Hey, guys!this is Chen Tingfan Greetings from Europe, which is basking in unexpected winter sunshine.
I recently embarked on a twin city trip to Brussels and London, where I had the privilege of participating as a panelist in two dialogues between Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. The trip started with a long flight from Taipei to Brussels, with a layover in Frankfurt, and then a two-hour train journey on Eurostar from Brussels to London.
During the event, I was able to speak to a diverse group of diplomats, trade officials, and world affairs academics from Asia, the United States, and Europe, a rare opportunity given my work covering industrial and technology supply chains. It became. The most common topic raised by these policymakers and experts was how to meaningfully reduce economic dependence on China while coexisting with the world’s second-largest economy.
“In the past five or six years, economic security has become a very important thing for all the countries I have talked to,” Japan’s senior diplomat in Europe told me at a gala dinner in Brussels. told. “We are all seeing a shared and growing concern in Europe and Asia that we need to look beyond China.”
Other diplomats and officials said Europe should become a “third force” outside the U.S.-China conflict and forge closer ties with Asian allies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. These countries now play an important role in ensuring security. Technology supply chain.
Many countries are trying to reduce their dependence on China, and China itself is trying to localize production and reduce its dependence on overseas suppliers. The country has been successful in building a competitive industry in some key electronic components, such as LCD displays and batteries, but is now moving into areas more dominated by foreign rivals, such as memory chips.
memory upgrade
China is stepping up efforts to advance artificial intelligence technology, including in the emerging field of advanced memory chips. As part of its drive, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) aims to produce the country’s first domestically produced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component that enables complex AI computing operations. Nikkei Asia writes. Chen Tingfan.
China’s promotion of HBM production is aimed at reducing foreign advantages in this field amid intensifying technological competition between the United States and China.
CXMT is Japan’s top manufacturer of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and has been working on developing its own HBM technology since last year. The company has already ordered manufacturing and testing equipment for such production, the people said.
Chinese drum makers have finally caught up with their overseas rivals in mainstream memory technology. The company announced that it has successfully produced LPDDR5, a new type of mobile DRAM suitable for smartphones that the industry leader will begin manufacturing around 2021. Major mobile phone manufacturers Xiaomi and Transsion have verified CXMT’s products.
But building an HBM requires more than just producing high-quality Dram chips as a foundation. It also requires the technology to stack them accurately, and analysts say it will be very difficult for CXMT to shake its global dominance in Dram and HBM in the short term. In the world of drums, Samsung from South Korea and SK Hynix and Micron from the US controlled 97% of the market share, while in HBM, SK Hynix and Samsung already held more than 92% of the market.
Explicit content warning
India has told tech companies it will hold them legally responsible for “deepfakes” published on their platforms, as the world’s most populous country exercises regulatory powers in the run-up to national elections.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said India has “very clear and explicit rules” on what content is prohibited. In India, that prohibited content includes content deemed harmful to children or a threat to national security, the Financial Times writes. john reed new delhi and hannah murphy In London.
A government directive dated December 26 has been sent to social media and messaging platforms operating in India, including YouTube, urged them to clarify the rules. Terms of Service and User Agreement.
With this warning, India becomes the latest country to regulate AI-generated fakes, given the dangers that could affect the integrity of democratic elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking re-election to a third five-year term in elections expected in April and May, made comments last year that seemed to foreshadow or precipitate the notification to technology companies. pointed out this issue.
“We are the world’s largest democracy [and] We are clearly deeply concerned about the impact of transnational actors using disinformation, disinformation and deepfakes to cause problems for our democracies,” Chandrasekhar said in an interview with the FT. Ta.
opportunities abroad
China’s small and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly expanding overseas in search of growth, even seeking opportunities in the United States despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.
While expanding overseas is not a new concept for Chinese companies, the urgency to do so has increased since China emerged from three years of pandemic restrictions, writes Nikkei Asia. Sissy Chow.
“Globalization” has become a buzzword in China over the past year, with a disappointing domestic economic recovery and increased domestic competition fueling this trend. Local governments have actively supported this trend by promoting the participation of export-oriented companies in international trade fairs and exhibitions.
The boost from abroad comes after China’s exports fell in dollar terms last year for the first time since 2016, highlighting weak global demand. Exports to the United States led the slump, dropping 13% from the previous year.
Rapid growth of cool tech
As artificial intelligence competition intensifies, the energy demands of these powerful systems are creating new business opportunities for technology suppliers: how to effectively cool AI data centers.
Liteon Technology Corp, a Taiwanese manufacturer of electronic components and power solutions, is one of the companies looking to take advantage of this huge opportunity, writes Nikkei Asia. Laurie Lee and Chen Tingfan.
Liteon senior executive Simon Ong told Nikkei Asia that the increased power consumption of AI chips has led to sharp increases in heat generation, which traditional air-cooling solutions are struggling to keep up with. This means liquid cooling is becoming increasingly important to ensure the performance and longevity of AI servers.
AI servers have parallel computing power and can handle complex data processing and AI workloads. The growing demand for this type of server, which is much more valuable than traditional data servers, has created new opportunities for businesses to address the problem of excess heat.
Suppliers expanding their efforts in this area include Delta Electronics, a major player in the power and thermal solutions sector, and thermal control providers Cooler Master Technology and Auras Technology. Chipmakers like Intel and server system integrators like Gigabyte Technology, Inventec, and Wiwynn are also investing heavily in developing innovative cooling technologies to meet the growing demand for AI servers.
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#techAsia is coordinated by Catherine Creel from Nikkei Asia in Tokyo and supported by the FT Tech Desk in London.
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