China could tighten rare earths exports if US escalates chip curbs over Nvidia: analysts

Malaysia’s decision to pivot to Turkey for anti-ship missiles after Norway cancelled a procurement deal has offered it a way out of a costly setback, though analysts warn the episode has exposed its vulnerability to foreign export controls and highlighted the need for greater defence autonomy. The planned switch to Turkey’s Roketsan Atmaca missile system for the Malaysian navy’s littoral combat ships (LCS) reflects Kuala Lumpur’s growing defence ties with Ankara, even as questions remain over...

Indonesia’s upper house of parliament will pick the country’s new vice-president on December 2, its speaker said on Friday, after the dramatic resignation of Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the president’s deputy and the son of his predecessor. Gibran’s ‌resignation this week, which analysts say could widen the gulf between President Prabowo Subianto and former president Joko Widodo, followed a month of increasing political pressure from lawmakers after Indonesia’s top courts ruled that he had...

The rise of Zhang Shengmin suggests that China’s top brass remains embroiled in investigations, potentially complicating preparations for war over Taiwan.

A scandal involving Nvidia founder Jensen Huang and an alleged Chinese spy is putting Malaysia’s booming data centre industry in Washington’s crosshairs, as US lawmakers demand tighter controls on advanced artificial intelligence chips. Malaysia is among the Southeast Asian economies facing potential fallout from the controversy surrounding Singapore-based Nvidia chip buyer Megaspeed and its Malaysian subsidiary Speedmatrix, amid concerns that American technology may have been diverted to...

Tech titan Jensen Huang, dressed in his signature leather jacket, has always carried the charisma of a rock star during his public appearances around the world. That allure runs deep in South Korea, where he has had viral dinners at local fried chicken joints as onlookers jostled for a glimpse of the AI chip visionary. But that admiration turned to dejection for some fans in the East Asian nation after Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang had resigned as CEO amid reports of three extramarital...

The two court-appointed administrators overseeing Nexperia said on Thursday they would sound out investors on a majority or minority stake in the Dutch chipmaker, a week after its Chinese owner Wingtech rejected their proposal to hand control of its operations outside China to foreign investors. “We have decided to assess market interest in possible long-term solutions for Nexperia,” Guido Dierick and Arnold Croiset van Uchelen said in a statement. “No decision has currently been taken to reduce...

US ambassador to Singapore Anjani Sinha was among dozens of individuals who allegedly “reaped immense benefits” after helping to fund President Donald Trump’s political operations and pet projects, according to an American think tank. Sinha donated US$1 million to Trump’s political action committee, Maga Inc, in February last year and was nominated as ambassador to Singapore the following month, according to the Centre for American Progress (CAP), citing the Campaign Legal Centre, a non-profit...

Jensen Huang’s abrupt resignation stunned some Nvidia staff in China and raised questions about the future of the US chipmaker’s operations in a market its co-founder had spent years cultivating, according to company sources. “It’s the end of an era. I really don’t understand why Huang was asked to resign – no one benefits from him stepping down,” one Nvidia employee in China said, declining to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. A second employee said colleagues looked...

Seven Chinese tourists, a dozen villagers and a couple of journalists forded streams and bushwhacked to the downed plane of Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral. Machetes proved handy.

Drones could save Thai farmers fortunes in fertiliser and water management as a “super El Nino” withers harvests – while also mapping flood risks and safely scouring vast industrial sites, from oil rigs to solar farms, for damage. Yet across Southeast Asia, Thailand is still heavily reliant on Chinese hardware to bring the technology into its economy, creating a price gap that prevents the benefits of drone technology from being shared equally. Thailand is pushing hard on tech adoption to help...

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in China, Jessica Zhang chose to look for work in Japan. She is now studying Japanese at a language school in Kyoto on a student visa while working as a supermarket cashier. She plans to improve her Japanese to an upper-intermediate level, which many employers expect, before applying for a full-time job and switching to a work visa. “I’m working by the hour now, and the pay is quite good by Chinese standards, though prices for daily necessities in Japan...

China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is betting that a relentless data centre buildout will keep artificial intelligence computing power in short supply for the next two years. The bullish forecast comes as scrutiny over former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang threatens to intensify Washington’s curbs on Chinese access to advanced American processors – a shift that could accelerate China’s reliance on domestic foundries. “By the middle to the second half of 2028 …...