consolidation in the silicon/design space, so it requires antitrust signoff from countries including China. The lag from Beijing has seen the acquisition deal spread (the difference between the stock price and target acquisition price) widen to $40 from $25 over two weeks link
The UK’s cyber agency and international partners warn that China-linked hackers are using known spyware—MOONSHINE and BADBAZAAR—to secretly monitor Uyghur, Tibetan, and Taiwanese groups by accessing devices, messages, and real-time data link
Meanwhile, Chinese officials are said to have privately admitted to cyberattacks linked to the Volt Typhoon campaign, which targeted US ports, water utilities, airports, and other infrastructure link
The US investigation into TP-Link centers on the claim that the router maker has ‘chosen’ the US over China, even though it continues to have a significant presence in China link
DeepSeek says it has developed a new way to improve how AI models think and respond, from work with Tsinghua University—it is said to combine two techniques (generative reward modelling (GRM) and self-critique tuning) to generate better and faster answers link
DeepSeek is also working with Qualcomm to develop solutions and services around advanced driver assistance link
SenseTime has unveiled new AI models it says outperform OpenAI in reasoning, aiming to strengthen its position in the crowded AI race—SenseNova V6 and V6 Reasoner reportedly beat GPT-4o in tasks like fact-checking and data analysis link
The global race to build human-level artificial intelligence is heating up, with new challengers from China and beyond closing in on US front-runners like OpenAI and Google, according to the 2025 AI Index link
As the US-China trade war escalates, retail giants like JD.com and Alibaba’s Freshippo are launching new efforts to help exporters sell their products in the domestic market link
China has taken the lead in the race to develop humanoid robots—that’s thanks to a similar play as EVs: cheaper parts, rapid innovation, and state-backed funding link
India
JioHotstar crossed 200M paying subscribers—that makes it India’s top streaming platform and the world’s third-largest behind only Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video link
AI startup Ziroh Labs claims it has developed a system that runs large AI models on standard CPUs, avoiding the need for expensive chips like those from Nvidia link
Bose has reportedly invested $20M into Noise, its second investment into the wearable tech business link
American lenders have sued Byju Raveendran and his wife in a US bankruptcy court over $500M in missing loan funds link
Over half of all EVs in Delhi are three-wheelers, yet they receive little official support which pushes them towards power theft and banned, unsafe batteries link
Digital payments startup Easebuzz raised $30M led by Bessemer Venture Partners link
Payments firm Juspay raised $60M led by Kedaara Capital at a $900M valuation—SoftBank and Accel also took part link
India is considering local storage of AI models to reduce risks and prevent data from leaving the country link
Wikimedia, the company behind Wikipedia, has appealed an Indian court's order to remove content—the situation began when publisher ANI sued for defamation after being labeled a “propaganda tool” for the government link
Uber is reworking its pricing model in India with a shift towards subscription revenue and not commissions—that’s in response to the rise of commission-free alternatives and a government-backed ride-hailing service link
Southeast Asia
Human rights organisation Amnesty International has urged Thai authorities to investigate claims of state-sponsored cyberattacks against human rights organizations and pro-democracy activists link
Alan Wei Zhaolun, the Chinese-born entrepreneur at the center of a Singapore server fraud case, has been found to run over a dozen tech firms tied to major players like Nvidia, with operations in Singapore and Malaysia link
A Financial Times ranking of Asia Pacific’s fastest growing companies suggests startups are making progress despite “stormy weather” link
Taiwan
TSMC sales grew 42% thanks to soaring demand for AI chips ahead of US tariffs link
TSMC has certainly been under pressure: with President Trump himself saying that he told TSMC that it would have to pay 100% tax if it doesn't build in US—it has since agreed to develop US-based factories link
But the firm may face a penalty exceeding $1B from the US government over a chip it produced for China’s Sophgo that ended up in Huawei’s Ascend 910B AI processor link
South Korea
Samsung posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by solid Galaxy S25 and legacy DRAM sales link
SK Hynix overtook Samsung Electronics for the first time to lead global DRAM revenues, according to new data from Counterpoint Research link
Rest of Asia
Pakistan has signed up Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao as a strategic advisor to its new Crypto Council link
NTT has stepped into the AI chip race after it released an AI chip that can process high-resolution video captured by drones link
Ant Digital Technologies—the tech unit of Ant Group—has picked Hong Kong as its international HQ, apparently highlighting the city’s focus on AI and Web3 link
Shake it shake it