Hiring software, rice methane, and where the chip decision sits

This Week's Analysis

When the same hiring algorithm follows you across employers

Short Reads

1. Rize is turning rice farming into a methane-reduction business

   A flooded rice field produces methane. One way to reduce it is surprisingly simple: let the field dry before flooding it again. The practice, called alternate wetting and drying, is established. Singapore-based Rize is now scaling it with smallholders in Vietnam and Indonesia. The more interesting part is what happens around the practice. The carbon credits are still being certified, and the economics for farmers after the financing or programme behind the intervention ends are not yet clear. This Short Read looks at the gap between reducing methane and making that reduction pay.

   Read on Relay Asia →
2. ASEAN is attracting foreign investment, but the key chip decisions still sit elsewhere

   ASEAN attracted USD 226 billion of foreign direct investment in 2024. More than 60% went to Singapore, while the regional total remained below its 2022 peak. The semiconductor story is different. ASEAN already does a significant share of the world's assembly, testing and packaging, but wafer fabrication remains much smaller. In several countries, it is still an ambition rather than an operating capability. The factories are moving. The technology decisions are harder to see. This Short Read looks at where the production capacity sits, and where the decisions around technology, research and development, and intellectual property still tend to be made.

   Read on Relay Asia →

Suggested Reads

• Singapore's digital economy grew faster than the wider economy. The key number in Singapore's new digital economy report was SGD 144.1 billion. That was the size of the digital economy in 2025, equivalent to 19.3% of GDP, and it grew faster than the economy overall. AI adoption by businesses also rose sharply, from 14.7% in 2024 to 23.5% in 2025. A separate worker survey puts workplace AI use at 86% in 2026, up from 78% the year before. Another figure I found interesting was the training gap. 68% of workers said they needed to build their AI skills, while 37% had taken a related course in the previous year. The technology is moving faster than the people learning how to use it.
• Cyberattacks reported in Japan and South Korea. Much has been reported about AI-related cyberattacks in the US and the West in recent months, but Nikkei Asia reports that Trend Micro had compiled 600 cases of Japanese companies and organisations disclosing cyber incidents by the end of September, already more than the 593 recorded across all of 2025 and approaching the 644 logged in 2024. The tally is by the date the incident was announced, not the date it happened. Recent cases include Mr Max, Daiwa Securities and Nikkei itself, while South Korean banks have also reported customer data breaches. AI is becoming part of the discussion around these attacks too. South Korean authorities have warned that AI could enable new attack patterns, while Japanese security experts say generative AI may be making phishing and other preparatory work easier. But Nikkei notes that evidence directly linking AI to any particular attack remains limited.
• MAS set out how financial firms should manage AI. On 7 October 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore published its supervisory expectations for responsible AI adoption by financial institutions. Firms are expected to know which AI systems they use, and someone independent of the system's development should review it before it goes into production. Those governance and inventory requirements apply from 7 October 2027, while broader life-cycle controls, including the review requirement, can be met by 7 October 2028. And the responsibility stays with the financial institution even when the model belongs to somebody else; this is worth keeping in mind as financial firms increasingly build on third-party AI.
• Outage cover is the gap in data-centre insurance. The Business Times sat in on a Howden lunch on 7 October 2026. Hamish Ravindran of Howden Asia said outage cover for data centres remains a significant gap, and that in 18 months of looking he had found only three insurers close to a solution. Some data centres are now too valuable for a single policy to cover the whole risk, so the insurance has to be spread. And a power failure, or someone switching off the wrong system, may not look like the physical damage that traditional policies were designed to cover.
• ElevenLabs signed memorandums for voice AI in India. Voice AI is moving into public services. Financial Express reports that ElevenLabs has signed memorandums in India, including one with Karnataka's innovation society, alongside state technology minister Priyank Kharge. The company says the work will cover all 22 scheduled Indian languages, with applications ranging from citizen services and skills training to restoring speech for people who have lost it. The company has pledged to restore a million voices. Whether that becomes a million people actually using the service is another matter.
• China Insights Weekly, a Monday briefing on China. A big part of the editorial process at Relay is gathering information and processing it, and I'm glad to follow newsletters that help digest news about key developments. China Insights Weekly is one I've been enjoying for a China-focused view of AI, EVs, robotics, trade and consumer developments, with an eye on why they matter beyond China. It is a free Monday briefing written by Yereth Jansen and Tomas Kucera, who have 30 years of China experience between them. The readership includes founders, investors and corporate strategy teams across Asia, Europe and the US. Sign up to the free newsletter on the China Insights site.