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.

129
Articles
ASEAN Tech
Primary beat
May 2026
Writing since
~915 min
Total reading
All 129 ASEAN Tech 71 Finance 51 Business 4 AI & ML 3

Articles Showing 71–80 of 129

The Da Nang waterfront across the Han River with a small boat in the foreground, illustrating a report on a phased Vietnamese data centre network.
ASEAN Tech

Vietnam's Sovereign AI Data Centre Plan Starts At 20 Megawatts

A joint venture has announced a US$1bn, 100 MW national network built in three phases, beginning with 10-20 MW at Da Nang. Publishing the first increment rather than the programme total makes the plan checkable within two years.

21 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
Large wooden letterpress type blocks laid out face up in a tray, each letter a separate physical piece that must exist to be printed
ASEAN Tech

Why Some Languages Come Out as Empty Boxes

A page can be perfectly translated and still arrive as hollow rectangles, because rendering needs a font that contains the shapes. We opened all 30 fonts this site serves and found 30,066 characters, none of them Burmese.

21 Aug 2026 · 6 min read
Vintage postage stamps from many different countries scattered across a single white envelope on a wooden desk
ASEAN Tech

What the Same Sentence Costs in Eleven Languages

Write a prompt in Thai and it costs more than the same prompt in English — not because the model charges you differently, but because it counts your language in more pieces. We measured one document in eleven languages: 1,888 tokens in English, 19,026 in Lao.

21 Aug 2026 · 6 min read
Chess pieces arranged on a board in black and white, illustrating a report on a chip supply deal structured around equity warrants.
Finance

Marvell Is Paying Google In Warrants To Keep Buying Its Chips

Google gets the right to almost 59 million shares at US$206.58, vesting in tranches tied to every US$500m of chips it purchases. That is a volume rebate paid in equity, and the US$120bn figure describes the incentive.

21 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
A traditional outrigger boat on turquoise water with a small forested island behind, illustrating a report on a proposed Philippine domestic submarine cable network.
ASEAN Tech

Three Philippine Rivals Want To Build One US$500m Undersea Backbone

PLDT, Globe and Converge have proposed a national submarine cable from Batanes to Palawan with seismic sensors built in. Competitors sharing infrastructure is a judgement that inter-island backhaul has become a cost rather than a differentiator.

20 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
A helmeted delivery rider carrying parcels on a motorbike, panned against a blurred street, illustrating a report on a Southeast Asian commerce and lending group.
ASEAN Tech

Sea Grew Revenue 48 Per Cent, And The Loan Book Grew 62

Q2 revenue of US$7.8bn and Shopee GMV of US$38.3bn lead the release. The number that describes the company is Monee's US$11.1bn of loans outstanding, up 62.5 per cent with ratios called stable.

20 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
Bundled fibre-optic strands glowing turquoise against a black background, illustrating a report on green financing for a Johor data centre campus.
ASEAN Tech

STT GDC Raised US$1.37bn For Johor, And Three Of The Four Lenders Are Regional

A green financing facility for a 166 MW campus at Nusa Cemerlang, coordinated by UOB Malaysia with OCBC, Standard Chartered and CIMB. The lender composition says more about who funds Southeast Asia's data centre build than the headline number does.

19 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
The Metro Manila skyline at sunset seen through tall wild grasses, illustrating a report on a Philippine consumer lender reaching break-even.
ASEAN Tech

Skyro Reached Break-Even In Philippine Consumer Lending, Which Almost Nobody Does

About US$180 million disbursed in the first half, 1.9 times a year earlier, and operating profitability four years after launch. The distribution model — 3,000 merchants, 10,000 till points — explains the economics better than the user count does.

19 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
A blue graduation cap and diploma folder lying on grass, with gold cords and two gold tassels draped across them.
Finance

What a Tuition Total Leaves Out

Our own calculator says a four-year degree costs $54,400, and discloses that it excludes fee changes between years. We measured what that clause costs: $4,218 at a 5% annual rise, and more than a full term once a six-year course rises 3.2% a year.

18 Aug 2026 · 6 min read
Gold-coloured coins spilling from a glass jar on a red background, illustrating a report on MariBank's regional expansion.
ASEAN Tech

MariBank Is Exporting a Model That Has Not Worked at Home Yet

Sea's Singapore digital bank lost S$55.6 million in 2025 and has about three years of its profitability window left. It is now building a regional group, starting with the Philippines, where a large share of transactions still begin and end in cash.

17 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
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