Asia Now

In the year 2000, a Swiss foundation launched an international campaign to select the New Seven Wonders of the World amongst existing monuments - each a technological feat for its time. The winners were the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, Petra, Machu Pichu, Christ the Redeemer, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal.

We’ve just attended our fourth RISC-V summit in China on behalf of our western semiconductor clients – and it’s been by far the largest and most impressive. It reflects China’s booming RISC-V ecosystem and underlines the huge and timely opportunity for international firms with the right technologies to enter the market and succeed.

East Asia represents serious opportunities for western automation and robotics technology providers, and this is not just because of COVID. Asia was already fully embracing robotics and industrial automation before the pandemic. And, in a post-COVID world, the adoption of these technologies as well as industries that integrate them - like manufacturing, logistics, and ecommerce - continue their meteoric rise.

CES — just like the city that hosts it — is brilliant, flashy and outrageous. Our team was lucky enough to be at CES 2020 last week, so we sat down to ask what they saw and which tech innovators they think can expect to do well in East Asia this year.

So, here we are again! Last year ZTE; this year Huawei. Exactly how much trouble is the company in? What are its – and the Chinese government’s – options from here? And could there be big opportunities for European and Asian tech firms to step in to fill the void of banned US technologies?

So, it’s official: the U-turn on ZTE is complete. The US government has decided to remove the export ban on the company. In return, under a new deal, ZTE will install a new board within 30 days, pay a $1bn fine with an additional $400m in escrow, and agree to a further 10-year US export ban if there are any future violations. A US Commerce department compliance team will also need to be retained by ZTE.