Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever

Plus: Former Samsung worker jailed for leaking secrets; Robo-cabs reach Shanghai airport; and more

Asia in brief Chinese researchers have created a drone that weighs just over four grams – less than a sheet of printer paper – and may be able to fly indefinitely.

Documented in a paper published last week in Nature, the drone uses an electrostatic motor that weighs just 1.52 grams and is powered by solar cells that produce 4.5V.

China's four-gram drone ... Click to enlarge. Source: Nature paper

The paper asserts that the drone's design has a lift-to-power efficiency two to three times better than that found in traditional drones.

The authors suggested that if rechargeable batteries can be added, the craft could be capable of 24-hour flying operations.

Samsung researcher jailed for China leak

A former Samsung worker was last week sentenced to six years jail for sharing secrets about OLED tech with a Chinese entity.

Local media reports the man spent a decade or more at Samsung before starting his own business that illegally used Samsung's IP. Worse, he also sold that knowledge to unnamed Chinese customers.

Huawei Cloud’s APAC surge

Huawei Cloud last week claimed its Singapore operations grew by over 100 percent in the last twelve months. The Chinese biz did not provide a baseline figure so we can understand if it's grown from, say, four customers to nine.

It did say that in the last five years it "served over 1,000 customers in Singapore and collaborated with over 500 technology partners," and that revenue it won in the Asia Pacific region "has increased twenty-fold in the past four years" – making Huawei the second-largest cloud provider in China and the fastest-growing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore's quantum AI investment, alliance

Singapore's Monetary Authority last week announced grants worth S$100 million ($74M) to help the local financial services industry adopt quantum and AI technologies.

The nation also last week signed a statement of intent for data analytics and artificial intelligence cooperation with the United States.

Robocabs reach Shanghai airport

The Chinese city of Shanghai has reportedly decided to allow robo-=cabs to service passengers at Pudong International airport, angering local cabbies who stand to miss out on fares to the city's downtown areas, about 40km (25 miles) away.

Elsewhere in China, cabbies are worried that robocabs offer rides at low prices they can't match.

NASA, Korean space agency collaborate

NASA and the newly established Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) last week conducted their first bilateral meeting.

KASA commenced operations in late May. The two space orgs pledged ongoing collaboration on NASA's Artemis program, as well as existing South Korean space efforts.

APAC Dealbook

New alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:

• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will use Alibaba Cloud's Energy Expert platform to measure and analyze electricity consumption at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games venues.
• SK Telecom announced it will invest $200 million to acquire a ten percent stake in Smart Global Holdings – a US AI datacenter solutions provider – to collaborate in building and operating AI infrastructure.
• Singapore-based payment infrastructure provider StraitsX launched XUSD, a fiat-pegged USD stablecoin, which it hopes will expand digital currency use in Southeast Asia.
• Meanwhile, Chinese cross-border trade payment platform XTransfer was granted in-principle approval (IPA) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a license to provide account issuance, domestic money transfer, cross-border money transfer, and e-money issuance services in the nation.

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