Huawei To Expand Car Collaboration With Changan To Include Making Automotive Chips

Huawei is broadening its existing smart car partnership with government-owned Changan Automobile to include the design and development of automotive chips, sources told Reuters.

For months, both companies have been informally working together on chips, two sources told Reuters. Another source claimed that the companies might soon enter a joint venture dedicated to chip development.

The move does seem natural as the global automotive industry has seen crippling production delays due to an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips. Major chip producers see the shortage lasting into next year.

Also, last month, Huawei announced that it would collaborate with three automakers to produce self-driving cars with the Huawei name as a sub-brand. Changan is one of those automakers. The company has worked on developing its own chips, but hasn’t gotten far, two sources told Reuters.

Huawei’s smart car collaboration with Changan involves the former providing the vehicle’s operating system and cabin technologies while latter is assigned vehicle design and engineering.

Huawei’s pivot to the automotive industry comes after its core smartphone business was wrecked by US sanctions enacted by former US President Donald Trump. In April, the company said it would spend over US$1 billion (~RM4.1 billion) to research and develop self-driving and electric car technologies.

ASUS Gundam Collaboration Hardware To Come To Malaysia On 28 February

Earlier in the month, ASUS Malaysia teased that it will soon be bringing in its Gundam Collaboration hardware. No date was given back then, but now the company has a date locked, and that’s 28 February.

And it’s a pretty extensive list of products too, more so on the Earth Federation Space Force side of things. ASUS Malaysia is bringing in a total of 10 items from this list, which consists of the RT-AX 82U router, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, the ROG Strix LC 360 RGB cooler, the ROG Strix 850G PSU, the ROG Strix Helios tower case, the ROG Strix XG279Q monitor, the ROG Delta headset, the ROG Strix Scope TKL keyboard, the ROG Strix Impact II mouse, and the ROG Sheath mousepad. Notably missing though is the ROG Maximus XII Extreme Z490 motherboard.

If you’re a fan of the Red Comet, things are a little limited on this side of the Gundam collaboration. You’ve got four items, which are the RT-AX86U router, the TUF Gaming B550M motherboard, the TUF Gaming GT301 tower casing and the TUF Gaming VG27AQGL1A monitor.

ASUS Malaysia has yet to announce the prices of any of these items. But with the aforementioned 28 February release date, that’s likely when the company will be announcing the prices. You can find out more on the dedicated Gundam collaboration microsite, as well as where to buy them, linked below.

Levi’s Malaysia Announces Its Pokemon Collaboration Collection

Normally, Uniqlo would be the clothing brand that you’d expect to do pop culture tie-ins. Levi’s Malaysia has its own that’s currently available for pre-order, and it’s a collaboration with Pokemon.

Being mainly a denim brand, there is surprisingly only three of such products in the Levi’s Malaysia Pokemon collection. But the collection itself is quite substantial, as there are a fair number of cotton T-shirts too with prints of various pocket monsters. Beyond that, there’s a pair of boxer shorts and a couple of sweatshirts as well.

There’s even a complete Misty cosplay outfit available, consisting of her yellow tank top and denim shorts. And it’s not exclusive to clothing items either. Part of the collection also involved bags, a cap, a couple of beanies, and a couple of clip-on pouches.

As mentioned earlier, these are all now available for pre-order, with prices ranging from RM39.90 to RM429. According to the Levi’s Malaysia Facebook page, they will be shipped from 15 February onwards. But if you prefer to look for them in stores, then you’ll be in for quite the wait. These will only be available in physical stores from 4 March onwards.

ASUS Will Be Bringing In Gundam Collaboration Products To Malaysia

In July last year, ASUS announced its collaboration with Bandai, and the resulting Gundam-themed routers. And then in October, word of the brands releasing other PC components and peripherals came to light. Now, it looks like some of them may be making their way to Malaysia.

On the ASUS ROG Facebook page, the company says in a post that it is bringing Gundam-themed products to Malaysia. Part of the post is an image showing the original RX-78-2, Char’s Zaku II Custom, and the words “coming soon”.

The post itself is devoid of any other information. This includes details like what exactly is ASUS bringing to Malaysia, or when we can expect to see them. Naturally, there’s no price of any sort either.

That being said, based on the Gundam and the red Zaku II, it’s probably safe to say that it will be among the collaboration items we saw last year. As is the deal with collaborations, you can expect them to be priced slightly higher than their standard versions.

Beyond that, it’s just more waiting on our part. On the bright side, if you’re a hardcore fan of the original Gundam and its The Origin retelling, then this means you won’t have to import them, and can buy them via official channels instead.