AI Weekly Malaysia

Indian entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is investing $30 million of his own money into Neo, his fifth venture, aiming to build an AI-powered alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. The platform promises AI-first productivity tools for enterprises, challenging incumbents with modern, AI-native features.

Sony will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation games starting in 2028, shifting to a fully digital distribution model. This marks the end of Blu-ray game releases after nearly two decades.

Flexi Parking, a digital parking payment system used across Malaysia, is back online after a multi-day cyberattack. The service, developed by LITS and integrated with apps like Smart Selangor Parking, may still face minor issues as it stabilizes.

Maxis's Hotlink has launched a 7-day 5G Travel SIM for RM25 with unlimited internet in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, including uncapped 5G and simplified activation via the Hotlink app.

SAP has appointed Verena Siow as its new President for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. She will lead customer success and business transformation across the region, focusing on helping organizations adopt SAP's AI-driven 'Autonomous Enterprise' vision.

Malaysia-based Vynn Capital has invested an undisclosed amount in etaily, a Philippines-headquartered commerce infrastructure platform that helps global brands like L'Oréal and Levi's scale across Southeast Asia. The funding will support etaily’s regional expansion, including building AI-enabled operations, as it strengthens its presence in Malaysia with local teams and partnerships.

Apple is reportedly preparing new iPad Pro models and a more affordable MacBook Pro for release early next year. The budget-friendly MacBook Pro could lower the cost barrier for developers needing macOS for iOS or general development work. Details remain limited, with no official confirmation yet.

Roland Gavrilescu, co-founder of Introspection, explains the concept of autoresearch: a feedback loop that enables AI agents to self-improve through 'recipes' and introspection, while emphasizing that humans stay central to the software development process.

Bending Spoons, known for acquiring and revamping legacy tech brands like Evernote and Vimeo, went public and its stock surged 40% on the first day, defying the broader SaaS market slump. The company's model of buying and improving older software assets has proven profitable and attracted strong investor interest.

Bending Spoons, an Italian company that acquires struggling internet brands, went public at an $18B valuation. Its co-founder attributes their success to minimizing reliance on luck through systematic processes and careful execution.

Meta is rolling out usernames on WhatsApp to enhance privacy, but critics warn that without strong safeguards, the feature could enable impersonation scams. The change moves away from phone-number-based identification, potentially making it harder to verify legitimate contacts.

A researcher found a bug in Apple's Hide My Email that could expose users' real email addresses, potentially rendering the privacy feature useless. The flaw reportedly occurs under certain conditions when forwarding emails, leaking the original address. Apple has not yet commented.

Cursor's Pauline Brunet describes how the company's Forward Deployed Engineers help enterprises set up AI coding agents as 'software factories,' focusing on integration, customization, and workflow adoption rather than just tool licensing.

SpaceX reportedly showed investors a 'handset-like' AI device prototype before its public listing, hinting at a potential expansion into wireless or consumer hardware. The device's exact purpose is unclear, but it suggests SpaceX may be exploring AI-powered mobile or satellite-connected gadgets.

Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures to launch a new VC firm with Morgan Beller, focusing on the infrastructure and energy layer that powers AI instead of the AI labs themselves.

Together AI, an AI neocloud provider specializing in hosting open source models, raised $800 million at an $8.3 billion valuation, up from $3.3 billion in early 2025. The funding signals strong investor confidence in the shift toward open-weight models and specialist cloud infrastructure.

Lime, the nine-year-old scooter and bike-share company, has gone public after years of uncertainty, aiming to raise funds to pay down approximately $1 billion in liabilities. This marks a significant milestone for the micromobility startup, which has faced financial challenges.

Google published a roundup of its June 2026 AI announcements, covering updates to Gemini models, AI Studio, agentic tools, and new integrations across its ecosystem. The post highlights improvements aimed at making AI development easier and more capable for builders and businesses.

Cloudflare gives AI companies until September 15 to separate search crawlers from AI training/agent crawlers or face default blocking on many publisher sites, effectively pushing them to pay for content.

Honda has started producing batteries for data center energy storage, marking its entry into the data center infrastructure market beyond automotive. This move highlights the growing demand for reliable power in the AI and cloud era.

Autonomous vehicle investment is surging again, echoing the 2016 hype cycle, with capital and talent wars reheating. Humble Robotics is applying this renewed momentum to autonomous freight, signaling a shift toward commercial logistics applications.

Humble Robotics' CEO asserts that technology has matured enough to deliver on the long-held vision for autonomous vehicles, amid a resurgence of capital, talent wars, and hype reminiscent of 2016.

Lime, a scooter and bike-share company, raised $167 million in its IPO after nine years, aiming to pay down around $1 billion in liabilities.

Google, the New York Jobs CEO Council, and Urban Assembly hosted an AI summit for 150 education and industry leaders to discuss integrating AI into classrooms, focusing on workforce readiness and equitable access.

Sergey Edunov, former Llama lead at Meta, co-founded Genesis Molecular AI to apply diffusion models to drug discovery. Their PEARL model won zero-shot at OpenBind, and co-folding is approaching accuracy thresholds that could transform molecular design.