East Asian Technology Intelligence
Japan & China technology, translated and contextualized for Western readers
Japanese taxi-hailing app GO, US autonomous driving company Waymo, and Japan Taxi announced a strategic partnership to launch fully driverless (Level 4) taxi services in Tokyo by 2027.
NVIDIA is reportedly in early-stage discussions with Rebellions, a Korean startup specializing in inference NPUs, for potential technology partnership, investment, or even acquisition.
MediaTek officially announced its Dimensity 9600 Pro and 9600 M flagship 5G Agentic AI chips.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceXAI, shared updates on his company’s Grok AI model via X, stating that Grok 4.8’s training would complete this week, Grok 4.9 would be ‘Astra/Fable class,’ and Grok 5 would achieve AGI.
The DRAM market expanded by 59.5% quarter-over-quarter to $154.7 billion in Q2 2026, driven by strong demand for HBM3E, LPDDR5X, and high-capacity RDIMMs for AI applications.
Murata Manufacturing, the world’s largest producer of Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCCs), plans to mass-produce its Integrated Package Solution (iPaS) next year.
AI-related stocks, including SoftBank and Kioxia, fell sharply on September 14th after CEOs of leading US AI model developers warned about the need to slow development for safety reasons.
Anthropic, a leading AI startup, has reportedly achieved profitability for two consecutive quarters, a significant milestone ahead of its anticipated initial public offering (IPO).
Nvidia is reportedly in discussions to become an anchor investor in Anthropic’s upcoming initial public offering, potentially committing 13 trillion Korean Won (approximately $9.5 billion USD).
Huawei has unveiled its 7.2T NPO (Near-Packaged Optics) solution at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE), positioning it as a more viable alternative to Nvidia and Broadcom’s CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) technology.
