Kinling Lo / Rest of World: Businesses in China are experimenting with ways to package and market AI tokens to ordinary consumers, including as credit card rewards and telecom plan bundles — Five unexpected ways computing power is entering everyday life in the country. — Artificial intelligence tokens …
Kinling Lo / Rest of World: China's tech boom is creating a new kind of tech tourism where visitors pay for curated robotaxi rides and tours of EV factories and AI and robotics companies — Foreign visitors are flocking to China's factories and AI startups in search of the next technological breakthrough.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: Tracxn: global edtech funding fell from $16.7B in 2021 to $2.6B in 2025, while the number of startups launched dropped from 10,491 in 2021 to just 645 in 2025 — Venture capital is moving away from K-12 edtech worldwide as investors prioritize AI tools and workforce training with clearer returns.
Rina Chandran / Rest of World: Some startups and researchers who can't access the most advanced chips are adopting a “frugal AI” approach, building smaller models on open-weight systems — Amid a widening global divide in AI adoption, low-cost AI models that can deliver sovereignty and efficiency …
Viola Zhou / Rest of World: The US launches the Tech Corps, a program under the Peace Corps to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI, as the US competes with China for AI dominance — Washington to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI models as Chinese open-weight models are proving popular.
Nicole Fan / Rest of World: Chinese government funding is backing traditional Chinese medicine providers to adopt AI for drug discovery, clinical diagnostics, acupuncture robots, and more — With backing from the Chinese government, TCM practitioners are integrating AI tools to reach new consumers at home and abroad.
Viola Zhou / Rest of World: Ant Group reports 30M MAUs for its AI health chatbot Ant Afu, which integrates appointments, test analysis, and insurance payments within Alipay's ecosystem — Ant's health chatbot has become a top downloaded app in China as users seek personalized care they can't get from the overburdened hospitals.
Issie Lapowsky / Rest of World: Sources detail how Tiger Global fueled the COVID-era unicorn bubble that burst ahead of the AI boom; the firm recently shared its $12.7B 2021 fund is now up 16% — The fast-money pandemic era helped build billion-dollar startups around the world — then brought many down just as quickly.
Rest of World: Analysis: of the 8,808 global data centers in October 2025, ~7,000 are in areas outside the optimal 18C to 27C temperature range; 600 are in areas above 27C — In 21 countries, all data centers are located in climates that are too hot. — On paper, Singapore is a terrible location for a data center.
Rest of World: Interviews with 10 Kenyan AI annotators show Chinese companies hire data labelers via opaque middleman networks and WhatsApp groups to avoid accountability — An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages.
Daniela Dib / Rest of World: A look at Mexico City's Nuevo Polanco neighborhood, where Huawei, TikTok, and other Chinese firms have opened offices, fueling a growing Chinese tech community — A growing Chinese techie community in Nuevo Polanco is fueling a boom in restaurants and markets to serve them.
Rest of World: A look at Indian startups like TuluAI, which are building LLMs for low-resource languages by creating data sets nearly from scratch with community involvement — Indian founders are building digital data sets for low-resource languages by involving the community, and count on local relevance to go against big tech platforms.
Linda Yulisman / Rest of World: Indonesia's film industry is embracing AI tools to produce Hollywood-style movies at a significantly lower cost; the average local film budget is about $602,500 — Generative AI video and text tools are transforming some of the labor-intensive parts of filmmaking, and are largely welcomed in Indonesia's homegrown industry.
Kinling Lo / Rest of World: How Ordos, a coal-rich northern Chinese city, has become a testing ground for self-driving trucks after turning into a ghost town due to 2012's coal price crash — The empty boulevards that once symbolized the mainland's property bust now serve as testing grounds for hundreds of autonomous vehicles.
Viola Zhou / Rest of World: A look at China's push to integrate AI tools into children's lives, even as educators and researchers remain skeptical, warning the benefits are overstated — Government support and tech companies' drive for profit fuel a rush to integrate AI tools, from robot tutors to chatbots, in education and caretaking.
Rest of World: An inside look at Léon Thévenin, the only undersea internet cable repair ship permanently stationed in Africa, operated by the French telecom company Orange — Undersea internet cables are critical in today's hyperconnected world. The crew of the Léon Thévenin maintains one stretch of this global network.
Rest of World: Some companies are turning to fossil fuels to power their data centers as countries around the world scramble to meet rising energy demands amid the AI boom — Mexico's lagging energy grid is forcing companies, including Microsoft, to use generators. — Behind a miles-long gray wall …
Michelle Kim / Rest of World: How ChatGPT-powered companionship dolls from Hyodol are helping ease loneliness among older adults in South Korea, as the company aims for a US debut in 2026 — A ChatGPT-powered robotic companion called Hyodol is taking over some work from overburdened caregivers, much to the delight of seniors who treat them like grandchildren.
Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World: Q&A with Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia, Africa's largest e-commerce platform, on Temu and other rivals, adding Chinese sellers to stay competitive, AI, and more — • NAIROBI, KENYA — Competition has been steep for Jumiai , Africa's largest e-commerce platform, especially from major Chinese companies like Temu and Sheini .
Divsha Bhat / Rest of World: Q&A with SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary on the Alphabet spinoff's partnership with Aramco, how quantum AI can help turn captured CO2 into valuable products, and more — • DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The world's biggest oil company is betting on a Google spinoff to profit from pollution.
Cristián Vera-Cruz / Rest of World: A look at the Chile-led Latam-GPT project, which involves 30+ Latin American and Caribbean institutions collaborating to release an open-source LLM in September — Dozens of organizations in the region have partnered to develop a large language model that better understands Latin America's cultural and linguistic nuances.
Michelle Anindya / Rest of World: Tokopedia sellers say Tokopedia's strengths have eroded since its TikTok Shop merger in Indonesia, driving thousands of sellers to join rivals, including Toco — A year after merging with local giant Tokopedia, TikTok's business model is alienating sellers, forcing many to join rival platforms.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: Meta's WhatsApp Pay has struggled to gain traction in India in part due to regulators delaying its full launch as well as minimal product upgrades and marketing — Despite having 500 million users in India, WhatsApp couldn't crack the country's $3 trillion fintech market.
Pedro Nakamura / Rest of World: How an AI assistant developed by Brazilian nonprofit NoHarm is helping pharmacists in remote Amazon clinics process prescriptions more quickly and catch errors — At overburdened clinics, pharmacists use AI to catch dangerous errors. It's frontier tech meets frontier medicine — with global implications.
Divsha Bhat / Rest of World: A look at the intensifying race for super apps in the Gulf, as Careem, Talabat, Amazon, Botim, and Noon consolidate various services into single platforms — From Dubai to Riyadh, apps are consolidating ride-hailing, payments, and delivery into single platforms. — The race for super-apps is intensifying in the Middle East.
Rest of World: Filipino workers in Taiwan's chip industry report struggling with overwork and discrimination, citing overnight shifts of up to 16 hours and abusive treatment — A record number of people are leaving the Philippines to work in Taiwanese factories, where they face long shifts, low pay, and unequal treatment.
Rest of World: New apps are helping immigrants navigate Trump's deportation crackdown, including by alerting users to locations of ICE raids and informing them of their rights — With tightening immigration policies and rising fears of deportation, new apps provide migrants with resources to stay prepared and connected.
Amar Diwakar / Rest of World: Dubai is emerging as a global hub for AI talent, attracting workers with its Golden Visa program, no taxes, attractive salaries, and ease of setting up business — Western job seekers see lucrative offers in the booming AI hub, while others deal with rejections and lower pay.
Gabriel Daros / Rest of World: Brazil is piloting dWallet, a digital wallet program that allows users to monetize their data, the first nationwide initiative of its kind in the world — Brazil is piloting dWallet, a project that lets citizens earn money from their data. It is ahead of similar U.S-based initiatives.
Rest of World: The Shein India app, launched by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail in partnership with Shein, has struggled to gain traction after launching in February — Early data shows the partnership is off to a slow start, as Reliance's retail machine struggles to cement its place in a market dominated by Amazon and Walmart.
Kinling Lo / Rest of World: Chinese startups are highlighting their roots instead of downplaying them as they grow overseas, fueled by the success of Chinese social media apps and DeepSeek — Following DeepSeek's rise, more Chinese companies are highlighting their roots as they expand overseas.
Pedro Nakamura / Rest of World: A look at “kidfluencers” in Brazil who promote online get-rich-quick schemes to other children on TikTok, Kwai, and Instagram, amid growing government scrutiny — Young Brazilians chase social media fame, selling “get-rich” schemes, while legal battles question platform responsibility and the cost to childhood.
Indulekha Aravind / Rest of World: How Namma Yatri, an open-source ride-hailing app, forced Uber, Ola, and Rapido to adopt its no-commission, subscription model for auto-rickshaw drivers in India — Namma Yatri, launched by a SoftBank-backed fintech firm, pioneered the zero-commission model. Now other ride-hailing apps are rethinking their strategy.
Furquan Ameen / Rest of World: Experts say that India is behind China in deep tech innovation due to its historical focus on services, lower R&D investment, and a brain drain of AI talent — India's government urges the private sector to take the lead in tech innovation, while industry experts say it's complicated.
Gabriel Daros / Rest of World: Brazil's AI-based social security app, launched in 2018, has cut bureaucracy in some cases but wrongly rejected hundreds of vulnerable people over minor errors — An algorithmic tool meant to reduce bureaucracy is misfiring on complex cases, and vulnerable Brazilians are paying the price.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: A look at Foxconn's $2.5B “Project Elephant”, an upcoming factory on the outskirts of Bengaluru, its second-largest factory outside China, creating 40,000 jobs — The $2.5 billion “Project Elephant” will be the company's second-largest factory outside China and create 40,000 jobs.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: How Foxconn's $2.5B “Project Elephant” to build iPhones, its second-largest factory outside China, is fueling a real estate boom in a town outside Bengaluru — The $2.5 billion “Project Elephant” will be the company's second-largest factory outside China and create 40,000 jobs.
Laura Rodríguez Salamanca / Rest of World: Workers and researchers say data annotation jobs that many Venezuelans relied on have become scarce and poorly paid with the rise of generative AI — Venezuela has long provided the tech industry with cheap, educated workers. But with the rise of generative AI, jobs have become less lucrative and harder to find.
Gabriela Sá Pessoa / Rest of World: A look at the battle between Uber and its unlikely ally, Chinese-owned rival 99, against the São Paulo city government, which banned motorcycle taxis in 2023 — The ride-hailing rivals are taking on the government of São Paulo, which banned motorcycle taxis.
Lam Le / Rest of World: A look at Shanghai municipal government-backed SpaceSail, a satellite internet company that has launched ~90 satellites so far and plans to have 15,000 by 2030 — The Shanghai satellite company is launching deals in countries where Starlink, X or Tesla are creating friction.
Anup Kaphle / Rest of World: Q&A with Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha on the MENA ride-hailing giant becoming a super app, the spinout of its non-ride-hailing services from Uber, AI, and more — • DUBAI, THE UAE — Mudassir Sheikha likes to tell the story of Careem's growth in chapters.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: USCIS data shows Amazon got the most H-1B visas each year from 2020 to 2024; Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple ranked in the top 10 in 2024 — U.S. tech firms — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple — were the top 10 employers of H-1B recipients in 2024.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World: Former staff, investors, and industry experts reflect on the demise of Dunzo, the Indian online delivery pioneer undone by mismanagement, competition, and more — Dunzo was a trailblazer in India's online delivery sector, but things went awry when it shifted from its core strength.
Kinling Lo / Rest of World: A look at the adoption of DeepSeek across China, as Chinese automakers, smartphone sellers, and others rush to build services on top of the homegrown AI model — Chinese companies, as a signal of patriotism, are racing to build services on top of the homegrown AI model that has taken the world by storm since January.
Lam Le / Rest of World: GSMA Intelligence: ~61 countries, including the US and China, plan to shut down their 2G networks, raising digital exclusion concerns, mainly affecting the poor — Global leap to 4G and 5G would cut off phone access for millions of vulnerable people. — Last November, Nguyen Thi Que's …
Yashraj Sharma / Rest of World: An analysis by the Digital Witness Lab at Princeton of 8,000+ messages finds messages advertising guns across 234 publicly accessible WhatsApp groups in India — An analysis of more than 8,000 messages by Digital Witness Lab at Princeton University finds the Meta-owned platform is a thriving illegal firearms marketplace.
Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World: Mastercard withdrew its commitment to invest $100M in 54 Collective, a top VC firm in Africa, where startup funding fell from $4.6B in 2022 to $2.2B in 2024 — The withdrawal leaves a gap in support for early-stage startups, as Africa's tech funding has been declining since 2022.
Lizzi C. Lee / Rest of World: China's first-of-its-kind policy letting companies mark data as an asset on balance sheets sees slow adoption, as compliance hurdles keep many on the sidelines — A first-of-its-kind policy allows Chinese firms to treat data as an asset, but compliance hurdles are keeping many companies on the sidelines.
Anup Kaphle / Rest of World: Q&A with Jürgen Schmidhuber, the controversial AI pioneer and director of AI at Saudi Arabia's KAUST, on the kingdom's AI ambitions, DeepSeek, AGI, and more — With a long track record of groundbreaking research, outspoken opinions, and grand visions, Jürgen Schmidhuber …
Hsiuwen Liu / Rest of World: Experts say Southeast Asian students in Taiwan's work-study programs often end up as low-paid labor in the chip industry under the guise of “practical training” — Student-interns are paid for low-skill factory tasks and spend little time in the classroom.