How much should a Tsinghua university graduate be making?
It's post-graduation season in China. Tiger Moms are naturally comparing notes on the salaries of fresh alumni from top universities. What kind of return might they expect, after spending years – and sometimes a fortune – demanding academic excellence from their offspring?
A doctor friend told me recently that her son got a job at Huawei Technologies, considered one of the most prestigious employers in China. The young man studied computer science at Tsinghua University and then Brown University in the US. Huawei is starting him at 400,000 yuan (US$55,689) a year, the parent beamed.
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Business Times
2 days ago
- Business Times
US explores better location trackers for AI chips, official says
[TAIPEI] The US is exploring ways to equip chips with better location-tracking capabilities, a senior official said, underscoring Washington's effort to curtail the flow of semiconductors made by the likes of Nvidia to China. Washington has espoused working with the industry to monitor the movements of the sensitive components, part of a broader plan to curtail smuggling and ensure American technology remains dominant. Last week, Beijing summoned Nvidia representatives to discuss US efforts around location-tracking and other alleged security risks related to its H20 chips. 'There is discussion about potentially the types of software or physical changes you could make to the chips themselves to do better location-tracking,' said Michael Kratsios, one of the architects of a US artificial intelligence (AI) action plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump last month. 'That is something we explicitly included in the plan,' the White House Office of Science and Technology Director said. Trump's blueprint has provoked a backlash in Beijing, which for years railed against alleged US surveillance and Washington's efforts to curtail its tech sector. The Chinese government is particularly sensitive to semiconductor sanctions designed to counter Huawei Technologies or rising AI developers such as DeepSeek. Trump officials recently pledged to lift export restrictions on the H20 to China as part of a trade deal they say will secure sales of rare-earth magnets to the US. But Washington is also focused on curtailing the smuggling of chips. Kratsios said on Tuesday that he's not had conversations 'personally' with either Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices about exploring location-tracking technology. Last week, Nvidia said that it does not have 'backdoors' in its chips. Kratsios, who was in South Korea to attend an Apec Digital Ministerial Meeting, took aim at China's own AI action plan, which involves forming a global organisation to devise governance and technology standards. 'We believe each country should set their own destiny on how they think about regulating artificial intelligence,' he said. 'The US model, which puts innovation first, will be the most attractive.' BLOOMBERG
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Straits Times
China prepares to unseat US in fight for AI market
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Chinese Premier Li Qiang warned of AI 'monopoly' and instead called on foreign officials in the room to cooperate on governance. BEIJING – While humanoid robots faced off in a boxing ring at China's flagship artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai, a fight in the US-China tech war was fought in suits nearby over who gets to set the rules in the AI age. China's answer is a new global organisation to convene countries to foster safe and inclusive use of the powerful new technology. At the annual World AI Conference over the weekend, Chinese Premier Li Qiang warned of AI 'monopoly' and instead called on foreign officials in the room – mostly from developing countries – to cooperate on governance. The new group, known as the World AI Cooperation Organization, embodies China's plan to jostle with the US for sway by positioning itself as a champion of AI for all. More favourable rules may give a global boost to Chinese companies competing with US firms to sell hardware and services in a market estimated to hit US$4.8 trillion (S$6.2 trillion) by 2033. For many of the countries represented at the conference, Chinese firms already offer competitive solutions, even if the US dominates the supply of cutting-edge AI chips. 'The Chinese are coming to the table with a very different AI product mix that is going to be extremely appealing to lower-income countries that lack the computing and power infrastructure needed for large-scale implementation of OpenAI-like AI systems,' said Mr Eric Olander of the China-Global South Project. Using technology as both carrot and calling card, Beijing's approach appears to take a page out of its earlier Digital Silk Road initiative, which put Chinese companies at the center of telecommunications networks spanning continents. China for years has strived to define the global parameters for emerging technologies such as 5G, seeking to influence development and set the stage for its companies to win market share abroad. Huawei Technologies' prominent role in standard-setting groups became the subject of scrutiny of the US government when it cracked down on the use of its equipment. Global AI governance has emerged as a new battleground for the world's leading powers, both seeing the technology as critical not just for their economy but national security. President Donald Trump declared last week that his country will 'do whatever it takes' to lead in AI, with his plan for actions including countering Chinese influence in international governance bodies. While there are no binding global rules for AI development, China's action plan calls for building more digital infrastructure that uses clean power and unifying computing power standards. The country also said it supports the role of businesses in creating technical standards in security, industry and ethics. Details about the Chinese body, to be headquartered in Shanghai, are scarce. In brief public remarks before media were ushered out of the room, a Chinese Foreign Ministry senior official, Mr Ma Zhaoxu, said the organisation would work to establish standards and governance frameworks. China would discuss details with those countries that are willing to join, he added. As US and Chinese companies race to develop systems that could match or even surpassed human intelligence, safety concerns have also prompted calls for guardrails. AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, who spoke at the Chinese event, expressed support for international bodies to collaborate on safety issues. Part of Beijing's AI strategy appears to come from its diplomatic playbook, which urges support for Global South countries to step up in international affairs. In his address to kick off the Saturday event, Mr Li emphasised helping those nations develop AI. These countries made up most of more than 30 nations that were invited to the high-level governance talks, including Ethiopia, Cuba, Bangladesh, Russia and Pakistan. A handful of European countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany, the EU and several international organisations were also represented. No nameplate for the US was seen by Bloomberg News. The US Embassy in Beijing declined to comment on any official presence. Dr Achmad Adh itya, special adviser to Indonesia's vice-president who attended the meeting, told Bloomberg News that China's initiative is 'very appreciated by the Indonesian government.' His country is preparing AI curricula to be rolled out across 400,000 schools and is training 60,000 teachers about the tech, he said. Beijing's emphasis on openness – a word used 15 times in its governance action plan – appears to ride on the success of Deepseek earlier this year. The AI upstart stunned the world not just by releasing AI models that are almost as capable as those of OpenAI but also made them freely available for anyone to download and customise for free. A succession of Chinese companies has done the same, with companies from incumbent giants like Alibaba and newcomers like Moonshot releasing cutting-edge large language models that are similarly open-weight. That accessibility may be especially important to developing countries who may not have the resources to gather vast datasets and train their own AI models from scratch, a process that would involve expensive chips made by companies such as Nvidia Corp. China also emphasises internet sovereignty, something that may appeal to more autocratic regimes around the world. 'We should respect other countries' national sovereignty and strictly abide by their laws when providing them with AI products and services,' according to the country's Global AI Governance Initiative issued in 2023. In contrast, Mr Trump's AI plan vows that the US government will only work with engineers who 'ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias'. The US-China rivalry presents a familiar dilemma for countries that may feel pressured to choose a side, but Solly Malatsi, minister of communications and digital technologies of South Africa, rejects the binary choice. 'It's not a case of one model over the other,' Mr Malatsi said from the conference. 'It's about an integration of the best of both worlds.' BLOOMBERG
Business Times
27-07-2025
- Business Times
Malaysia's banks missed the digital moment, and now AI is forcing a reckoning, says veteran banker
[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia missed a crucial opportunity between 2018 and the Covid-19 pandemic to modernise its banking sector and become a regional digital leader. As that window closed, industry players now face greater challenges to achieve growth, said veteran banker Andrew Sheng. 'Between 2018 and the pandemic, that was the time for a huge transformation online. Especially during pandemic, everyone moves online – work, shopping and finance. That was when banks needed to go all in on digital, but we missed it,' the 79-year-old former central banker and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Malaya and Tsinghua University told The Business Times. He noted that while other markets were embracing rapid technological upgrades, driven by competition, user expectations and regulatory shifts, many Malaysian banks remained conservative, slow-moving, and hesitant to innovate. 'That was the time for a huge transformation online. But the digital offerings of Malaysian banks, in my view, are slightly dated,' he said. Sheng previously served as chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2005, and held roles as a central banker with both the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank Negara Malaysia. Sheng also acted as chief adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. In recognition of the impact he made, Time magazine included him among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Sheng noted that some of the country's largest banks had previously shown ambition beyond national borders, particularly CIMB and Maybank with their regional expansion strategies. But even those forward-looking moves lost momentum in recent years. 'Since 2018, they have become more cautious… And then came the pandemic, when digital transformation should have been accelerated. But I don't see agentic offerings. My bank knows my spending patterns, but it's not giving me tailored investment advice or proactive digital tools,' he added. The shortcomings go beyond the lack of advanced digital products. Sheng points to fundamental failures in basic customer service – failures that expose the sector's resistance to modernisation. 'Some of the banks are still in this old-fashioned call centre model,' he said. 'When you call them in the middle of the night, you either get somebody in Bangladesh or the service just isn't available.' Even basic digital tools such as chatbots, which are widely deployed across South-east Asia, remain underused or poorly implemented in Malaysia. He described this as a systemic issue – one rooted not in technology, but in culture and governance. 'Getting a bank to move digitally when most of the staff are less digitally oriented is a major management challenge. The boards and CEOs need to be totally digitally focused. But most are made up of former bankers or businesspeople. They see the threat, but they don't internalise it. 'TechFin' is eating the bankers' lunch Former central banker Andrew Sheng said: 'Platforms using crypto, blockchain, and decentralised finance are eating the banks' lunch. And that trend is only going to accelerate.' PHOTO: ANDREW SHENG While Malaysian banks stagnated, technology platforms surged ahead, not just supporting finance, but redefining it, and Sheng believes the real disruption isn't traditional fintech, where banks adopt tech tools, but what he calls 'TechFin' – where tech companies disrupt finance from the outside. 'Since Covid, the dominant issue is not fintech – it's the financialisation of technology. It's TechFin rather than FinTech. The tech platforms overwhelm the finance industry,' he explained. The competitive imbalance is stark, with tech companies having better software, more data, less regulation, and far more agility than traditional banks. Furthermore, they do not carry much debts. Banks, on the other hand, are highly leveraged, highly regulated, and can't seem to compete, he said, noting that such a scenario isn't theoretical. Across Asia, consumers now use mobile-based QR code systems, which are operated by tech firms, not banks – to transact in real time, said Sheng, adding that the beneficiaries aren't the banks, but e-wallet providers such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, or even small fintech startups. This disruption extends far beyond payments. Sheng warns that even core financial activities, lending, wealth management, insurance, are being unbundled and digitalised by faster, leaner players. 'Platforms using crypto, blockchain, and decentralised finance are eating the banks' lunch. And that trend is only going to accelerate,' said Sheng, who is set to deliver the keynote address at MyFintech Week, Malaysia's flagship fintech event, scheduled for early August. Tokenisation is the next frontier With a population of just 33 million, Malaysia lacks the market size to build scale slowly. PHOTO: AFP Compounding the threat is the rapid evolution of tokenised digital assets, which Sheng believes is a development that will radically transform capital markets and trade. Yet again, Malaysia is playing catch-up. 'Practically anything can be tokenised today… Liabilities, assets, and even a scribble by the next Picasso can be turned into a digital asset and sold,' he said. Tokenisation, enabled by blockchain and decentralised infrastructure, allows assets to be divided, digitalised, and traded globally in real time. Gold, carbon credits, and even commodities such as palm oil are now being explored as tokenised products. 'If palm oil could be tokenised and made available to someone like me to buy a ton because I like the weather, why not?' Sheng said. 'But the reality is, I can't do it right now in Malaysia. Someone else will.' And that's the real danger. He noted that if Malaysia does not act, others will dominate the digital asset space, and consequently, Malaysian capital, investors, and talent will go elsewhere. 'If you're not going to do it, someone else will… The money and the flows will go elsewhere,' he added. With a population of just 33 million, Malaysia lacks the market size to build scale slowly. Countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines, with over 100 million people each, are better positioned to develop digital ecosystems quickly and able to attract regional liquidity. Power shift to asset managers Non-bank players such as Citadel and Jane Street, which have grown into trading behemoths that rival conventional banks in volume and influence. PHOTO: REUTERS Beyond Malaysia and South-east Asia, Sheng observed that the global financial system is undergoing a quiet but profound power shift, away from conventional banks and towards dominant asset managers and trading platforms. 'Technology tends to concentrate. The top five banks in any country dominate most of the banking business. But the top five asset managers, not necessarily banks, are now just as powerful, if not more,' he said. He noted that while large banking institutions such as JPMorgan and UBS remain influential, their growing strength lies less in traditional lending and more in their roles as global asset managers and market traders. He cited UBS' increasing weight in asset management and JPMorgan's dominance across the dollar market, investment banking, and trading. Sheng also highlighted the rise of non-bank players such as Citadel and Jane Street, which have grown into trading behemoths that rival conventional banks in volume and influence. He noted that such a trend is being accelerated by digitalisation and scale. Technology amplifies the advantages of incumbents with deep data, large capital bases, and global reach, pushing smaller or slower institutions further to the margins. At the same time, he warned, banks in emerging markets such as Malaysia are falling behind in digital transformation, leaving them vulnerable. 'Every bank needs to ask: how do we cut costs, improve productivity, manage risk, and create new value?' Sheng said. 'Those who don't ask that question now may not be around to answer it later.'
