This month we dive into Malaysia’s tech sector, and the Government’s latest plans to build a competitive ecosystem. There are plenty of sceptics, but we’re not among them.

Enjoy, from all of us at North Ridge Partners.

Original Thinking from North Ridge Partners

Since Malaysia and Singapore achieved independence from Great Britain, their economic paths have diverged. Now Malaysia is looking to replicate the success of its neighbour in developing a robust technology ecosystem.

Read our take on the Malaysian Government’s push to build a competitive tech ecosystem here.

Big Tech News

• Is OpenAI about to go head-to-head against Google with a new search offering?

• Geopolitics are indeed strange. Elon Musk has a win in China while for Tik Tok, the clock is ticking.

• Good Grok! Speculation is rife that xAI is closing in on a $6bn funding round; valuation set to reach $18bn.

• Is Big Tech starting to take Southeast Asia seriously?

• Alphabet beats Q1 expectations and turns its attention to HubSpot; Meta tops estimates but shares tank as the market digests the Zuck’s latest pivot - from the Metaverse to AI. Meanwhile over at Amazon, Jassy hits a sweet spot as cloud and advertising revenues drive a strong result for Amazon. AI surge augments Microsoft quarterly earnings while iPhone quarterly sales fall 10%, and Apple resorts to buying its own shares in $110bn stock buyback.

  
  

Asia Pacific Tech News

• Aussie Government swings the bat, Softbank-style, at quantum computing

• Satya Nadella and Microsoft’s big push into Southeast Asia.

• Singapore swing: GoJek cosies up to Comfort Delgro.

• Huawei tops Chinese handset market as Apple declines.

• China’s VC’s warn of innovation freeze.

  
  

Stuff We Found Interesting

• CEO of world’s largest advertising company hit by deepfake scam.

• Hot on the heels of Sora, meet Udio, the LLM that writes songs.

• Here come the humanoids. Scary advances from Boston Dynamics.

• Alphabet and Meta founders will rake it in as maiden dividends are declared.

• Aussies crack down on surveillance capitalism.

  
  

Tech Investment Banking Across Asia Pacific

North Ridge Partners advises tech companies across the Asia Pacific on strategy, capital raising and M&A. We’re experienced dealmakers who have built and sold many tech companies. In partnership with GP Bullhound, we have 200 bankers in 17 global offices.

Contact us here.

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