Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - April 13, 2026

Asia’s wealthiest dynasties hit record fortunes by supplying the backbone of the AI boom — metals, chips, and infrastructure — while China’s top AI PCB maker eyes a massive Hong Kong debut.

Tech News

Victory Giant Targets $2.2 Billion Hong Kong IPO as World’s Top AI PCB Maker

China’s Victory Giant Technology began taking investor orders for a Hong Kong listing that could raise as much as HK$17.5 billion ($2.2 billion), making it one of the city’s largest IPOs this year. The Shenzhen-listed company is offering 83.35 million H shares at a maximum price of HK$209.88 each, with pricing set by April 17 and trading to begin April 21.

Victory Giant claims the top global position by revenue in the printed circuit board market for AI and high-performance computing, holding a 13.8% market share in H1 2025 according to Frost & Sullivan. Its PCBs are used in AI accelerator cards, servers, data center switches, and optical modules. The company reported revenue of RMB 19.3 billion with net profit surging 273%, underscoring the explosive demand for AI hardware components.

Asia’s Richest Families Hit Record $647 Billion on AI Infrastructure Boom

Bloomberg’s annual ranking reveals that Asia’s 20 wealthiest families have amassed a combined $647 billion — a record total and the biggest annual increase (16%) since the index launched in 2019. The families are profiting not by building AI itself, but by supplying its backbone: metals, chips, and infrastructure.

The Ambani family of Reliance Group tops the list at $89.7 billion, followed by Hong Kong’s Kwok family (Sun Hung Kai Properties) at $50.2 billion and Samsung’s Lee family at $45.5 billion. China Hongqiao Group, controlled by one of the listed families, saw its stock rise nearly 200% last year as demand for aluminum — critical for AI hardware, EVs, and renewable energy — surged.

Additional Headlines

Apple Hires Uber’s Asia-Pacific Government Relations Chief: Apple poached Mike Orgill from Uber to bolster its government relations presence in Asia-Pacific as it works to revamp regional supply chains.
Kuka Pivots to US and Asia as Europe Lags on AI: The German-Chinese robotics maker reported China revenue exceeding €1 billion for the first time and is building AI centers of excellence in Silicon Valley and across Asia, warning that European manufacturers are too slow to adopt AI.
Amkor Technology Surges on AI Packaging Boom: The semiconductor packaging and testing provider’s shares have nearly quadrupled over 12 months as tech giants turn to Amkor to assemble and test AI chips amid explosive demand.

GNSS News

VIAVI Solutions has partnered with satellite communications provider Ground Control to integrate its Secure µPNT STL-1000 receiver into the RockFLEET Assured maritime vessel tracking platform, enabling navigation in GNSS-denied environments. The compact software-defined receiver works with VIAVI’s SecureTime altGNSS LEO services, which deliver signals 1,000 times stronger than traditional GNSS — making them far more resistant to jamming and spoofing.

The solution provides a secondary, independent position source alongside or in lieu of conventional GNSS, with applications spanning commercial shipping, defense logistics, and critical maritime infrastructure. GPS World reports the partnership reflects growing urgency around assured PNT as GNSS interference shifts from an episodic threat to a persistent feature of conflict zones worldwide.

Advanced Navigation’s Inertial System Achieves 0.012% Error in US Army Contested Environment Test

Australian PNT company Advanced Navigation demonstrated its Boreas D90 fiber-optic gyroscope inertial navigation system at the US Army’s 2026 APEX (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Assessment Experiment), achieving a dead-reckoning accuracy of just 0.012% error per distance traveled — equivalent to 7.5 meters over a 65-kilometer route in GPS-contested conditions.

The system fuses data from complementary aiding sensors including a laser velocity sensor and wheel-speed encoder, anchored by what the company calls an “intelligent, multi-sensor fusion” approach with a resilient inertial core. Advanced Navigation recently secured $110 million in Series C funding to scale its PNT technologies globally, signaling strong investor confidence in GPS-resilient navigation solutions for defense and autonomous systems.

Key Takeaways

AI hardware demand is reshaping global markets: Victory Giant’s $2.2 billion IPO and Amkor’s quadrupled stock price reflect insatiable demand for the physical components powering the AI revolution.
Asia dominates AI’s physical supply chain: From Victory Giant’s PCBs to the continent’s wealthiest families profiting from metals and chips, Asia is cementing its role as the indispensable hardware backbone of the global AI boom.
GPS alternatives gain real-world traction: VIAVI’s LEO-based maritime PNT and Advanced Navigation’s 0.012% dead-reckoning accuracy in Army tests show that GPS-resilient navigation is moving rapidly from concept to operational deployment.