Apr 19, 2025

I recently came across news about a new book that forecasts the trajectory of the global order and its implications for Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific region. The book, “The Once And Future World Order” by scholar Amitav Acharya, highlights Southeast Asia’s historic links to the Indian Ocean trading network and the potential of the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. It suggests that the future global order will look very different from the past three hundred years and discusses the implications for the region’s geopolitical and geoeconomic future.

The news also mentioned a recent father-son conflict within Singapore’s richest family, the Kwek clan, which has shattered the image of effective succession planning. The $17 billion Kwek clan’s saga serves as a cautionary tale for investors in family-controlled companies, showing how even carefully planned leadership transitions can be disrupted by mistrust and accusations of poor business decisions.

Additionally, I learned about the increasing size of early-stage venture deals, even beyond AI-focused startups, which raises questions about the need for more funding despite the promise of AI to boost productivity. The news highlighted that the hype around AI has not yet translated into actionable use cases, leading to larger round sizes for startups across various industry sectors.

Furthermore, there was a report about Google losing a major antitrust case, with a federal judge ruling that the tech giant illegally dominates the online advertising and ad-tech markets. The ruling could potentially lead to forced divestitures and opportunities for competitors in the market. This news also emphasized the potential impact on Google’s AI and cloud investments, which are largely funded by its ad business.

Overall, these news updates provide insights into the evolving global order, challenges within family-controlled businesses, trends in venture capital funding, and the implications of antitrust rulings on tech giants.

Stay Well!