Welcome back,

Autonomous driving has been the future for some time, but we are only now seeing the first IPOs in the field coming through. And boy have they come through—with two listings this week. Horizon Robotics held Hong Kong’s largest IPO of the year, raising nearly $700 million while in the US, China-based WeRide finally went public after months of delay—it raised $119 million. 

WeRide also represented a rare Chinese tech IPO in the US, potentially opening a door for others to follow, albeit that there’s a lot more scrutiny on such a listing compared to the past.

Elsewhere, Nvidia is courting Asia following Google, Microsoft and Amazon, there’s an inquest at TSMC which is looking at how Huawei subverted US bans to access its technology and quick commerce continues to bring in the bucks in India.

That’s all for this week’s recap—have a great week!

Jon

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Self-driving car tech is still new, yet within a single week, we’ve seen IPOs from not one but two billion-dollar companies:

• We wrote about Horizon Robotics’ impending IPO last week and the company enjoyed Hong Kong’s largest listing of the year as it raised HK$5.4B ($696M)—the share price jumped 28% but ended the day 2.8% above its opening price. Right now, the firm is valued around $6.9B.

• In the US, self-driving car startup WeRide finally went public after a prolonged period and delays—its share price rose 7% as the listing raised the company $119M at a valuation of over $4B. It’s too early to see whether the listing opens the door for other Chinese  firms to resume going public in the US (which was once common) but it’ll be interesting to observe—certainly from a business perspective, being listed in America will open doors outside of China.

So we know the US has taken significant steps to weaken Chinese companies (specifically and their ability to access the best tech for development. TSMC, the Taiwanese firm which is the world’s largest chipmaker, has been a key part of that given the role its products play in shaping phones, tablets and other devices.

It now appears that Huawei got hold of TSMC tech, one of its processors appears in its latest AI product, through one of its customers, which is said to be linked to Bitcoin mining firm Bitmain.

Huawei had contacted TSMC with what the firm believed was a request to develop AI chips for large language model training—something it had done before US sanctions. While it contacted the US government to report the request, Huawei appeared to find a new route—though it denies the accusations:

In its own statement, Huawei said it hasn’t “produced any chips via TSMC after the implementation of the amendments made by the US Department of Commerce to its FDPR that target Huawei in 2020,” a reference to the foreign direct product rule — a US trade restriction. “Huawei has never launched the 910B chip,” the company said.

Shipments to the customer have now been suspended, but the incident shows the complicated nature of trying to shut off access to tech, especially with a deep-pocketed and powerful business sitting on the wrong side of a trade blacklist.

TSMC could have more problems of its own, though, due to its “near monopoly” on developing semiconductors and challenges given the end of free trade of its technology, a result of the US-China trade scrap.

We’ve seen cloud companies wooing governments across Asia with data centre investments. Many of these deals are couched around the future growth of AI and cloud-based services, and now Nvidia—one the giants whose tech is responsible for this predicted growth—is joining the fold.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been in India, hosting an AI summit in Mumbai where his firm announced partnerships with major Indian firms including Reliance on a data centre, Flipkart on AI for customer support and Infosys on language models.

In Southeast Asia, Nvidia is expected to announce investment plans for Thailand when he visits the country in December, according to the nation’s commerce minister. Details are currently unclear, but any deal would see the firm follow Amazon, Google and Microsoft with investment commitments into the country and its regional neighbours.

At the same time, it is alleged that Shreya Life Sciences, a little-known pharmaceutical company in Mumbai, is helping to provide coveted Nvidia chips and servers to Russia, enabling the country to skirt blocks on cutting edge tech. Due diligence with partners in Asia will become essential as the sales and investment pipe into the region grows.

Elsewhere, Huang said a design flaw in its latest Blackwell AI chips, which resulted in a months-long delay in shipping, has been fixed.

There’s a fascinating battle happening between Amazon and Temu with each company using tactics from the other’s playbook in a bid to dent their rival’s market share in the US.

The Information reports that Amazon is building a Temu-like store that is imposing “severe” price limits on how much merchants can charge for items in a bid to appeal to bargain basement shoppers who currently favour Temu. That’s something the report says Amazon would not have considered before.

Meanwhile, Temu is going after popular Amazon merchants, according to another report from The Information, which claims the Chinese firm with a simple pitch: That Temu is cheaper. 

Temu has already added more than 60% of major China-based Amazon sellers of products like bedding sets and vacuum cleaners and is enlisting U.S.-based merchants as well, two people familiar with the company said. The big question now is how aggressively Amazon, which is also battling a major Federal Trade Commission antitrust case, fights back.

This is very much an e-commerce war.

Chasing Zepto is no easy task, given it has raised over $1B this year but Zomato announced a plan to raise $1B of its own in what will be its first major fundraise since it went public in 2021. It is, of course, just weeks before rival Swiggy goes public in a listing that could raise $1.4B.

Interestingly, Blinkit—Zomato’s quick commerce division—is said to make up 56% of the company’s $18B valuation, according to Goldman Sachs, such is quick commerce fever:

The Wall Street bank’s bullish stance is backed by Blinkit’s strong operational metrics: the platform maintains nearly 1,500 orders per day per store despite aggressive expansion, new stores reach break-even quickly, and its scale is now almost two-thirds that of Zomato’s core food delivery business.

Tata Group is the latest to enter: its Neu Flash service will provide swift delivery for groceries, electronics, and fashion goods.

Plenty of companies are steering clear of China or figuring out ways to deprioritise it, but Apple is doubling down—that’s the message CEO Tim Cook gave a top Beijing tech official on his second trip to the country this year. Cook said Apple would  “continue to grow its investments” and support supply chain development, according to an announcement from the IT ministry link

Chinese hackers infiltrated US telco networks to target the phones of former President Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and individuals linked to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign link

China, already the leading producer of rare minerals that are critical to manufacture semiconductors, is tightening control over chip-making resources through export restrictions and state-owned enterprises link

ByteDance said it fired an intern in August for “maliciously interfering” with a model training project, but it dismissed online reports that exaggerated the damage it took link

Alibaba will pay $433.5M to settle a shareholder lawsuit in the US over alleged monopolistic practices link

China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system, a rival to GPS, received commitments of $1.78B for new projects that will widen its network and system link

Shein may be working hard to salvage its planned UK IPO but there’s more negative news as it reportedly saw a revenue deceleration as revenue growth slowed to 23% down from 40% a year ago—profit fell over 70% to just under $400M, with first-half revenue reaching $18B link

Hesai plans to sue the US government after the Pentagon put the world’s biggest producer of laser sensors for EVs back on its blacklist of Chinese companies affiliated with the military link

Chinese companies are struggling to catch up with their US rivals in a key part of the global semiconductor market: electronic design automation (EDA) software. This software allows designers and manufacturers to develop and test blueprints for new chip generations—some with tens or even hundreds of billions of transistors—prior to production link

Chinese AI video-generator apps are gaining traction in the US, Hailuo from Shanghai-based MiniMax are among those battling with local players link

Bloomberg profiled tech startups that are helping “fill the gaps” in India’s healthcare sector with services that include AI-powered beds, remote intensive care units, link

From private equity giants like TPG Capital to the investment arms of big pharmaceutical firms like Novo Nordisk A/S, investors have bet a combined $3.7 billion on Indian health-related startups since 2022, according to data aggregator Tracxn Technologies Ltd. This is half of the $7.4 billion that health tech-focused firms have raised across the Asia Pacific region, according to Tracxn.

While India leads the region, Bloomberg notes that many health tech startups shut down during Covid, and those that survived faced valuation cuts. Many are now seeking business overseas, yet the potential for significant domestic impact remains strong.

Edtech startup Upgrad secured $60M from Temasek at a flat valuation of $2.25B link

B2B ecommerce firm Udaan is in talks for an $80-100M funding round led by UK savings and investment firm M&G Prudential—it is expected to maintain the same $1.8B valuation as its previous round last year link

Hyperlocal logistics firm Shadowfax is reportedly looking to raise $50M in a round that could double its valuation to  $700M link

Neysa, which brings offers AI and machine learning infrastructure to enterprises, raised $30M link

PhonePe saw revenue surge 74% to $602M and net losses cut by 28% to $237M, according to its annual report link 

Paytm’s revenue declined for a second consecutive quarter—sales fell 34% to $197M link

Also, Paytm got the nod to resume adding new UPI payments users, following an eight-month restriction link

Insurance startup Acko is finalising a $100-120M secondary share sale, allowing early investors to exit at a 5-10% discount on its 2023 valuation of $1.4B link

India’s Supreme Court overturned a bankruptcy tribunal’s order allowing Byju’s to settle debts with key creditor BCCI, putting the online tutor back into the insolvency process link

YouTube is extending its shopping affiliate service to India in partnership with Flipkart and Myntra link

ComfortDelGro, the Singapore-listed transport firm, is buying Addison Lee, which operates black cabs and taxis, for £269.1M (nearly $350m) in a deal to expand its UK presence which already includes cabs, buses and coaches link

Myanmar residents are turning to Starlink, satellite services, mesh networks, and walkie-talkies to overcome severe internet blackouts as messaging apps, social media, and VPNs remain banned link

The Philippines is seeking to partner with Taiwanese chip giants, including TSMC and UMC, to boost its semiconductor industry and compete with its neighbours link

SK Hynix reported record quarterly profit and revenue, driven by strong demand for memory chips used with Nvidia processors in AI development—operating profit doubled to $5.1B link

HRZ Han River, the inaugural VC fund from Coupang co-founder Chris Koh, has $100M and a focus on the ‘Korea Graph’—aka talent, technology and trends related to the country link

AI chip startup Kneron is in talks to raise $300M in a deal that could value it at $1B link

Biden administration proposes new rules governing data transfers to adversarial nations — Under the proposed rules, data transfers to companies and individuals in six countries — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba — will be prohibited when specific pre-set volume thresholds are exceeded, according to a detailed fact sheet released by the administration and comments from senior administration officials. link