Asia

Japan's Honda Motor is set to book ¥1.97 trillion ($12.5 billion) in EV-strategy losses across fiscal years 2026 and 2027, equal to roughly three years of operating profit and more than a full year of total R&D spending.

Japanese technology firm Macnica, Inc has acquired a major stake in Orangeleaf Consulting Holdings Co. (OLC), a Singapore-registered, Malaysian-founded digital transformation and enterprise software consultancy with operations across Malaysia, Japan and Singapore.

Tencent Hy3 (formerly known as Tencent Hunyuan), the latest large language model developed by China's Tencent, is now available for international access, following the model's official release on July 6.

By combining Jumpstart's deep roots in Hong Kong with TNGlobal and TechNode's extensive network across Greater China, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and global innovation hubs, the combined organization will strengthen Hong Kong's role as a gateway connecting Asia's technology ecosystem with the world.

Tokyo-based workforce platform X Mile has raised JPY 3.17 billion ($20 million) in a Series C round led by Vertex Growth, the growth-stage platform of the Vertex global venture capital network, bringing the company's total funding to JPY6.96 billion.

Only 29 percent of Singapore businesses can produce an audit trail to prove AI-driven decisions to regulators, shareholders, or customers, trailing the Asia-Pacific average of 38 percent who hold a tamper-proof audit trail.

Malaysia is the only market among eight surveyed in Asia where 100 percent of respondents plan to increase AI investment, according to a survey of 1,000 IT decision-makers commissioned by China's Alibaba Cloud and conducted by NielsenIQ.

Half of CEOs in Southeast Asia say innovation is critical to their business strategy, yet 32.5 percent of employees say they do not feel confident in innovation, influence, and cross-functional collaboration, according to a report of AI-powered payroll platform Omni HR.

Big Sky Capital, in partnership with Malaysia's venture program GUIDE and supported by Kazakhstan's innovation agency Astana Hub, has concluded a two-month SEA Enterprise Technology Launchpad program for B2B enterprise and industrial technology startups from Central Asia.

Tencent Cloud, the cloud business under Chinese giant Tencent, has partnered with Pakistan's leading streaming platform tapmad to deliver live coverage of a major international football tournament to viewers across Pakistan, supporting more than 7 million concurrent viewers at peak with 99 percent uptime and ultra-low latency.