Busy drones and the hidden AI champion of Japan

Hello, this is Kenji in Tokyo.

Since Donald Trump started his second term as American president in January, most of us who live in this part of the world probably have the habit of checking, wrote, wrote or did while Asia slept in the morning. This may already have led to some of us developing some sort of immunity to be shocked by his words and actions.

But the surprise Attack in three nuclear locations In Iran at the US, on Sunday morning, certainly as a rude awakening for many people, because it clearly escalated the war between Israel and Iran, so that the crisis in the middle was deepened – and possibly for the whole world.

While a ceasefire was proclaimed by Trump and was later confirmed by Iran and Israel, the “12-day war”, as it is called, only underlined the need to improve safety, also on the economic front.

There are recently a number of forums and symposia that discuss economic security, a reflection of an increasing sense of urgency among politicians, bureaucrats, academics and business leaders.

One was on June 20, organized by the University of Tokyo with experts from Rand. The forum focused on securing a critical mineral supply chain, under the starting point of a trilateral alliance between Japan, South Korea and the American Fabian Villalobos, senior engineer and professor of policy analysis of the American non-profit research institute, said critical mineral-integrated rare-in-ranking rare-in-ranging-in-ranking rare-in-ranging-in-ranking rare-in-ranging-in-ranking-in-ranking-in-ranking-in-ranking-Intra-In-Varal-Intra-In-way rare rare-in-Very rare-in-Very rare-in-way rare-in-Very rare-In-way rare-In-way rare-way rare-In-way rare-In-way rare-way rare-class For both civil and military applications.

He said he is often asked: “What is the most important mineral?” But for him that is the “wrong question to ask”, because if a piece of the supply chain is missing, the entire system becomes dysfunctional.

We recently saw this in the car industry, where American and Japanese makers were forced Stop production lines While China’s Curbs on weird Earth export started. This is not the first time that China’s export restrictions have also caused disturbances in global supply chains.

Potential bottlenecks of a different nature can meanwhile come from a completely different source: the fact that vital technical components and materials are controlled by a small number of less well -known companies in Japan.

Drone-flation

Chinese government regulations adopted in September for which export permits for goods for double use have more Tripled the prize from Drone components sent to the US, according to a report from Nikkei’s Ituro Fujino.

The analysis of Chinese customs data shows that the total export volume of infrared devices, an important drone part that made visibility possible in the dark, fell around 30 percent between last September and April, while the export value rose by almost 50 percent. The price per unit doubled during this period, mainly from a tightened balance of the delivery. The export to the US, which is the largest destination, fell around 60 percent per volume, while the unit price jumped 3.5 times.

“Today, China has conquered 90% of the American market for commercial drones.” This statement comes from a report from the office of the then senator Marco Rubio, now the State Secretary, about the Chinese production sector. Rubio is sure that Beijing Drones could use as effective leverage in trade negotiations.

Essential threads

Nitto Boseki, or simply Nittobo, may not be a concept, despite a history that extends more than a century. But the products are so crucial for the AI ​​cooling chain that managers of Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft come to Japan to visit it.

In a cooperation work by Nikkei Asia Lauly Li And Cheng Ting-Fang In Taipei and Ryohtaroh Satoh In Tokyo they explain how this relatively few well-known AI-enabler currently Only company in the worldable to offer the highest glass cloth, a material that is essential for making powerful AI servers.

Japan has several examples of apparently obscure material makers that underlie the global technical supply chain. Nittobo, however, has a particularly interesting history. It was one of the “top 10 cotton spinners” in Japan before the Second World War and helped the economic reconstruction of the country in the post -war era in Leiden. Because the competition from other Asian economies pushed the entire industry to the corner, Nittobo became one of the most successful examples of a company that transformed itself from a sunset industry, while many of his colleagues died. The Boseki In his name, which means that cotton spiders, is a memory of that history of adjustment.

Low height, Exalted ambitions

China gambles on his army of civil drones to help drive it New sources of growthwrites the Financial Times’ William LANGLEY.

The country dominates the production of commercial drones, good for 70-80 percent of the worldwide offer, according to analysis provider Drone Industry Insights.

About 2.2 million drones were registered with the Civil Aviation Administration of China towards the end of last year, deployed to do everything, from controlling crowds to fighting fires.

But Beijing’s ambitions go much further than that. The CAAC expects that the market size of the economy at low height-die will refuse to activities that take place less than 1,000 meters above the ground-to grow five-time to RMB3.5TN against 2035.

That means finding new use of the technology of private companies. The logistics and food delivery sectors are Early Adopters, with Meitan and his rivals already use unmanned aircraft on some routes.

The farms of the country are also large users. About a third of industrial drones are also used in agriculture or forestry, according to 2022 figures from the Guanyan Tianxia Data Center.

But some in the very competitive UAV industry say that it will be difficult to replace the purchasing power of large government and military buyers, while strict export controls have limited their potential reach abroad.

Double talk

Managers from two European technology companies recently sat down with Nikkei Asia to discuss their respective strategies.

Marc Biron, Chief Executive at the Belgian chip maker Melexis, explained how his company uses his production capacity “Neutral” Malaysia To navigate geopolitical headwind.

Spend against Norman gosh In Kuala Lumpur, Biron said that the facility of his company in Kuching, Sarawak, has sent chips to both the US and China as a “deliberate hedge” against mounting worldwide trading fragmentation.

Biron counts on the neutrality of Malaysia that he compares with Switzerland. “That neutrality enables us to produce for Asia, China and the US, of a single basis.”

In the meantime, Cheng Ting-Fang spoke with Jos Benschop, executive vice-president of technology at ASML, about the development of the The next generation of advanced lithography machines That would be sufficiently advanced to serve the needs of the chip industry from 2035 and then.

The world’s largest maker of semiconductor equipment works together with Carl Zeiss for this Farsighted Development Spush.

Proposed lectures

1. How bureaucracy reinforces China’s rare earthmers (Nikkei Asia)

2. Taiwan has raised the Ante in the Cold War about chips (FT)

3. Softbank Chief Pitches $ 1TN AI and Robotics Complex in Arizona (FT)

4. Alibaba to merge food delivery, travel units in ‘Instant Retail’ Drive (Nikkei Asia)

5. The under-utilized subways of India tap in Rij-Hailing apps to lure commuters (Nikkei Asia)

6. Calling Australia Regulator to add YouTube to social media ban under 16 (FT)

7. Sri Lanka car market tilts to EVs with BYD, other Chinese leadership (Nikkei Asia)

8. Chinese cyber threat to Europe on the same footing with that of Russia, warns the Czech president (FT)

9. Trading sticks on China send us ethhane prices slide (Nikkei Asia)

10. Chinese factories rush to reduce the dependence on the US of Donald Trump (FT)