The Wrap | 25 - 31 Oct 2025
Asia Tech Lens’ weekly digest of the signals, shifts, and stories shaping Asia’s tech future
Editor’s Note: Asia’s tech machine didn’t idle this week, it lifted off. From NTU’s plan to hoist data centers into Low Earth Orbit to AWS doubling down on Korea, the region is re-architecting compute where land, power, and policy collide. China’s model makers pushed the pace (again), India’s IPO engine revved (again), and layoffs kept reminding everyone that AI isn’t just a technology—it’s a restructuring mandate. Let’s connect the dots.
Space Tech | Singapore
NTU Proposes Carbon-Neutral Data Centers in Orbit
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) scientists have outlined a framework for orbital data centers that could achieve net-zero emissions by harnessing unlimited solar energy and the cold vacuum of space for cooling. Published in Nature Electronics, the study suggests “edge” and “cloud” constellations of satellites in Low Earth Orbit could process or store data for Earth without consuming terrestrial power or land. The project models lifecycle carbon use and shows that reusable rockets and space-grade chips make such systems increasingly viable for land-scarce hubs like Singapore.
Bottom Line: With land and energy running short, Singapore is literally looking off-planet. If launch and reliability costs fall, space could become the next hyperscaler frontier.
AI | China
MiniMax Unveils Open-Source M2 Model
China-based startup MiniMax has released M2, an open-source large language model built for agent workflows and coding. It claims twice the speed of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 at just 8% of the cost, with weights available on Hugging Face and full support for vLLM and SGLang. The company also launched its own M2-powered agent platform offering “Lightning” and “Pro” modes for automation tasks.
Bottom Line: MiniMax is playing offense with price and speed—turning open AI tools into China’s latest export
AI | China
DeepSeek and Qwen Beat Western Rivals in Real-Market Test
In a live cryptocurrency trading competition by U.S. research firm Nof1, Chinese models DeepSeek V3.1 and Alibaba’s Qwen 3 Max delivered returns exceeding 100% in nine days, far ahead of GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro, which lost over half their capital. The contest tasks models with trading bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin using identical data and prompts, offering a rough gauge of adaptive reasoning in volatile markets.
Bottom Line: Benchmarks are becoming live trials. Performance stunts like this may be imperfect, but they showcase how quickly Chinese models are maturing in real-world applications.
Data Centers | South Korea
AWS Commits $5B More to Korea’s AI Infrastructure
Amazon Web Services will invest another $5 billion by 2031 to build new data centers in South Korea, adding to a $4 billion partnership with SK Group announced earlier this year. The deal was unveiled after AWS CEO Matt Garman met President Lee Jae Myung, reinforcing Korea’s role as an AI compute hub amid surging demand across Asia.
Bottom Line: Korea is stacking a full-stack advantage—memory fabs, foundries, and hyperscaler capex—cementing its position as Northeast Asia’s infrastructure powerhouse.
Tech Policy | China–US
China Approves TikTok Transfer Deal
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that Beijing has approved the long-awaited TikTok transfer agreement. Under the plan, Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the U.S. entity, while ByteDance retains under 20%. TikTok’s algorithm will be retrained and monitored by U.S. security partners, with full handover expected in the coming months.
Bottom Line: After years of stalemate, the TikTok sale may finally move forward—offering a test case for digital sovereignty deals between Washington and Beijing.
AI & Labor | India & Japan
Japan & India Lead Asia’s Tech Layoffs as AI Restructures Work
More than 200,000 tech jobs have been cut worldwide in 2025, with India and Japan leading Asia’s redundancies. TCS slashed 12,000 roles as part of a “transformation” drive, while Panasonic is cutting 10,000 jobs to streamline operations. Companies from ByteDance to Microsoft are replacing functions with automation and enterprise AI systems.
Bottom Line: The automation wave has moved up the org chart—senior and mid-level roles are now at risk as firms rewire around AI efficiency.
AI | India
OpenAI Offers Free ChatGPT Go in India
OpenAI will make its ChatGPT Go plan free for one year starting Nov 4, targeting its second-largest user base globally. The move follows India’s proposed rules requiring AI-generated content to be clearly labeled and comes amid rival offers: Perplexity’s partnership with Bharti Airtel and Google’s free Gemini AI Pro access for students.
Bottom Line: India’s AI race is shifting from model supremacy to user acquisition. Free tiers are the new battleground for ecosystem dominance.
Cybercrime | Cambodia–South Korea
Phnom Penh and Seoul Launch Joint Anti-Scam Task Force
Cambodia and South Korea will establish a joint task force in November to tackle online fraud involving Koreans in Cambodia. The move coincides with the elevation of bilateral ties to a “strategic partnership,” expanding cooperation on security, technology, and economic development.
Bottom Line: Digital crime is now central to diplomacy. Expect more cross-border enforcement units across Asia’s connected economies.
Signals to Watch:
Orbit-ready silicon: Space-grade processors from AMD-class vendors and fault-tolerant IP (e.g., Singapore’s Zero Error Systems) could pull LEO compute forward on the roadmap.
Agent benchmarks: Expect more “live market” contests that test tool-use, not just static QA. Treat them as stress tests, not gospel.
Korea’s capex flywheel: If AWS’s bet accelerates, watch for policy sweeteners around power, permitting, and skills.
The Takeaway:
Asia is simultaneously moving up the stack (open models, agent tooling), out to the edge (Korea’s data centers), and off the planet (Singapore’s orbital compute). The region’s competitive advantage isn’t a single champion; it’s the willingness to experiment across geology and policy—even if the HR spreadsheet outlook is brutal.
Sources:
Singapore NTU Newroom; MiniMax M2 (TechNode); DeepSeek & Qwen trading challenge (SCMP); AWS Korea $5B (Bloomberg); TikTok transfer (Reuters); Global Tech Layoffs (e27); OpenAI Go India (Reuters); Cambodia–Korea task force (Nation Thailand)
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Fantastic roundup this week! The NTU orbital data center concept is absolutely visionary, Singapore's land constraints are literally pushing computing off planet. That DeepSeek and Qwen result in the crypto trading contest is impressiv, 100% returns while GPT-5 lost half its capital should be a wake up call for Western AI labs. The TikTok transfer progres is huge too, six of seven board seats going to Americans changes the entire sovereignty calculus. AWS doubling down on Korea with $5B more shows where the smart money sees infrastructure opportunty. Great work connecting all these dots!