asiabits
Posts
🟠 TikTok parent builds AI chip with Samsung

🟠 TikTok parent builds AI chip with Samsung

+ Uber and Baidu bring robotaxis to Dubai

February 12, 2026

☕️ Good morning friends,

We're really grateful for all the messages you send us every day.

Our goal is not only to deliver the best insights to you, but also to bring people and companies together. 🤝

Starting now, we'll show you selected investment opportunities in Asia every Thursday in our Investment Spotlight.

Directly from our network or researched by us for you.

P.S. Our podcast guests this week are also super inspiring: Already their own hardware product and prominent investors in their early 20s. 👇🏻

📺 YouTube
🎧 Spotify

Asia pulls ahead: Markets across Asia are widening their lead over the US and Europe. Equity indices are rising, currencies remain stable, and credit spreads are hovering near record lows. Driven by:

The AI boom across the entire supply chain
Reforms aimed at boosting shareholder returns in countries such as Japan and South Korea
Solid economic fundamentals

The IMF expects Asia to contribute around 60 percent of global growth this year.

TOP BIT

ByteDance Develops Own AI Chip with Samsung

ByteDance headquarters in Beijing

ByteDance wants to break free from the shackles of US sanctions and dependence on Nvidia.
According to insider reports, the TikTok parent company is developing its own AI processor under the codename "SeedChip."

Reuters reports that initial samples are to be delivered by the end of March. ByteDance denies the reports. Samsung declined to comment.

The Alliance Against Scarcity

The negotiations with Samsung are strategically brilliant: ByteDance is securing not only manufacturing capacity, but above all access to the extremely scarce HBM memory chips.

These are the "liquid gold" of the AI industry and nearly sold out worldwide.

The goal: 100,000 chips in 2026, with a perspective of 350,000 units for AI inference (model application).
The budget: ByteDance plans to spend over $22 billion (160 billion yuan) on AI procurement in 2026 – more than half still goes to Nvidia hardware (H200).

Excursus: Why ByteDance Needs Its Own Power

Parallel to the chip project, ByteDance is shocking the competition with software power: The new video tool Seedance 2.0 is thrilling beta testers and makes OpenAI's Sora 2 look partly dated.

The special feature: The model can adopt camera work, movements, and effects from reference videos and apply them to new scenes.
- Initial demo videos show impressive results – whether the quality holds up in everyday use remains to be seen.

The release came just days after Kuaishou's Kling 3.0 and drove the stock prices of Chinese media and AI companies up by as much as 20%, according to the South China Morning Post.

📊 More details & data: CNET, Yahoo Finance, TechNode

OUR PARTNER

Snippets that scale your voice

Save and insert standard intros, calendar links, and bios by voice so recurring emails and updates take seconds. Wispr Flow keeps your tone and speeds execution. Try Wispr Flow for founders.

See a quick demo

INVEST SPOTLIGHT

AI Eyewear Manufacturing: Hong Kong Startup Reinvents the $200B Glasses Market

Lenses have been fully automated for 25 years.Frames? Still made with molds like it’s 1920: injection molds, mass production, 3-month lead times.

We are supporting a Hong Kong startup that has developed an automated production line capable of manufacturing custom-designed frames using CNC technology in a fraction of the usual time.

The business model: The machine is installed in existing optical labs. For every frame produced, the lab pays a $25 licensing fee. One machine can produce up to 1,000 units per day. The software stack (AI-powered face scan + design app) is fully built.

50,000+ face scans: Eight years of proprietary data collected via the app and retail partnerships across six countries.
Serial founder: 30+ years in the optical industry, 7 patents, direct relationships with 200 of the world’s top 300 labs. Five labs have already signed LOIs.
Raising: $6M to fund the first production line.

Are you interested in this deal or want exclusive access to similar funding rounds? 👇🏻

Fundraising

🚗 Malaysia’s ServAuto tackles workshop chaos: The ex-Carsome team is building a standardized aftersales platform where drivers can book verified services and parts online. Within 12 months, ServAuto reached 30,000 customers, with nearly $6M raised to date.

🛵 Sleek EV raises $8.5M to scale electric scooters in Thailand: The Singapore-headquartered company secured an $8.5M Series A first close to expand production, grow its battery swapping network 7×, and develop AI-powered vehicle software.

🤖 Noematrix lands eight-figure RMB Series A for embodied AI: Backed by investors including Sea Limited, the startup is accelerating the international rollout of its embodied intelligence systems.

Looking for visibility for your startup or planning an exit? Let’s talk about your spotlight. Message us!

HIGHLIGHTS

🇦🇪 Baidu brings robotaxis to Dubai: The Chinese tech giant will launch an autonomous ride-hailing service in Dubai next month in partnership with Uber. Apollo Go already operates in 22 cities and handles more than 250,000 rides per week. The move aligns directly with Dubai’s ambitious target of making at least 25% of all transportation autonomous by 2030.

🇰🇷 Battery giants pivot to energy storage: LG Energy Solution aims to secure more than 90 GWh of ESS orders in North America, while SK On targets over 20 GWh. The shift comes as US automakers retreat from battery joint ventures. Stellantis is reviewing an exit from StarPlus Energy with Samsung SDI after selling its NextStar stake to LG for a symbolic $100. Analysts question whether ESS margins can offset the slowdown in EV batteries.

🇨🇳 China’s AI rivalry intensifies: DeepSeek expanded its context window from 128,000 to over 1 million tokens, while Zhipu AI unveiled GLM-5 with more than double the parameters of its predecessor. Zhipu shares jumped over 50% this week after JPMorgan initiated coverage with a buy rating. Listed in January, the company is seen as the first major publicly traded global LLM developer and is currently valued at around $18 billion.

🇮🇩 Indonesia cuts output at world’s largest nickel mine: The government plans to slash PT Weda Bay Nickel’s production quota from 42 million tons of ore to just 12 million to curb global oversupply and stabilize prices. Indonesia recently accounted for around 65% of global nickel production. Nickel remains critical for stainless steel and EV batteries, but weaker demand and shifts toward alternative battery chemistries are weighing on the market.