FOCUS: AI boom poised to help Japan firms log record profits for 6th yr in FY 2026

• Amnesty International has expressed serious concern over reports that more than 1,000 Sri Lankan military and police personnel are slated for deployment to Haiti. • The personnel would serve as part of the international Gang Suppression Force (GSF) to combat instability and gang violence in the region.

• Samsung is projected to report an 18-fold increase in profit, driven by a surge in demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence. • The growth is fueled by the expanding need for AI infrastructure, though JPMorgan notes that investors are seeking more evidence that AI services will accelerate cloud computing revenues.

• India is accelerating its semiconductor ambitions by implementing new policy advances and increasing local technology investments to boost domestic electronics production. • The initiative involves deepening strategic cooperation with Japan and establishing new manufacturing partnerships to build more resilient global supply chains.

• South Korean President Lee has called for the accelerated launch of "mega chip projects" to strengthen the nation's semiconductor industry. • The initiative aims to secure South Korea's global competitiveness in the high-tech sector through massive infrastructure and production investments.

• S&P Global Market Intelligence released two reports highlighting the significant commitment of private equity firms to artificial intelligence propositions. • The reports warn that limited partners (LPs) face substantial concentration risk due to overcommitment to large AI funding rounds.

• A new report argues that AI investment in emerging markets must shift from focusing solely on models to developing comprehensive ecosystems. • The analysis highlights the rapid evolution of AI, moving from pattern-recognition and generative AI to "agentic AI" capable of executing complex, multi-step tasks independently.

• China has emphasized a "people-centered" approach to the digital future during a recent conference focused on the acceleration of AI. • The 2026 Global Digital Economy Cities Report was released, identifying key priorities such as industrial collaboration, data openness, cybersecurity, and the mutual recognition of standards.

• Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar is scheduled to conduct a two-day official tour of the Bidar and Kalaburagi districts on July 6 and 7. • The visit will focus on reviewing ongoing development projects, chairing administrative review meetings, and interacting with local Congress party workers.

• Institutional investors are increasingly diversifying their portfolios by targeting energy assets across growth economies in Asia. • This shift is driven by the massive power demand required to support cloud migration and the rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

• Chinese open-weight models, including GLM 5.2, Qwen, and DeepSeek, are utilizing quantization and local execution to commoditize intelligence and reshape frontier AI. • Checkmarx has introduced a new Static Application Security Testing (SAST) engine designed to address failures in AI pipelines and the challenges of validating AI-generated code.

• The South Korean government recently unveiled a trillion-dollar AI initiative aimed at leveraging the country's dominance in high-performance semiconductor exports. • The project has faced significant skepticism from critics and global investment banks, who question the feasibility of a plan with a scale exceeding twice the annual GDP of nations like Denmark or Malaysia.