When business and government representatives gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum in January, conventional thinking held that US technology corporations were leading the pack in the AI dominance contest, leaving China and the rest of Asia trailing significantly behind.
Within the gathered community of experts, opinions about China’s artificial intelligence firms varied from pessimistic to outright skeptical. The stock values of America’s “Big Seven” technology giants remained at peak levels, whereas shares in Chinese tech companies were depressed due to concerns that strict government oversight was stifling creativity. Additionally, neither Japan nor South Korea were typically viewed as frontrunners in AI development. Furthermore, regional economic powers like those found in Southeast Asia were often deemed insufficiently large, wealthy, or cohesive to make significant contributions beyond minor roles in this field.
However, right after the conclusion of the Davos gathering, the Western powers’ self-satisfied beliefs started to fall apart. Soon afterward, news surfaced that DeepSeek, which is the artificial intelligence division of an inconspicuous Hangzhou hedge fund, had created a substantial language model named R1, whose capabilities were equivalent to those of OpenAI’s most recent large language model. As Nicholas Gordon points out in his commentary,
his DeepSeek deep dive
, R1 was amazed not just because it appeared unexpectedly but also due to the developers’ claim that they had trained it for a
mere $6 million
—just a small portion of the tens of billions that firms in Silicon Valley are investing in AI platforms.
Gordon contends that DeepSeek’s advancement is significant as it demonstrates the capability of Chinese firms.
innovate in AI
it also indicates that the forefront of AI advancement is
wide open
for newcomers from nearly everywhere.
In the same week as R1’s launch, a well-known Asian figure, Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son, unexpectedly showed up at the White House. There, President Donald Trump revealed that Son’s company, SoftBank Group, would be taking the initiative.
bankrolling Stargate
, a $500 billion collaboration aimed at boosting America’s AI infrastructure. On April 1, SoftBank pledged to invest up to
$40 billion in OpenAI
, estimating the value of the AI innovator at $300 billion.
a profile of Son
I describe how the 67-year-old billionaire—who may have generated and then squandered bigger fortunes than any investor in capitalist history—recovered from the fiasco of
his Vision Fund
to emerge as one of AI’s strongest contenders.
I likewise make trips to southern Malaysia to
understand why Johor
The country directly opposite Singapore across the strait has the potential to become one of the largest hubs for data centers globally. A distinctive feature of data centers specifically designed for training large language models (LLMs) is their lack of necessity to be situated near consumers—a requirement common for facilities supporting activities like running video games, managing e-commerce sites, or processing financial transactions. Instead, these specialized data centers can be established anywhere with ample availability and affordability of space, water, and critically, power. Recognizing this opportunity, Malaysia is aggressively working towards providing such conditions in an effort to position itself at the vanguard of forthcoming technological advancements.
The underlying theme across these narratives is that the AI revolution extends beyond just Silicon Valley. Asian companies are increasingly becoming key players—and stakeholders, leaders, and global elites ignore their substantial impact at their own risk.
This article can be found in the April/May 2025 Asian edition of the magazine.
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With the title “Asia in the Era of AI.”
The tale was initially showcased on
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