Investors appear to shrug off the ongoing global uncertainties, focusing instead on positive economic signals and the prospect of monetary policy easing from central banks. This resilience comes at a time when the world economy navigates a complex landscape of inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions, and shifting alliances.

Markets have demonstrated an ability to adapt, with equity indices pushing higher and volatility remaining contained. Yet, beneath this calm surface lies a web of risks that could unsettle the balance if not managed carefully. The ongoing conflicts in regions like Ukraine and the Middle East add layers of unpredictability, influencing everything from energy prices to investor confidence.

Despite these challenges, the broader appetite for risk assets suggests that participants believe in the underlying strength of global growth, particularly in developed economies.

The latest data from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics has painted a clearer picture of the labour market’s trajectory, revealing a significant downward revision in payroll numbers. Officials adjusted the figures by 911,000 jobs for the 12-month period ending in March, exceeding estimates of a 700,000 reduction.

This equates to roughly 76,000 fewer jobs per month than previously reported, signalling a softer employment landscape than many had anticipated. Such revisions often stem from more comprehensive data sources, like tax records, which provide a fuller view of hiring trends. This adjustment has reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will act decisively to support the economy, with a rate cut appearing imminent at the next meeting.

Lower interest rates typically stimulate borrowing and investment, helping to sustain growth amid signs of cooling. However, this data also highlights vulnerabilities, as slower job creation could translate into reduced consumer spending if not offset by wage gains or other supports.

Analysts have noted that while the revision implies average monthly gains of about 71,000 jobs, the overall labor market remains robust by historical standards, avoiding the sharp contractions seen in past downturns.

Tariff escalation and trade tensions

President Trump’s escalation of tariff threats has introduced fresh volatility into international trade relations, targeting key players like India and China while proposing up to 100 per cent duties on Russia to pressure it into de-escalating tensions with Ukraine.

This move, contingent on similar actions from the European Union, aims to use economic leverage to influence geopolitical outcomes. Tariffs of this magnitude could disrupt global supply chains, raising costs for importers and potentially slowing economic activity in affected sectors.

Also Read: Navigating tariffs and uncertainty: Why software, data, and AI startups are Asia’s path forward

For instance, India’s role as a major processor of Russian oil has drawn scrutiny, with US imports of these products highlighting the interconnected nature of energy markets. Critics argue that such policies risk retaliatory measures, echoing the trade wars of previous years that hampered growth. Russia has responded by downplaying the threats, suggesting efforts to strengthen ties with alternatives like China and India.

This tariff strategy reflects a broader shift toward protectionism, which could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve conflicts. While intended to bolster US negotiating power, the approach may strain alliances and complicate recovery in a post-pandemic world still grappling with inflation and debt.

Equity market rally on Fed hopes

US equities have surged to new record highs, buoyed by the payroll revision that has heightened anticipation of Federal Reserve intervention to prop up the economy. The S&P 500 advanced 0.3 per cent, the Nasdaq gained 0.4 per cent, and the Dow Jones rose 0.4 per cent, reflecting broad-based optimism across sectors.

Technology stocks led the charge, as investors bet that lower borrowing costs would benefit growth-oriented companies. This rally occurs against a backdrop of solid corporate earnings and improving consumer sentiment, though some caution that valuations are stretched. The market’s reaction underscores a belief in a soft landing, where the Fed engineers a slowdown without tipping into recession.

Historical precedents show that rate cuts often ignite equity booms, but they also carry risks if underlying economic weaknesses persist. With futures indicating mixed openings, traders are closely monitoring upcoming data releases for confirmation of this trajectory.

Bond yields and dollar movements

Bond yields have rebounded after a brief dip, with the 2-year Treasury yield climbing 7.2 basis points to 3.558 per cent and the 10-year yield up 4.8 basis points to 4.088 per cent. This movement suggests that investors are adjusting to the likelihood of a rate cut while pricing in persistent concerns about inflation. Higher yields typically signal expectations of stronger growth or stickier prices; however, in this context, they may reflect a normalisation following recent declines.

The dynamics of the yield curve play a crucial role in banking profitability and lending activity, influencing everything from mortgages to corporate debt. As the Fed prepares to ease, these shifts could ease financial conditions, encouraging investment. However, if yields rise too sharply, they might tighten conditions prematurely, countering the central bank’s intentions.

Also Read: Global markets ride the Fed wave, but can the rally last?

The US Dollar Index strengthened 0.3 per cent to 97.79, benefiting from safe-haven flows amid global uncertainties. This appreciation pressures emerging markets, making dollar-denominated debt more expensive to service. Gold, conversely, retreated 0.3 per cent to US$3,674 per ounce, as the stronger dollar and rising yields diminished its appeal as a non-yielding asset.

Brent crude oil edged up 0.6 per cent, driven by escalating tensions between Israel and Qatar, which raise fears of disruptions in key supply routes like the Strait of Hormuz. Oil’s sensitivity to geopolitical events underscores its role as a barometer for global stability, with prices fluctuating based on perceived risks to production and transit.

Asian equity indices opened mostly higher today, extending the positive momentum from Wall Street. This uptick reflects regional resilience, though concerns over trade tariffs linger. US equity futures point to a mixed start, suggesting caution as investors digest the latest developments.

Metaplanet expands Bitcoin strategy

Turning to the cryptocurrency space, Japan-based Metaplanet has announced plans to issue 385 million new shares, aiming to raise approximately US$1.4 billion to fuel its Bitcoin acquisition strategy. The company priced the shares at ¥553 each, upsizing from an initial 180 million shares, with proceeds primarily allocated to purchasing Bitcoin and enhancing its income-generation operations.

As of September 1, Metaplanet holds over 20,000 Bitcoins, accumulated since early 2024, and has generated significant revenue from Bitcoin options trading, reporting ¥1,904 million in the second quarter of 2025. This move positions Metaplanet as Asia’s equivalent to MicroStrategy, emphasising Bitcoin as a core treasury asset.

The firm’s strategy includes using earnings to pay dividends on preferred shares, blending yield generation with cryptocurrency holding. Institutional interest, such as a US$30 million investment from KindlyMD’s subsidiary Nakamoto, underscores growing confidence in this approach.

Metaplanet’s actions highlight a broader trend where corporations integrate digital assets into balance sheets, seeking inflation hedges and growth potential.

Bitcoin and Ethereum stance

Bitcoin’s price path depends on a dynamic interplay between institutional adoption and regulatory advancements. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen inflows of US$14.8 billion year-to-date, providing a buffer against selling pressures and indicating sustained demand from traditional finance. Legislative efforts to establish a US Bitcoin reserve, holding around 198,000 BTC, could solidify its status as a strategic asset, anchoring long-term value.

Technical upgrades like BIP-119, which introduces covenants for enhanced scalability and security, are under debate and may reach consensus by year’s end, potentially reshaping Bitcoin’s utility. These factors collectively suggest Bitcoin is maturing beyond speculative trading, evolving into a foundational element of global finance.

Also Read: Bitcoin and Ethereum simplified for a five-year-old

Ethereum has encountered resistance in its recent price movements, declining below US$4,450 and consolidating around key levels. The asset struggles to breach US$4,400, trading below this mark and the 100-hourly simple moving average. A bearish trend line forms resistance at US$4,340 on the hourly chart, with immediate hurdles at US$4,350 and US$4,380. If Ethereum clears these, it could initiate a recovery wave, targeting higher zones.

However, failure to do so might lead to further tests of support near US$4,260. Analysts predict Ethereum could fluctuate between US$4,000 and US$5,000 in September 2025, driven by network upgrades and institutional interest. The cryptocurrency’s performance ties closely to broader market sentiment, with potential for upside if rate cuts materialise and DeFi adoption accelerates.

Outlook and risks ahead

In my view, the current market environment demonstrates a remarkable capacity for adaptation in the face of adversity. Equities reaching records despite downward data revisions and tariff escalations point to a collective bet on central bank support and economic resilience. The Fed’s likely intervention could extend this bull run, but overreliance on monetary easing risks inflating asset bubbles.

Geopolitically, Trump’s tariff tactics, while bold, may backfire by fragmenting trade and inviting retaliation, reminiscent of past protectionist pitfalls that deepened downturns. On the crypto front, initiatives like Metaplanet’s aggressive Bitcoin stacking and potential US reserves signal a paradigm shift, where digital assets transition from fringe to mainstream. Ethereum’s technical challenges notwithstanding, the sector’s institutional inflows and innovations bode well for long-term growth.

Overall, while short-term volatility looms, particularly with September’s historical weakness, the foundational trends favor cautious optimism. Investors who navigate these waters with diversified strategies stand to benefit, as the interplay of policy, technology, and sentiment continues to shape outcomes in unpredictable ways. This moment underscores the importance of vigilance, as today’s robustness could swiftly give way to tomorrow’s corrections if key supports falter.

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As AI tools increasingly become a staple in daily life for Singaporeans, a new survey by Milieu Insight shows a nuanced relationship between usage and trust. While 80 per cent of Singaporeans now use AI in some personal capacity, only a small fraction rely on it for more sensitive decisions such as financial planning (16 per cent) or mental health support (14 per cent).

The findings come at a time when AI is under growing public and governmental scrutiny spurred by incidents of deepfakes, rising scams, and a broader conversation around AI’s role in jobs and society.

The fieldwork, conducted in June with 1,000 respondents aged 16 and above, underscores how quickly AI has permeated Singaporean lifestyles. Younger people, particularly those aged 16 to 24, are leading the charge: 40 per cent report regular use, and half of that group say they employ AI for creative tasks such as writing or image generation.

Despite this enthusiasm, engagement remains casual. Eighty-seven per cent of users spend less than 30 minutes a day on AI tools, often for planning, creative prompts, or general information.

But the line between novelty and necessity is still firmly drawn.

Also Read: Singapore’s AI revolution and how SMEs can win in a high-risk landscape

“The findings show a fascinating duality: AI has become a mainstream tool for everyday efficiency, but Singaporeans continue to draw clear lines when it comes to trust and human expertise,” said Juda Kanaprach, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Milieu Insight.

Concerns about misinformation and over-reliance are most prominent among younger users, with 61 per cent worried about fake or misleading content. Meanwhile, older users (55+) are more anxious about the diminishing “human touch” in an increasingly automated society.

The fear is not unwarranted. Though 94 per cent say they have never personally been targeted by deepfakes, more than a third of affected respondents reported negative impacts on their mental health. Yet, reporting remains low: most victims simply adjust privacy settings or confide in friends.

The low uptake of AI for financial and mental health services signals a hard boundary: Singaporeans may appreciate AI’s utility but stop short of replacing expert human judgment. This reflects broader societal and policy perspectives, including Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s recent National Day Rally emphasis that Singaporeans (and not AI) will remain at the center of the nation’s economic future.

Generational preferences also reveal an interesting paradox. While younger users are more willing to experiment with AI, they also express discomfort with it replacing genuine human interaction. Nearly 60 per cent of Gen Z respondents voiced unease about AI supplanting social or emotional exchanges.

Also Read: Trust, not just technology: What I learned building AI finance tools for SMEs in Southeast Asia

Singapore’s regulatory gaps are also telling. Only 38 per cent of survey respondents felt existing legal protections against deepfakes were effective despite broad consensus (94 per cent) that the issue is serious.

As Southeast Asia doubles down on AI integration across services, from banking to education, Singapore’s nuanced experience offers important lessons. High engagement does not equate to deep trust, particularly when dealing with sensitive domains.

Governments and tech developers in the region must therefore focus not only on innovation, but also on building robust safeguards and clear ethical frameworks.

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Image Credit: Julio Lopez on Unsplash

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At Bain & Co., Daphne Tay often found herself stuck in the same frustrating loop: spending hours reformatting translated documents, fixing broken tables, and restoring layouts that existing translation tools had mangled. The translation itself was never the problem; the “last mile” of formatting ate up precious time.

“I realised this wasn’t just my problem. It was a universal inefficiency across law firms, consulting, finance, and multinational companies,” recalls Tay, now co-founder and CEO of Bluente. “That’s when it clicked: translation isn’t only about language. It’s about workflow and precision.”

Building a translation engine for documents, not just text

Founded in 2021, Bluente is an AI-powered translation platform designed to solve that last-mile pain point. Its one-click engine translates to and from more than 120 languages while preserving exact formatting (text, images, numbers, tables, and units) across contracts, PDFs, and PowerPoints.

Also Read: Bluente lands US$1.5M to scale AI-driven document translation worldwide

“Most translation tools are built around text. Bluente was built around documents,” Tay explains. “Our engine doesn’t just translate words; it preserves structure, context, and compliance. In regulated, format-sensitive industries, a misplaced clause isn’t a typo but a liability. That’s where Bluente stands apart.”

Rethinking a legacy industry

According to Tay, traditional translation companies still run on human-heavy workflows, treating technology as an afterthought. Even when artificial intelligence (AI)  is adopted, it’s typically layered on top of legacy systems, leading to patchy outcomes, slow turnarounds, and high costs.

Bluente, by contrast, reimagined the process end-to-end. But that came with its own challenges. “PDFs, for instance, are image- and layout-first, not text-first. Extracting and reinserting content accurately is extremely error-prone,” she says. “Tables with merged cells, multilingual footnotes, scanned contracts; these were nightmares. We had to build custom engines for parsing, layout reconstruction, and multilingual character support. Refining that took years.”

Backed to scale across borders

The effort is paying off. Bluente recently closed a US$1.5 million seed round led by Informed Ventures, targeting expansion into the Middle East, wider APAC, and the US–regions dense with international firms navigating cross-border transactions.

“Each region presents a distinct need: Arabic requires right-to-left formatting, APAC brings multilingual complexity, and the US has sheer market opportunity. Our platform is designed to scale while adapting locally,” Tay says.

The AI question: Job killer or productivity engine?

With Microsoft research suggesting translators are among the most at-risk professions from AI disruption, Tay is quick to reframe the narrative.
“Translation isn’t disappearing; it’s evolving,” she argues. “Humans shouldn’t waste time fixing formatting or repetitive clauses. Bluente eliminates that grunt work so professionals can focus on nuance, strategy, and value creation. We’re not killing jobs; we’re killing tasks.”

Beyond translation: A multilingual OS for business documents

For Tay, translation is only the wedge. “It’s the most painful entry point, but our vision is much broader: multilingual document infrastructure,” she reveals. “Ultimately, we want to build the operating system for global business documents.”

Also Read: Is AI making it harder for tech startups to survive?

On being a female founder in a deep-tech sector, Tay is candid: “If you build something genuinely useful, gender becomes secondary. That’s been true in our product journey and in this fundraise.”

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Tevo, an emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications and services startup based in Hong Kong, has closed an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round.

The investment was led by EZTech and UX Foundation.

Concurrently, Tevo announced a strategic partnership with MobiFone Global, a subsidiary of one of Vietnam’s largest telecom corporations.

The Tevo-MobiFone collaboration aims to jointly introduce mobile applications to global markets, with the short drama application, Dramini, being their inaugural joint venture.

Van Vu, CEO of MobiFone Global, commented, “We have entered a strategic partnership to export technology products to global markets and introduce international premium digital services into Vietnam.”

Also Read: How Agentic AI will create telecom’s first truly autonomous workforce by 2030

Thanh Luu, CEO and founder of Tevo Global, said the firm is in progress for a pre-Series A funding round with several leading Asian funds, which will further accelerate its growth, global reach and AI initiatives.

According to market research by Statista, the global mobile app market is projected to generate US$522.67 billion in total annual revenue in 2024. Advertising contributes significantly to this figure, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all app revenue, at over US$344 billion. Gaming and social networking applications are identified as the highest-earning categories, each generating over US$150 billion annually.

Tevo’s ambition is to become a leading company in AI applications and services and rank among Southeast Asia’s top five most prominent firms in the mobile apps and games industry by 2030.

Established in 2007, MobiFone Global Technology Joint Stock Company is a subsidiary of MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation, one of the top three largest telecommunications providers in Vietnam. The company has expanded its domestic and international operations, with established subsidiaries in the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

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The AI boom is reshaping the future of work. For Southeast Asian startups, the challenge isn’t just adopting AI fast enough — it’s holding on to the talent that makes growth possible.

Retention and up-skilling have always been issues, but in this new era of AI-driven change, they’ve become existential.

Why employees are leaving

In Southeast Asia’s hyper-competitive talent market, salary jumps remain the most common reason people leave. I’ve seen it first-hand.

One of my favourite designers, who had been with me for years, quietly applied for another job. When I asked why, her answer was simple: She needed more money as her expenses kept rising.

I didn’t want to lose her, so I increased her salary by 40 per cent. That’s the reality many founders face — employees will move for better pay unless companies are willing to match their expectations.

But salary isn’t the only factor. Employees also leave because of culture, lack of growth, or simply boredom. And here’s where AI complicates things: It fuels both fear (“Will this replace me?”) and frustration (“Now I need to learn all these new tools?”).

Also Read: Web3 can absorb SEA’s talent glut, only if education evolves

How startups can retain talent with AI

Here’s the paradox: AI can either accelerate attrition or strengthen retention, depending on how you use it.

At People’s Inc. 360, we take a simple approach:

• AI gives freedom. Our team works from anywhere. If a task can be reduced from one day to two hours with AI, I don’t expect people to fill the rest with busywork. They get time back.
• AI as leverage, not replacement. My designer uses AI tools, but her human creativity is what makes the work unique. AI speeds her up, but she stays indispensable.
• AI as up-skilling. Every employee has access to the same AI toolkit I use. Learning it isn’t “extra work” — it’s a career advantage they’d otherwise have to pay for outside.

The companies that frame AI as empowerment, not replacement, will retain their best people.

What employees must do

If you’re an employee in a SEA startup today, your job security depends on one thing: Your willingness to work with AI.

• Build your own AI toolkit: The tools that make your work faster and smarter.
• Focus on human skills that AI can’t replicate: Leadership, creativity, storytelling, and emotional intelligence.
• Keep training your AI: Rubbish in, rubbish out — the more you feed it, the more powerful it becomes as your digital assistant.

A case study in up-skilling

One of my best experiments is with Kelly Kam, a member of the Royal Visionary Society and a graduate of our Speakers Society Accelerator. She built her own AI twin — Diana.

Is Diana as advanced as my Seraphina? Not yet. But Kelly is already creating content, engaging her audience, and converting leads into sales. That’s what up-skilling looks like in action: AI-powered humans outperforming both machines and humans alone.

This experiment sparked a bigger question: If individuals could train AI twins to capture their voice and workflows, what would that mean for talent retention?

That’s how my framework was born. The idea is simple: When employees learn how to train their own AI assistants, they gain leverage. Instead of fearing replacement, they see AI as a partner. The more they teach their AI — feeding it context, preferences, and knowledge — the more it supports them.

Also Read: Beyond vibe coding: How AI can build true tech talent

And here’s the retention angle: Employees who feel empowered by AI are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to stay. Training the AI isn’t just about technology. It’s about creating alignment between company goals and employee growth.

The retention framework: Retain, retrain, re-skill.

For startups, the formula is simple:

• Retain by paying fairly and giving employees freedom.
• Retrain by integrating AI tools into daily workflows.
• Re-skill by helping employees step into hybrid AI-human roles.

The tangible outcomes? Lower turnover, faster innovation, higher engagement. For employees, it means faster career growth, higher income, and most importantly, relevance in a changing world.

Closing thought

AI won’t replace your employees. But bad leadership might.

The startups that survive this era won’t be those that chase the latest tools, but those that retain, retrain, and re-skill their people — building companies where AI and humans grow stronger together.

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