Sarah Chew covers Southeast Asia’s technology, fintech, digital policy, and AI adoption landscape for RECATOOLS. Her work focuses on how regulation, platform shifts, and emerging technologies affect businesses, consumers, and digital markets across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

169
Articles
ASEAN Tech
Primary beat
May 2026
Writing since
~1124 min
Total reading
All 169 ASEAN Tech 97 Finance 65 Business 4 AI & ML 3

Articles · ASEAN Tech Showing 11–20 of 97

High-voltage transmission pylons against a dusk sky; how much power Malaysia's approved data centres will draw has not been disclosed
ASEAN Tech

Malaysia Has Fast-Tracked 27 Data Centres Worth RM226 Billion. It Did Not Say How Much Power They Need

Sixteen of the projects are in Johor. A parliamentary reply detailed 4,053 jobs and local content, while earlier figures put data centres at 31% of electricity by 2035.

15 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Hands holding a smartphone open to a chat conversation, the kind of exchange an on-device scam detector would analyse
ASEAN Tech

Singapore and Google DeepMind Build a Scam Detector That Reads Chats Only on Your Phone

GovTech fine-tuned Gemma on local scam conversations to warn users in real time without sending messages to anyone. It is not yet in any app.

15 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Marina Bay Sands, the ArtScience Museum and the Singapore Flyer at dusk
ASEAN Tech

Singapore Wants Organisations to Finish Switching to Quantum-Safe Encryption by 2035

The Cyber Security Agency asks exposed organisations for a migration plan by the end of 2027, gives critical infrastructure until 2031, and offers a grant for pilots.

14 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Jakarta's city centre lit up at night
ASEAN Tech

Indonesia Passed a Law to Give Its Government One Set of Data, and Parliament a Veto on Sending It Abroad

The One Data law sets a single national reference for budgets and welfare, a 24-hour incident-reporting deadline, and a new agency answering to the President.

12 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Singapore's city skyline of office towers beside the water
ASEAN Tech

Singapore Will Not Demand Early Access to Frontier AI Models, but Signals Tougher Rules for Risky Uses

A written reply to Parliament says a rigid requirement could backfire. Essential services may face independent testing and tighter oversight. No agent attack on government has been reported.

7 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
A laboratory technician holding a rack of sample tubes beside analysis instruments
ASEAN Tech

Singapore Will Offer Hereditary Breast Cancer Gene Testing From December

The health minister also set out an AI tool for family doctors next year and a planned law on genetic data in insurance and employment, as the national genome programme moves toward patients.

3 Oct 2026 · 3 min read
Singapore's financial district lit up at night, reflected in Marina Bay
ASEAN Tech

Singapore's Crypto Activity Grew 55% as Its Region Shrank, and Trading Firms Drove It

Chainalysis puts Singapore at $284 billion in the year to June, with institutional platforms up 94%. The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam made 14.4% of the world's small peer-to-peer transfers.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Two workers in hard hats inspect rooftop solar panels in front of tropical trees
ASEAN Tech

Southeast Asians Are Split on AI's Environmental Cost, and One in Six Say They Use It Less

AI tools use a lot of electricity but may aid climate work. Asked to weigh the two, 47.9% of 3,706 people across ASEAN called AI good for the environment and 30.2% bad, in an ISEAS poll.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Manila's skyline at sunset, with office towers and the bay beyond
ASEAN Tech

GCash Priced Its IPO a Third Below the Ceiling. It Can Still Be the Philippines' Biggest.

Mynt set P6.60 a share, valuing the e-wallet operator near P442 billion. About four in five base shares are sold by existing holders, so most proceeds are not new capital.

2 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Close-up of a packaged computer chip showing its gold contact pads
ASEAN Tech

Singapore's Newest Chip Fab Opened in Record Time. Volume Production Starts in 2027.

VSMC, owned by Vanguard and NXP, opened its Tampines plant after 22 months of construction. It is in trial production now, and its release adds AI-era interposers to the 2024 plan.

30 Sep 2026 · 4 min read
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