2026 highlights: April

Technology highlights for April 2026 included:

- Ant International announced that it now connects over 150 million global merchants with more than 2 billion user accounts globally. 

- Anthropic launched Project Glasswing, a response to its unreleased Mythos Preview AI model locating "thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser". The initiative brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.

Shortly after, Singapore's Cyber Security Agency of Singapore released an advisory on the risks associated with frontier AI models.

David Allott, Field CISO, Asia Pacific & Japan, Veeam, said the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore’s warning reflected a broader shift the company has observed globally: "The pace of vulnerability discovery and exploitation is accelerating, and many organisations are struggling to keep up using traditional, patch‑centric security models."

"As AI accelerates how quickly weaknesses can be identified and exploited, prevention alone is no longer sufficient. Organisations have to assume that some vulnerabilities will be exploited despite best efforts. Resilience then depends on whether attackers can be prevented from destroying recovery options, and whether organisations can restore clean, trusted data quickly under pressure," Allott added.  

"From Veeam’s perspective, cyber resilience today means protecting the access plane around backups, using immutable storage, detecting anomalous activity early, and routinely testing recovery in realistic conditions. Recovery has to be proven, not assumed."

"The recent vulnerabilities exposed by frontier models like Mythos serve as a critical wake-up call regarding the 'data readiness gap' within many organisations. As companies rush to adopt AI, many deploy tools faster than they can secure the information powering them, creating an 'AI readiness illusion' built on a shaky foundation," Remus Lim, Senior VP, APJ, Cloudera said.

"To transition from AI experimentation to sustainable success, businesses must treat data management as a core pillar of security rather than a backend IT issue. The next phase of AI adoption requires organisations to connect and control their data across all environments. Maintaining strict access controls and robust protection is essential as AI becomes integrated into daily operations," Lim added.

Anthropic also introduced Claude Design, which can  create polished visual work like designs, prototypes, slides, and one-pagers, as well as an upgraded flagship model, Opus 4.7. The company said Opus 4.7 handles complex tasks with rigour and consistency.

- Earth Day fell on April 22. Wendy Koh, VP & GM, Asia Pacific, Hitachi Vantara, noted that the 2026 theme Our Power, Our Planet serves as a timely reminder that "sustainability is no longer defined by policy ambition alone, but by the everyday decisions shaping how technology is built and used".

"In Asia Pacific, particularly in Singapore, this shift is already underway and conversations are moving beyond access to compute towards how efficiently digital infrastructure is designed and operated. With global data centre electricity consumption projected to approach 1,000 terawatt-hours by the end of the decade, the environmental cost of AI is becoming harder to ignore. This is especially relevant in a region where energy, land and cooling capacity are increasingly constrained," Koh said.  

"AI’s environmental impact is no longer limited to model training. As it becomes embedded in everyday business processes, energy demand becomes continuous. This makes efficiency at every layer—from data storage to workload optimisation—not just a technical consideration, but a strategic one."

Koh concluded that the region’s next phase of digital growth will not be defined by scale alone, but by how responsibly systems are deployed. "In this context, 'power' sits not only with governments, but with enterprises and through the choices they make to balance innovation with sustainability," she said.

- In accordance with Huawei's Rotating Chair system, David Wang assumed the position of Rotating and Acting Chair of Huawei from April 1, 2026 to September 30, 2026. During his term, Wang will head the Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.

- Under the Indian National Quantum Mission, a 1,000-km quantum communication network—one of the longest in the world—has been successfully demonstrated using technology from QNu Labs, marking significant progress against the mission’s target of achieving 2,000 km over an eight-year period. 

- Instagram’s age-appropriate 13+ content rating and Limited Content setting were expanded internationally. Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into an updated 13+ setting, and cannot opt out without a parent’s permission. These teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in an age-appropriate movie by default. These protections have been in force in Australia since October 2025.  

- Malaysia deepened its national AI partnership with Microsoft. 

- Meta partnered with Broadcom to co-develop multiple generations of custom silicon, securing its compute foundation to deliver on its long-term AI ambitions. 

The company also committed to buying "tens of millions" of Graviton cores from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support its work with agentic AI. 

- Microsoft rolled out OpenAI's GPT-5.5 to GitHub Copilot, M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Foundry. 

The company also committed to an A$25 billion investment in AI infrastructure, security, and skills in Australia. This is the largest-ever company investment in Australia, and will expand in-country computing and AI capacity by the end of 2029.

- NVIDIA announced NVIDIA Ising, the world’s first family of open source quantum AI models. 

Source: NVIDIA. Image representing the NVIDIA Ising quantum AI model family.

- OpenAI announced the Trusted for Cyber programme, a way to advance secure AI computing. The company also unveiled GPT 5.5 and ChatGPT Images 2.0. 

- Trend Micro has rebranded its consumer business as TrendLife. Its enterprise cybersecurity business was rebranded as TrendAI in March 2026. 

TechTrade Asia is looking out for comments on tech-related highlights that occur in May. Please send them before 1 June. 

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