Rest of World

Rest of World is a global nonprofit journalism group. We focus on stories that emerge at the intersection of technology, culture, and human experiences, especially in regions that often go unnoticed. We see the narrative surrounding technology as vast as the world it serves, emphasizing that both creators and users of technology can gain from a wider international viewpoint.

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Gulf nations pledge $2 trillion in AI race with US and China

4 days ago | restofworld.org | Divsha Bhat |Indranil Ghosh

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar pledged $2 trillion of deals during U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East tour last month, sparking debate over whether massive spending can buy tech superpower status. Saudi Arabia committed $600 billion over four years, while Qatar earmarked $1.2 trillion and the UAE said it would add $200 billion to an existing $1.4 trillion plan to develop artificial intelligence.
J&T Express brought Chinese-style logistics to Southeast Asia’s Amazon gap

1 week ago | restofworld.org | Lam Le |Munira Mutaher

A courier firm that conquered Southeast Asia’s logistics industry and scaled globally riding the Chinese e-commerce wave is now grappling with new pressures. Broken roads, chaotic traffic, nameless alleys, and fragmented island provinces make Southeast Asia a tough terrain for online deliveries – tough enough that even Amazon has struggled to expand there. Yet, a Chinese entrepreneur saw an opportunity in the region, launching J&T Express in Jakarta in 2015.
India wants its own EV market, but needs China to get there

1 week ago | restofworld.org | Ananya Bhattacharya |Munira Mutaher

India is betting on Chinese technology to keep its electric-vehicle transition on track. At a time when the U.S. is erecting trade barriers to keep Chinese EV giants at bay, India has taken a different course. “Without Chinese tech, India would face supply shortages, delayed rollouts, and reduced product diversity,” Pragathi Darapaneni, senior battery materials scientist and former researcher at Argonne National Laboratory, told Rest of World.
Humanoid robots, astronauts, and huge lines: Photos from China’s pavilion at the World Expo

1 week ago | restofworld.org | Nithin Coca |Munira Mutaher

On a sweltering June day, an artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robot built by Chinese firm Ubtech entertained a crowd of hundreds waiting to enter the China pavilion at the Osaka World Expo. Robotics is just one of several industries where Chinese companies are challenging their Western rivals — Ubtech’s latest model can speed-walk, scan barcodes, and handle receptionist tasks.
The app going against Uber by putting people over algorithms

2 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Rina Chandran

It is the world’s most downloaded ride-hailing app after Uber, and inDrive’s founder and chief executive Arsen Tomsky wants to go bigger. Since its founding in Yakutsk in Siberia more than a decade ago, inDrive has grown to be present in nearly 900 cities in Central Asia, Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. Now, Tomsky has his sights on turning it into a super-app that offers multiple services including food delivery, groceries, and financial products.
Charted Territory

2 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Michael Donohoe

This is a soft launch. Actually, it’s a silent one, until now. This week, we quietly rolled out individual pages for every one of the hundreds of charts we’ve published over the last five years. These visuals have appeared across our stories, covering everything from Meta’s family of apps non-ad revenue to TikTok Shop’s rise in Southeast Asia. Some are simple bar charts. Others are deep dives into network effects, policy shifts, or economic trends.
AI is making health care safer in the remote Amazon

2 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Pedro Nakamura |Gayathri Vaidyanathan

The Amazonian municipality of Caracaraí has 22,000 inhabitants and an overworked pharmacist named Samuel Andrade. Andrade arrives at work at 8 a.m. to handle hundreds of prescriptions from free government clinics. Most days, he can’t get through all of them. He sometimes gets stuck for hours cross-checking drug databases to ensure nothing has been prescribed incorrectly by rural doctors. It is stressful work.
Transsion wheels into Africa’s EV market with same playbook that conquered mobile phones

2 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Damilare Dosunmu |Munira Mutaher

After conquering Africa’s phones, Transsion wants to own its roads. The Chinese company, which controls about half of Africa’s smartphone market, entered the continent’s electric vehicle race by introducing its TankVolt e-bikes in Uganda in 2023. Two years on, it has expanded into four other markets — Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia — targeting government contracts and partnerships with private fleets.
Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are catching up fast

2 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Kinling Lo |Munira Mutaher

Chinese and American companies have long led the costly endeavor of developing autonomous ride-hailing services. Now, robotaxi firms are taking the competition global. The Alphabet-owned Waymo, which launched fully driverless service in Phoenix in 2020, remains the largest operator in the U.S. But Chinese rivals are quickly catching up in both scale and technological capability.
Who is Byju Raveendran, founder of Indian edtech app Byju’s?

3 weeks ago | restofworld.org | Hanson O'Haver

This article is adapted from Rest of World’s recent feature: The math tutor and the missing $533 millionNamed for its founder, Byju Raveendran, the learning app Byju’s (sometimes stylized as BYJU’s) was once one of the best known brands in India. The company was a pioneer in the field of educational technology, in a country with a massive appetite for education solutions.