☕️ Good morning friends,

As you read this, we are currently at an event with dozens of robotics founders from San Francisco and Shenzhen in one room.

The energy is incredible. We will be sharing more about it in our podcast.

In today’s edition:

• TSMC doubles down on Japan: $17 billion for 3nm production in Kumamoto—making Japan the second global hub for state-of-the-art chips.

• Extreme baby bonus: South Korea’s Booyoung Group is paying the equivalent of $100,000 for every new child born to an employee.

• China's quiet rise: CXMT captures ~5% of the DRAM market, while YMTC already holds ~10% of NAND flash memory.

Enjoy the read! 📰

👉🏻 👉🏻 P.S. New podcast episode: How a Shenzhen founder raised nearly half a million USD in just 48 hours…

📺 YouTube
🎧 Spotify

Chinese tech stocks tumble in Hong Kong: Shares of tech giants such as Alibaba, Kuaishou and SMIC fell sharply as investors grew increasingly concerned that artificial intelligence could undermine traditional business models.

TOP BIT

Breaking the Chip Taboo: HP and Dell flee to Chinese manufacturers

The major PC manufacturers HP, Dell, Acer, and Asus are breaking a long-standing dogma: To survive the global chip shortage, these giants are qualifying memory chips from Chinese manufacturers for their hardware for the first time.

AI greed displaces the mass market

Global market leaders Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are prioritizing their capacities almost exclusively for high-margin AI chips (HBM) for the likes of Nvidia, Google, and Amazon.

• The consequence: Hardly any memory is left for conventional PCs, which is driving prices up massively.

Previously, PC brands controlled the procurement of critical components themselves. Now, they are asking their contract manufacturers to leverage their own supply chain relationships—a fundamental shift in the industry's role.

China's quiet rise in the memory market

In terms of wafer capacity, both already hold over 10% market share.

Despite being on the US blacklist, YMTC is even expanding abroad: SSD products under its own brand ZhiTai are already available in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand.

• From the perspective of PC builders, these manufacturers are the only alternative to avoid being left empty-handed in the shadow of the AI giants.

📊 All details & data: Reuters, Nikkei Asia

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NUMBER OF THE DAY

This is how much baby bonus South Korean real estate group Booyoung pays each employee for every newborn child.

Baby jackpot: 36 Booyoung babies received a one-off payment of the equivalent of 100 million won. In total, the group has already spent 13.4 billion won on birth bonuses. Chairman Lee Joong-keun says he will keep paying until South Korea’s birth rate reaches 1.5.

Context: With a fertility rate of just 0.72 children per woman, South Korea is far below the OECD average of 1.5.

MARKET BIT

TSMC doubles down on Japan: US$17bn bet on 3nm production

TSMC is planning its largest-ever investment in Japan, aiming to produce cutting-edge 3-nanometer chips in Kumamoto. The US$17 billion project would make Japan TSMC’s second global base for its most advanced semiconductor technology.

🔄 Pivot to Japan: TSMC is revising its original plan for the second Kumamoto fab. Instead of producing 6–12nm chips under a US$12.2 billion plan, the facility will now manufacture the latest 3nm generation.

The details

TSMC is shifting cutting-edge production capacity from Taiwan to Japan. The 3nm node is considered a key enabling technology for AI chips, high-end smartphones, and supercomputers.

Timing: Japan is already discussing additional subsidies for the new investment. The government has heavily supported TSMC’s Kyushu expansion from the start.

The US$17 billion plan exceeds TSMC’s previous Japan roadmap by around 40%. In parallel, Tokyo is pouring billions into domestic foundry challenger Rapidus in Hokkaido.

• No Competition, Says Tokyo: Japan’s government views TSMC’s 3nm chips and Rapidus’ planned 2nm production as complementary, not competing—serving different applications and customer segments.

The investment plan

• Total investment: ~US$22.5 billion so far across two fabs

• Government subsidies: up to ¥1.2 trillion (≈ US$7.9 billion)

• The addition of 3nm equipment is expected to push total investment even higher

The fabs are operated via TSMC subsidiary Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, with Sony, Denso, and Toyota as minority shareholders.

Japan is rapidly building a full semiconductor ecosystem:

• Rapidus targets 2nm mass production from 2027

• Micron is building an AI memory plant in Hiroshima

• Foxconn will manufacture AI servers for data centers in Japan

👉 Full story: Business Times, Nikkei

STARTUP OF THE WEEK

🇯🇵 Timee

⏱️ Japan’s answer to labour shortage

Tokyo-based startup Timee is becoming essential for Japan’s service economy, connecting businesses with workers willing to take on short-term shifts at short notice.

⚠️ The problem: Japan’s aging population and tourism boom have left restaurants, retailers, and logistics companies struggling to fill shifts. Traditional hiring is slow, inflexible, and costly — especially for hourly work.

💡 The solution: Founded by Ryohei Ogura, Timee allows businesses to post shifts that workers can accept instantly through an app, with no interviews or long-term contracts. The platform handles matching, payments, and scheduling.

🔜 Expansion: Widely adopted across hospitality and retail, Timee is scaling nationwide as labour shortages intensify.

HIGHLIGHTS 

🇻🇳 Vietnam airline mogul stages comeback after corruption conviction: Former Bamboo Airways chairman Trinh Van Quyet, once sentenced to 21 years in prison for stock manipulation, has returned to public business life after paying roughly USD 26 million in fines and compensation. His FLC conglomerate is courting South Korean investors and tourists to turn around the struggling airline, revive international routes, and fill its resort portfolio.

🇵🇦 Panama caught in US–China power struggle over global trade routes: After Panama annulled CK Hutchison’s decades-old port concession at the Panama Canal, Beijing warned of “heavy political and economic costs,” accusing Panama of violating international contract law under US pressure. Washington views the ruling as a strategic win against Chinese influence, while for the Hong Kong conglomerate it is a major setback, putting its planned USD 23 billion sale of 43 ports at risk.

📈 Southeast Asia IPO comeback gains momentum: In the second half of 2025, IPOs in Southeast Asia raised about USD 4.5 billion, up 120% year on year, driven mainly by REITs in Singapore and securities firms in Vietnam. Market reforms and Vietnam’s upgrade to emerging-market status are attracting fresh capital, though tech IPOs remain scarce, investors selective, and political risks continue to weigh on countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

🇯🇵 Mount Fuji cherry blossom festival cancelled: Fujiyoshida has scrapped the Sakura festival at Arakurayama Sengen Park after daily visitor numbers surged to as many as 10,000 and around 200,000 per season, overwhelming the area. Residents complained of trash, noise and extreme incidents such as tourists entering private homes or using gardens as toilets. The city will instead deploy more security, parking facilities and portable toilets.

BEHIND THE BITS

We are certain that one of our podcast guests will become a billionaire sooner or later.

Maybe it’s Tuo in the picture? He is the best-connected robotics guy in the world Shenzhen…

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