Author: Aurora Insights
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2026 at Midpoint: Turning Point, or Collision Course?
The first six months of 2026 have not been a slow build. They have been a rupture. The defining event of H1 2026 is the Iran war. The conflict that began on 28 February has triggered a chain of consequences with reverberating effects across the region and the globe. Three months on, there is no…
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The Trump-Xi Summit in Beijing: A Choreographed Détente
The most consequential bilateral meeting of the year has concluded. Just as we noted in our May newsletter, there were no major announcements, no substantive agreements, no structural breakthroughs. As the dust settles from President Trump’s 48-hour whirlwind Beijing tour that was wrapped in diplomatic pomp and pageantry, three of our Aurora Insights analysts break…
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Beyond the Deal: What China’s block of Meta’s Manus acquisition tells us about the new rules of AI
By Yen Sin Khu, Analyst Last month, China blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Manus, a Chinese-founded, Singapore-based AI startup. The timing is not incidental. At the peak of US-China AI competition, breakthrough technologies are no longer just commercial assets; they are instruments of national strategy. There is no longer a purely commercial decision for…
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Geopolitical Convergences: What April revealed and what May will decide
April 2026 was not a month of isolated crises. Three separate fault lines – energy security, AI governance, and steepening US-China competition – are converging simultaneously. Together, they mark a structural shift that no company in Southeast Asia can afford to treat as background noise. When Hormuz Becomes Malacca We are now entering the third…
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Q1 2026: The Quarter That Rewrote the Risk Map
Q1 2026 did not ease in gently. The first three months of the year delivered a sequence of shocks that would have been considered unthinkable in any previous year, but increasingly looks like the new normal. On 3 January, US forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following airstrikes on military sites in Caracas, upending the…
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Aurora Insights featured in the South China Morning Post
📣 Aurora Insights in the News 📣 The South China Morning Post spoke to our operations director Carlos Pacheco on what the disrupted energy markets resulting from the Iran conflict means for ASEAN’s long-stalled power grid ambitions. His quotes: “The Iran conflict is the tipping point, where the conversation has been transformed from operational energy…
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Aurora Insights cited in ABC News
📣 Aurora Insights in the News 📣 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News spoke to our Operations Director Carlos Pacheco on what the Iran conflict means for the region’s tech and energy sectors. On the development of the Iran conflict: “How do you navigate through a hurricane when you don’t know how big it is or…
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Southeast Asia is in the Crossfire of a War It Didn’t Start. Here’s What Companies Must Do Now.
The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have sent oil to near $120 a barrel early this week, paralysed Gulf air freight, and exposed the region’s dangerous dependency on a single chokepoint. Waiting for clarity is not a strategy. 14 days ago, the Middle East changed irrevocably. On February 28, U.S. and Israeli forces launched nearly 900 strikes…
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The 21st century resources war: Energy, Critical Minerals & Chips
Historically, wars were fought over natural resources. Today, a new, 21st-century iteration has emerged: a competition for the resources essential to the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI). The future positioning of world powers hinges on their securing and controlling the critical minerals sources, semiconductors and energy required for AI. In the past few years the…
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Thailand’s Referendum on New Constitution: What’s at stake?
✨AURORA INSIGHTS ON THE GROUND✨ On Feb 8, Thailand holds a referendum to decide whether to have a new constitution. Why is it important and what’s at stake? A march was held two days ago in Bangkok in support of having a new constitution. We went on the ground to talk to people to understand why.
Aurora Insights 