[This is a sponsored article with MDEC, but the editorial team had full control over the content. ]

If you still think Malaysia’s role in the global semiconductor industry begins and ends with chip assembly and testing, it’s time to get up to speed.

Since the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) was launched in May 2024, Malaysia has been working to own more of the blueprint, building capabilities in chip design, advanced packaging, and engineering to move up the semiconductor value chain. Complementing these efforts, the Malaysia Digital (MD) national strategic initiative supports the growth of high-value digital industries while strengthening Malaysia’s competitiveness in the global digital economy.

The government has committed RM25 billion in fiscal support under the NSS. Within a year of its launch, the initiative has already attracted over RM63 billion in semiconductor investments. Realising these ambitions will require not only investments, but also a strong ecosystem of innovative Malaysian technology companies capable of competing globally.

The goal? To build at least 10 Malaysian companies that generate up to RM10 billion in revenue from design and advanced packaging, and 100 more inching towards that RM1 billion mark. 

But strategy means nothing without companies on the ground actually executing it, and Malaysia already has a growing list of contenders doing exactly that. Here are eight companies demonstrating what this ascent looks like in practice. 

The Pioneers: Pushing into high-value territory

1. Inari Amertron

This firm is probably the name most investors associate with Malaysian semiconductors, and for good reason. The company has built a strong reputation for packaging the radio frequency chips that power your 5G smartphones. 

That packaging business has made Inari hugely profitable; profitable enough that it has RM2.14 billion cash reserve that it’s pouring into something more ambitious: advanced chip packaging for AI hardware.

As AI servers and data centres demand increasingly powerful and complex chips, the packaging process becomes more difficult. Multiple chips often need to be stacked or connected with extreme precision to work as one unit.

By mastering this skill, Inari Amertron is establishing itself among the ranks of companies defining the next generation of AI hardware.

2. ViTrox Corporation

Picture a chip moving down a production line. 

It might have a hairline crack or a misaligned connection that nulls it as a defective product, and as chips get smaller and more complex, the cost of a single manufacturing error skyrockets. But these defects are too small for the human eye to catch, so what could manufacturers rely on? 

This is what Malaysia Digital (MD) status company ViTrox comes in, with its machines that scan chips using cameras and X-rays to spot such critical issues.

As the world races to build AI servers and next-generation processors, ViTrox is helping ensure those chips meet the standards required to power them, supporting the technological foundations needed for Malaysia’s growing AI ecosystem.

3. SkyeChip

MD status company SkyeChip is arguably one of the strongest proof points for what the NSS is trying to build: a homegrown chip designer. 

Most Malaysian semiconductor companies build or package chips designed by someone else, but SkyeChip does the opposite. It designs the blueprint of a chip from scratch, the same way an architect designs a building before construction begins, then licenses or sells that design. 

The Penang-based company recently unveiled the MARS1000, Malaysia’s first locally designed edge AI processor built using advanced 7nm process technology. 

With over 300 engineers, more than 100 patents filed, and a successful Bursa Main Market listing that raised RM352 million, SkyeChip now sits at the very start of the semiconductor value chain.

The Diversifiers: Taking semiconductor skills into new industries

4. Greatech Technology

The same automation systems that run chip factories don’t stay there.

For Greatech Technology, its engineering behind robotic systems, precision automation, and smart vision technology was eventually extended into a new frontier: EV battery production. 

The company’s systems, designed to handle microscopic tolerances on chip components, found a natural fit in EV battery pack assembly, where even minor misalignments can affect performance and safety.

From there, the footprint widened. Today, Greatech Technology’s automation systems sit across EVs, solar energy, medical devices, and semiconductors alike. 

5. Pentamaster Corporation

Similar to ViTrox, Pentamaster Corporation makes automated testing equipment that checks whether a finished product actually works the way it’s supposed to. The difference is that Pentamaster focuses more on functional testing than defect-spotting. 

But nowadays the company is moving away from the sluggish automotive segment towards AI and medical manufacturing. 

As of earlier this year, Pentamaster’s semiconductor-linked and EV-related automation business has reportedly been gaining momentum, driven by rising demand for power electronics and testing systems used in next-generation vehicles. 

With a third production plant under development and design centres planned in California and Munich, the company is steadily expanding its global footprint.

6. D&O Green Technologies

Headquartered in Melaka, D&O Green Technologies produces the high-performance LED packages and chips that power both the exterior and interior lighting systems inside your car. This includes headlamps, brake lights, as well as LEDs behind instrument clusters, climate controls, and infotainment screens.

As more and more vehicles go electric, though, automotive lighting systems are getting more sophisticated and serve as expressive designs. 

This shift has helped position D&O within a growing global automotive LED market, where it ranks among the leading players supplying international OEMs. In fact, as of 2022, the company commanded a 7% market share—the fourth-largest in the world.

Its automotive LED components are distributed across key global markets, including China, Japan, Europe, and North America.

The Enablers: Doing the less visible but essential work

7. Aurelius Technologies

Sitting in a space that is easy to overlook but difficult to replace, Aurelius Technologies creates the internal electronics that power larger industrial systems.

The company builds electronic manufacturing services (EMS) products such as printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), sub-assemblies, and full box-build systems. These form the internal control and processing units inside industrial equipment, communications hardware, and semiconductor-adjacent applications.

Beyond that, Aurelius Technologies has expanded its capabilities into multicomponent semiconductor modules and IoT-linked electronics.

8. QES Group

Based in Shah Alam, MD status company QES Group operates at a part of the semiconductor ecosystem that rarely gets attention, but quietly determines how fast factories can scale.

The company acts as the access layer between global equipment makers and the factories that need them—sourcing, distributing, and integrating inspection and test equipment for semiconductor and electronics manufacturing lines.

QES also installs, calibrates, and maintains these systems, ensuring that the equipment continues to function long after it enters the factory floor. 

In manufacturing environments where downtime can halt entire production lines, keeping these systems running becomes just as critical as installing them in the first place.

Sitting one step further upstream are two precision machining specialists: Coraza Integrated Technology and UWC Berhad. They’re both Penang-based and publicly listed, supplying the precision-machined metal components, enclosures, and structural parts that equipment makers like Vitrox and Pentamaster rely on to build their machines.

What’s so significant about these eight companies?

More than just individual success stories, what’s really interesting is how these Malaysian companies connect to one another.

“The Pioneers” set the standards that other semiconductor companies should strive to meet. Next, “The Diversifiers” absorb those standards, sharpen their capabilities, and carry Malaysian manufacturing expertise into new industries. Lastly, “The Enablers” make sure those capabilities spread to smaller companies that can’t build them alone.

This is the NSS’s real bet: A whole ecosystem of companies where each pulls the next one up, thereby collectively shifting Malaysia’s standing in the global technology supply chain.

The investment momentum suggests the opportunity is real, while the companies profiled here demonstrate that Malaysia has the capability to capture greater value across the semiconductor ecosystem.

As the National Semiconductor Strategy continues to gain momentum, companies like these will play an important role in supporting the aspirations of Malaysia Digital 2030 (MD2030), while strengthening the technological foundations needed to realise Malaysia’s vision of becoming an AI Nation by 2030.

The chips, in more ways than one, are on the table.

• Learn more about MDEC and the MD Status here.

Streaming is getting more expensive again. Disney is the latest media giant to raise prices for its streaming services, adding to a growing pattern across the industry. The increases come roughly a year after Disney’s last major streaming price hike.

Disney is raising the price of its ad-free Disney+ and Hulu bundle to $21.99 a month, up from $19.99, whereas the ad-free stand-alone plans are each rising to $21.49 per month, up from $18.99. The company is also increasing the price of its stand-alone ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu plans to $12.49 a month. 

The new prices are reflected on Disney+’s support page. Bloomberg was the first to report the changes. 

Disney+ and Hulu are hardly alone. Streaming companies have spent the past several years steadily increasing prices. Peacock and Apple TV also raised prices in August, while Netflix increased prices earlier this year.

When Disney+ launched in 2019, its basic monthly subscription cost $6.99. Since then, the service has gradually moved further away from that intro price as Disney has tried to turn streaming into a profitable part of its entertainment business.

The latest increases come as streaming remains an increasingly important part of Disney’s overall business. In its third-quarter 2026 results, Disney said entertainment streaming revenue from Disney+ and Hulu rose 11% to $5.5 billion, driven by subscriber growth and the impact of previous price increases.

At the same time, Disney appears to be exploring new ways to expand its streaming business beyond simply raising subscription prices.

The company has reportedly explored the possibility of introducing a free tier for Disney+. This could put the company in more direct competition with platforms such as YouTube and Tubi, which have been capturing a growing share of consumers’ viewing time.

Earlier this month, Disney+ also introduced “Playlists,” a new feature designed to help users discover and continuously watch curated selections of content.

The company is making changes on the technology side as well. Disney recently hired Karandeep Anand as its first-ever chief technology officer. Anand is the former CEO of Character.AI, a company Disney previously accused of infringing on its intellectual property.

• Cybersecurity company OPSWAT found a login bypass and a crash bug in TP-Link’s Tapo C200 cameras
• TP-Link has extended that to include its C120 offering too
• Anyone on the same network could get admin access, live video, and recordings without requiring the owner’s credentials

Security researchers at OPSWAT have detailed two high-severity flaws in TP-Link’s Tapo C200, a pan-and-tilt indoor camera listed on Amazon for $26.99 and sold as a baby monitor and pet camera.

The more serious issue is that someone on the same network can log in as the camera’s administrator without the password, accessing the live feed and stored recordings.

from the hey-boss dept

When Elon first took over Twitter with grand plans to “bring back free speech,” I tried to help him run through the standard content moderation learning curve that basically every site created by a clueless tech bro runs through. They all start with “we’re the free speech site, we allow everything!” and very quickly someone points out that “everything” includes blatantly illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM). I’ve since been told by multiple former X employees that Elon definitely saw that article and… absolutely hated it.

Anyway, soon after that Elon announced that “removing child exploitation is priority #1,” though also suggested people point out CSAM in replies to him if they saw it (which is not how that should be done at all, since it would just point more people to CSAM).

There was also little to no evidence that stopping CSAM was actually “priority #1” seeing that he fired most of the trust & safety team so that at one point there were fewer than 10 specialists working on CSAM. This caused X’s attempts at stopping CSAM to completely fall apart, with experts in the space seeing plenty of evidence that the problem was growing on the platform, rather than shrinking. It probably didn’t help that Musk personally intervened to reinstate the banned account of a conspiracy theorist he really liked after that conspiracy theorist posted one of the most infamous, and most horrifying CSAM images known to authorities.

Of course, that was in the early days. One would hope that a few years further up the learning curve, he’d have learned something. But this is Elon we’re talking about. Last year there was a report that one of the major tool providers for CSAM detection, Thorn, had cut off X, because Elon refused to pay the bill. At the time, X responded angrily to anyone asking about the Thorn situation by claiming that they had put in place their own, better technology to spot CSAM.

How’s that going? Not too well, according to the NY Times, which worked with the Canadian Center for Child Protection to scan X for known abuse imagery. The report covers two separate findings, both of which are alarming. First, there have been obviously lots of reports (and a growing number of lawsuits) regarding claims of Grok producing CSAM. Much of the early reporting, though, didn’t clearly distinguish between actual CSAM and images that are still horrifying and problematic, but probably don’t legally qualify as CSAM.

However, the Canadian Center for Child Protection is certainly able to determine what is actual CSAM, and they were able to find dozens of images that Grok created that appeared to qualify:

In December and January, Grok’s X account produced millions of images of people with their clothing removed in response to prompts from users. After a public outcry, X said it would halt the account from producing those images.

Later, the Canadian center found 65 instances in which Grok created sexualized or exploitative images of children before X halted the bot. During that time frame, users also prompted the chatbot to edit clothed photos of known victims of childhood sexual abuse and depict them in lingerie or bikinis.

Equally as concerning, though, was that the NY Times was able to use PhotoDNA, the baseline tool that many web services use to identify known CSAM via hash matching, and found even more examples this year:

The Times conducted its own scan for child sexual abuse material on X by writing an automated computer program that searched for related terms without displaying the images, which are illegal to view. Links to the images were sent to a Microsoft service that checked whether they were included on lists of known abusive material compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and other child safety groups. Matches were verified by analysts at the Canadian Center for Child Protection.

The Times found more than 75 images between January and June. The program The Times wrote reported the images to the authorities. The images were removed, but some had been viewed hundreds of times.

Advertisement

This matters because stopping CSAM is a never-ending game of whac-a-mole when it comes to new material. But, for the most part, that’s not true for old material. PhotoDNA and a few similar offerings have gotten quite good at catching the set of “known” images that circulate over and over, and blocking those before they ever hit a site is baseline competency in trust & safety. These images should never have made it to the site, let alone “viewed hundreds of times.”

One explicit photo The Times’s automated program found on X, which has been known to authorities for at least seven years, showed a young girl with fluid on her face being raped orally. The post of the photo, which advertised the sale of similar illegal content, was publicly available for over an hour in March and received 16 likes and nine reposts from other users before The Times found and reported it.

The person depicted in the image, now an adult, said in an interview that she believed X profited from her abuse and further victimized her by not stopping the image from being shared.

“They’re getting benefits from my abuse, and it just feels like it’s never going to stop,” the woman said of X. She spoke on the condition of anonymity because she has been stalked by people who viewed images of her abuse online. “I get angry that I’m still having to go through this decades later, and that there doesn’t seem to be real-life consequences for people.”

The whole joke in that speedrun piece from four years ago was that Level One lasts about five minutes. You announce that anything goes, someone points out that “everything” includes CSAM, and you quickly learn how to start fighting CSAM — because that’s the one bit of content moderation that everyone agrees on. And the easiest version of that, catching the known images via hash-matching, has had obvious battle tested tooling for years. Elon chose not to use them, insisting he’d built something better himself (perhaps with Grok?). Yet, what he built appears to have been outperformed by a NY Times reporter with a script and access to the PhotoDNA API.

Four years in, and Elon still hasn’t cleared Level One of the curve. Yikes.

Filed Under: csam, elon musk, photodna

Companies: spacex, twitter, x, xai

As concern over AI safety and rogue agents continue to make headlines, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity stocks are rising, or that investors are pouring massive amounts of capital into startups trying to build the next generation of security for an AI-native world. We’re even seeing companies like Instinct and Simile bring in nine-figure checks and valuations that wouldn’t have made sense a few years ago. 

With a front row seat to it all is Shardul Shah, a partner at Index Ventures who’s spent nearly two decades investing in cybersecurity and enterprise software — including six consecutive rounds in cloud security startup Wiz, which Google acquired for $32 billion earlier this year in one of its largest acquisitions ever. 

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Shah joins Rebecca Bellan to break down why he thinks periodic, human-in-the-loop security can’t keep up anymore, and why Index continues investing in AI-native security companies at stages that once required much more proof. 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!

If you have kids, they’re probably back in school right now after the summer break. Mine are too.

My kids range from 9 to 20 years old, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what their future careers are going to look like.

Some schools are embracing AI in the classroom. Others are banning it completely. I’m not sure either side has figured out the right answer yet—I’m not sure any of us have.