{
  "id": 16007789,
  "title": "Hong Kong and Taiwan founders are cheering the AI boom. Southeast Asia isn’t in the room",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/22/hong-kong-and-taiwan-founders-are-cheering-the-ai-boom-southeast-asia",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-22T05:38:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "e27",
    "slug": "e27",
    "url": "https://e27.co/hong-kong-and-taiwan-founders-are-cheering-the-ai-boom-southeast-asia-isnt-in-the-room-20261022/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A year ago, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai entrepreneurs were among the most cautious business owners in HSBC's annual survey due to trade tensions, a property slump in mainland China, and a stalled listings market. Now, they are the most optimistic founders. The reason lies in the AI boom, not apps. According to HSBC's Global Entrepreneurial Wealth Report 2026, 54% of Hong Kong entrepreneurs now feel \"very positive\" about their business prospects, up 20 percentage points. Optimism about personal wealth rose 22 points to 53%. Taiwan saw a 15-point increase to 43%. Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong together accounted for nearly half of global AI-related exports by value in Q1 2026. Taiwan's AI hardware exports are now close to half of its GDP. However, Southeast Asia is conspicuously absent from this AI narrative. Its startup ecosystem, once focused on software businesses, is now missing out on the AI wave. Gen Z founders are at the forefront of AI adoption, with 65% embedding AI into their operations, compared to 57% of Gen X and older founders. In mainland China, this figure is 91%. This generation is more comfortable experimenting and tolerating model risk than their older counterparts. The report also highlights data privacy concerns as a top issue for Gen Z founders, while cost remains the primary worry for other age groups.",
  "summary": "A year ago, some of the most nervous entrepreneurs in the world were in Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai. Trade tensions, a property slump in mainland China and a stalled listings market had put founders there among the most cautious respondents in HSBC’s annual survey of business owners. Twelve months on, they are the most […] The post Hong Kong and Taiwan founders are cheering the AI boom.…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "South China Morning Post",
        "title": "How smart will Hong Kong’s ‘AI city brain’ be?",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/how-smart-will-hong-kongs-ai-city-brain-be",
        "published": "2026-10-20T00:30:07.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Tech in Asia",
        "title": "Hong Kong payments firm YeahPay explores agentic payments",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/22/hong-kong-payments-firm-yeahpay-explores-agentic-payments",
        "published": "2026-10-22T03:45:05.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}