The Wrap | 27 Dec 2025 – 2 Jan 2026
Asia Tech Lens’ weekly digest of the signals, shifts, and stories shaping Asia’s tech future
Editor’s Note: Happy New Year and welcome to the first Asia Tech Lens wrap of 2026! We are starting the year by looking back at the final week of 2025, which closed with a clear signal that Asian tech is entering a more operational phase.
Meta’s move on Manus showed how quickly AI agents are becoming monetizable products and how much geopolitical hygiene now matters alongside growth. China’s draft rules on human-like chatbots pushed governance into emotional safety, raising the compliance bar for AI companions and interactive assistants. At the same time, the compute stack continued to concentrate, with data center capital and leading-edge chip production reinforcing where leverage sits.
Heading into 2026, the story to watch is whether this “scale phase” holds. Expect sharper scrutiny on AI products that blur the line between utility and emotional influence, more dealmaking around data centers and AI infrastructure, and continued choke points across the supply chain that will shape who can deploy AI reliably, and economically.
Podcast Spotlight | A Look Back: The Most Useful Insights From 2025
This episode is rewind of the moments that stayed with us, from pivots and fundraising realities to the hard decisions behind scaling across markets and time zones.
You will hear standout takeaways on AI learning and product validation, personalized education at scale, and what it takes to build trust in safety-critical sectors like eye health. We also unpack fintech execution on the ground in Southeast Asia, from business lending to payments infrastructure and stablecoin rails built for everyday merchants, plus how automotive platforms scale beyond classifieds when financing and insurance become real growth levers. Across it all, the theme is leadership under pressure: the toughest calls, the emotional cost, and how teams reset, rebuild, and keep going.
Watch on YouTube | Listen on Spotify · Apple Podcasts
AI Agents | Singapore
Meta To Acquire Manus AI, a Chinese-Founded AI Agent That Made Headlines in 2025
In an interesting turn of events, Meta will acquire Manus, a Singapore-based AI agent startup that drew outsized attention in Silicon Valley after a spring 2025 demo showed an agent screening job candidates, planning trips, and analyzing stock portfolios. Meta says it will keep Manus operating as a standalone subscription service, while also integrating its agents across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The backstory still matters, but Meta is trying to neutralize it: Manus’ parent company, Butterfly Effect, was founded in Beijing in 2022 before shifting to Singapore in 2025, and the company’s China links have already attracted attention in Washington, including criticism from Senator John Cornyn over U.S. capital exposure.
Bottom Line: Meta is buying a proven, paid AI agent. The China-linked origin is a risk, but Meta says it will cut all Chinese ownership and shut down China operations to limit backlash.
AI | China
China Proposes World’s Strictest AI Chatbot Rules
China’s Cyberspace Administration has released draft rules covering “anthropomorphic interactive AI” services, meaning products that simulate human personality and engage users emotionally via text, images, audio, or video.
The draft sets red lines on emotional harm: services must not encourage or glamorize suicide or self-harm, or use verbal violence or emotional manipulation. Providers would need an emergency response process, including human takeover if a user explicitly raises suicide or self-harm, plus steps to contact guardians or emergency contacts. It also requires a minors mode with guardian consent for emotional-companionship use, prompts after two hours of continuous use, and safety assessments once products reach 1 million+ registered users or 100,000+ monthly active users.
Bottom Line: China is pushing AI governance beyond content to emotional safety, raising compliance costs for AI companion and human-like chatbot services - and setting a benchmark for other countries to follow.
Data Centers | Japan
SoftBank to Buy DigitalBridge in $3B Cash Data Center Deal
SoftBank has agreed to acquire DigitalBridge, an investment manager focused on digital infrastructure, as it ramps up exposure to data centers and AI-linked infrastructure. SoftBank will pay $16 per share, valuing the equity at about $3 billion (about $4 billion including debt), with closing expected in the second half of 2026 subject to regulatory approvals.
DigitalBridge manages about $108 billion in digital infrastructure assets and has stakes across data centers and related platforms, including names such as Vantage Data Centers and Switch.
Bottom Line: The offer represents a substantial premium versus DigitalBridge’s early-December price, underscoring how fast AI-driven demand has repriced data center capacity and the financing ecosystem around it.
Semiconductors | Taiwan
TSMC Flips The 2nm Switch, Tightening Its AI-era Lead
TSMC has begun volume production of its 2-nanometre (N2) chips in 4Q 2025, calling it the industry’s most advanced node for transistor density and energy efficiency. The milestone matters because TSMC sits at the center of the global AI supply chain, producing chips used across everything from smartphones to advanced computing, and counting customers like Nvidia and Apple. With AI investment still driving demand for leading-edge silicon, moving 2nm into mass production strengthens TSMC’s position as the primary manufacturer of the world’s most advanced chips.
Bottom line: 2nm entering volume production is a capability jump that reinforces TSMC’s lead in the AI era and raises the bar for rivals trying to match performance-per-watt.
Semiconductors | South Korea
US Approves Samsung, SK Hynix Chipmaking Tool Shipments to China
The US has given Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix an annual license for 2026 to ship chipmaking equipment to their factories in China, sources said on Dec 30. Both companies rely on China as a major production base for traditional memory chips, which have seen stronger demand from AI data centers and tighter supply.
Samsung, SK Hynix and Taiwan’s TSMC had benefited from exemptions to Washington’s sweeping restrictions on chip-related exports to China. But the privilege known as validated end-user status will end on Dec 31, meaning shipments of American chipmaking tools to their factories in China after that date will require US export licenses.
Bottom Line: The licenses keep Samsung and SK Hynix’s China fabs supplied in 2026, but the concern is that U.S. access is now a renew-it-every-year permission, not a standing exemption.
Robotics | China
Unitree and JD.com Take Humanoid Robots Offline with First Beijing Store
Unitree has opened its first offline “robot experience” store in Beijing with JD.com, giving shoppers a place to see, try, and buy products like the G1 humanoid and Go2 robot dog, with on-site purchase or QR ordering for pickup and JD delivery.
Prices highlighted in local reporting put the lineup in a wide consumer-to-enterprise band, from roughly US$5k+ for entry humanoids to US$80k+ for higher-end models.
The opening also lands as Unitree broadens its ecosystem, including a recently launched humanoid “app store” that lets users download and deploy motion skills (dance, martial arts, etc.) with minimal technical effort, and as it advances toward a domestic IPO with CITIC Securities involved in the pre-IPO process.
Bottom Line: This is Unitree’s push from viral demos into retail distribution, using JD’s foot traffic and logistics to make “owning a robot” feel like a normal consumer purchase.
Signals to Watch
Meta acquires Manus AI
Watch whether Meta can credibly sever China ties in governance and data handling, and whether enterprise buyers slow adoption due to compliance reviews. Also watch how quickly Meta embeds Manus agents into WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
Japan: SoftBank to buy DigitalBridge
Watch regulatory timing and financing conditions, plus whether SoftBank uses DigitalBridge to secure AI-driven data center capacity, not just manage assets.
TSMC starts 2nm volume production
Watch how fast TSMC can ramp output and which customers get early capacity. Also watch two bottlenecks: advanced packaging and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which is stacked, ultra-fast memory placed next to GPUs. If HBM is tight, AI server shipments can be limited even if 2nm chips are ready.
South Korea: US annual licenses for China tool shipments
Watch if renewals stay routine or become a yearly leverage point.
China: Unitree and JD open first offline robot store
Watch conversion rates and after-sales servicing costs, not just store buzz. Also watch whether the humanoid app store attracts real developer usage and repeat engagement.
The Takeaway
Manus is not a “distribution unlock” so much as a proof point that paid agents can already scale. Meta is buying an agent business with demonstrated willingness to pay, then using its own platforms to widen reach and lower acquisition costs. The harder part is reputational and regulatory hygiene: the deal only becomes a durable growth story if Meta can keep Manus’ momentum while credibly ringfencing governance, data, and ownership to avoid procurement drag. In China, regulators are treating human-like chatbots as a safety category, which pushes emotional guardrails and escalation workflows into the product core. On infrastructure, SoftBank’s DigitalBridge move and TSMC’s 2nm ramp underline that the next advantage sits in capacity, financing, and execution across the compute stack. And across semiconductors and robotics, the constraint is shifting from innovation to operations: tool access, service networks, and reliability are becoming the factors that decide what scales.
Sources
The Business Times: Meta to acquire Singapore-based startup Manus, adding agents to bolster AI bet
CNBC: China to crack down on AI chatbots around suicide, gambling
Bloomberg: SoftBank to Buy DigitalBridge in $3 Billion Data Center Deal
CNA: TSMC says it started mass production of ‘most advanced’ 2nm chips
The Straits Times: US approves Samsung, SK Hynix chipmaking tool shipments to China for 2026, sources say
Pandaily: Unitree Technology and JD Open First Offline Store in Beijing