2026-08-06 · buy-side

SpaceX makes a splash and China scores a memory win

Hello from Yifan, sending this week's #techAsia newsletter from Silicon Valley. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

I've been thinking about buying a new robot vacuum as my four-year-old model is struggling with cleaning up all the mess made by my two cats.

Of course, as a journalist, I've been procrastinating about it for months. But that was until a chat I had with a trade lawyer yesterday who advised me to buy one before it's too hard or expensive to do so.

I was confused at first. Robot vacuum cleaners are common household items sold everywhere and there are plenty of brands to choose from with prices falling each year. How hard could it be to buy one?

Then I found out that robot vacuums are now deemed a national security issue in the U.S.

In July, the Federal Communications Commission issued a ban on imports of new foreign-produced humanoid robots on national security grounds, a move widely seen as targeting Chinese-made models.

But robot vacuums also fall under the new FCC restrictions as they are "equipped with high-fidelity sensors, including Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), tactile, acoustic, and thermal sensors that collect and maintain sensitive data on their surroundings."

And yes, just like humanoids, the majority of vacuum robots in the market now are made in China, which makes them a "foreign threat."

At some level, I can now truly relate with those U.S. companies who are opposing a ban on Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence models.

Some of them said in an open letter that such a ban would "stifle competition, entrench incumbents, and function as a tax on intelligence," while raising costs and narrowing choices for American companies.

Oh well. It seems like my robot vacuum choices are destined to narrow and the costs to get much higher.

Weak yen, strong space

SpaceX is the undisputed leader in the launch industry. The weak yen, however, is giving Japanese launch providers some advantage over Elon Musk's venture, Nikkei Asia's Mitsuru Obe writes.

On Wednesday, Japanese lunar exploration startup ispace announced that it had selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' H3 rocket for a lunar landing mission in 2028, after relying on the U.S. company's Falcon 9 for its previous missions in 2022 and 2025.

CEO Takeshi Hakamada said economics as well as exchange rates were among the factors behind the decision. "The yen is highly depreciated today, while SpaceX services need to be paid in dollars," he said. Ispace plans to undertake about three lunar transport missions annually, with the H3 expected to handle one or two of those.

Venturing back in

Chinese venture capital firms are raising fresh funds as their investors seek new ways to bet on the country's booming AI and technology industries, writes the Financial Times' Eleanor Olcott in Beijing.

HSG, IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China and Future Capital are among the firms marketing new funds or planning to start fundraising soon, according to people with knowledge of their moves. ZhenFund and Qiming recently closed funds.

Overall, Chinese VC groups are seeking to raise an estimated $35 billion for at least 60 new dollar-denominated funds, including about 40 venture capital funds, according to data from private placement and advisory firm Asante Capital.

A string of successful Chinese tech listings, as well as technical breakthroughs from AI groups such as Moonshot AI and DeepSeek, has revived interest in the sector.

"This isn't a China VC boom yet," said Ricardo Felix, partner and head of Asia-Pacific at Asante. "Instead, this is a selective reopening of U.S. dollar fundraising for Chinese VC after three years of record-low levels."

Supply and demand

Leading PC makers HP, Asus and Acer have started to use small amounts of chips from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies amid an unprecedented memory shortage fueled by demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, Nikkei Asia's Lauly Li and Cheng Ting-Fang report.

Many major PC makers completed the qualification process for CXMT's DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips around the middle of this year and have started to use a limited amount in their notebook computers, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The PC and smartphone industries have been suffering from shortages of memory chips and CPUs (central processing units) since late last year. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings call last week that the iPhone maker is also evaluating new memory chip suppliers amid the shortage and pricing pressure.

Orbital ambitions, terrestrial results

Elon Musk's SpaceX reported 92% year-on-year revenue growth in its first earnings release as a public company on Tuesday.

On its earnings call, Musk once again said the rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company will begin building its orbital data center as soon as next year. But it is data centers here on Earth that fueled SpaceX's better-than-expected earnings, Nikkei Asia's Yifan Yu reports.

SpaceX said it signed $14.1 billion in contracted cloud service sales during the April-June period, of which $1.6 billion was converted into recognized AI infrastructure revenue in the second quarter. Its total AI business revenue surged 247% to $2.6 billion.

Suggested reads

1. Alibaba's new Qwen AI model falls short of 'second only to Fable 5' claim (Nikkei Asia)

2. The Big Read: ByteDance's big bet on AI (FT)

3. Grab raises guidance as strong ride-hailing demand lifts Q2 profit (Nikkei Asia)

4. Winner of US-China AI rivalry falls 2% in Hong Kong debut (FT)

5. Southeast Asia's streaming success spurs filmmakers' global hopes (Nikkei Asia)

6. The thrill of South Korea's 'dopamine apps' (FT)

7. US and China AI demand drives copper prices to near-record highs (Nikkei Asia)

8. China is not the solution to the US chipflation problem (FT)

9. EV boom drives ASEAN car sales in Q2, with Indonesia surging 34% (Nikkei Asia)

10. South Korean stock market soars 18% as investors pile back into AI (FT)

Podcast: Tech Latest

SpaceX's pursuit of a China-free supply chain

Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Hosted by our tech coverage veterans, Katey Creel and Shotaro Tani, every Tuesday we deliver the hottest trends and news from the sector.

In this episode, Shotaro speaks with Taiwan tech correspondent Annie Cheng Ting-Fang about how SpaceX is tightening its supply chain to reduce Chinese influence, what that reveals about the growing role of national security in manufacturing, and why the aerospace industry's standards could soon extend beyond the defense sector.

Find us on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | YouTube Music | Amazon Music | Voicy

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