Many nations invest in technology, but only a handful are consistently reshaping how people live, work, and communicate. These places prioritize research, push digital infrastructure, and adapt quickly to emerging tools without waiting for trends to prove themselves.
This list highlights countries where advanced tech is already woven into daily systems through public services, education models, industrial shifts, and city planning. Progress shows up in how effective their innovations become, not in how loud the announcements are.
South Korea
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South Korea averages over 120 Mbps download speeds nationwide, and some households even get 10 Gbps connections. Beyond internet speed, Samsung leads in semiconductor tech, while Seoul’s public transport runs with facial recognition and AI. Government R&D spending accounts for approximately 4.8% of GDP, one of the highest rates globally.
Japan
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There’s a vending machine for almost everything in Japan, including hot meals and umbrellas. But the real tech magic is behind the scenes. The robotic caregivers in hospitals and autonomous drones conducting delivery trials seamlessly integrate automation into everyday life. They also own over 20% of all industrial robots worldwide, which is a significant share.
Germany
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In Germany, engineering comes with futuristic tech. The “Industry 4.0” blueprint is transforming factories into fully automated hubs with AI-driven processes. The country has also been at the forefront of hydrogen fuel research and is advancing autonomous driving technology through major carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
United States
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From Google’s AI to NASA’s Mars rovers, the United States does tech at full throttle. Over $700 billion goes into research annually, and the startup scene produces unicorns practically every week. MIT, Caltech, and Stanford churn out talent that feeds innovation across every industry. The country also owns more tech patents than any other.
China
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If you’ve scanned your face to pay for noodles, you’ve likely seen a slice of Chinese tech. The government’s been pouring billions into AI, quantum computing, and the 5G rollout. Over 90% of the world’s solar panels are manufactured here, and the country has developed its own GPS system, BeiDou, which now rivals the American one.
Singapore
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Singapore is not just clean streets and order. Smart lampposts, real-time traffic sensors, and digital ID systems let citizens access over 1,000 public services. Singapore treats tech like city infrastructure. Its push into biotech and AI is backed by strong public funding, and autonomous vehicle testing happens right in the middle of town.
Sweden
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Spotify’s home base is just part of the picture. Sweden’s nearly cashless economy, public embrace of e-services, and aggressive climate tech investments make it one of Europe’s most forward-thinking economies. Its government set up digital literacy programs years before it became trendy, and now even rural towns have access to fiber internet and AI-powered public services.
Israel
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Startup density in Israel beats most big countries, with over 6,000 tech startups across a country smaller than New Jersey. Tel Aviv thrives on cybersecurity innovation, many born from IDF units. Companies like Mobileye, which powers driver-assist systems in modern cars, started here and now influence how autonomous vehicles navigate traffic.
Finland
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Finland is where tech’s baked into the culture. The country’s been experimenting with basic income through AI-managed public welfare. Their universities collaborate closely with the tech industry to build out 6G protocols. Moreover, Helsinki has a city-wide app that lets residents pay for transportation and access government services all in one place.
Switzerland
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Considering it’s home to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, Switzerland goes big on science. Zürich and Lausanne are hotspots for machine learning and medtech startups. It invests about 3.4% of its GDP into R&D and has one of the most educated tech workforces in Europe. It’s also the go-to hub for biotech patent filings worldwide.
Canada
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AI researchers around the world keep referencing work done in Toronto and Montreal. That’s because Canada bet early on deep learning — and it’s paying off. The Vector Institute and CIFAR-backed programs have pushed Canada into the AI spotlight. Additionally, government grants and visa programs make it easy for global talent to establish a presence.
France
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Autonomous trains, drones that inspect nuclear plants, and 3D-printed housing projects are all happening in France. Their R&D budget exceeds $60 billion annually, and Paris is abuzz with startups working in everything from green tech to defense. CNRS and INRIA, the research bodies, back thousands of innovations annually across different tech sectors.
United Kingdom
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Quantum computing and AI ethics might sound far out, but they’re top priorities in the United Kingdom. Cambridge and Oxford help shape much of Europe’s scientific progress, while London remains a fintech powerhouse. Since 2021, the UK’s poured billions into its national AI and space tech strategies, both attracting major international investment.
Netherlands
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Bikes, canals, and… photolithography machines? Yep. The Netherlands is home to ASML, the only company in the world that manufactures machines to etch the tiniest circuits onto chips. That one firm powers devices worldwide. Cities like Rotterdam are equipped with AI-assisted traffic systems, while wind-powered data centers demonstrate how green and high-tech can work in tandem.
Australia
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The Land Down Under has been low-key innovating for years. The CSIRO invented Wi-Fi, and now it’s working on climate prediction systems powered by AI. Remote healthcare via satellite tech supports communities deep in the Outback. And with Melbourne and Sydney rapidly building out tech incubators, Australia’s becoming a serious player in robotics and clean energy.
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Why this key chip technology is crucial to the AI race between the US and China
Wayne Chang, CNN
Sun, June 8, 2025 at 3:00 AM GMT+5
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In the largest single foreign investment in US history, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has unveiled a $100 billion investment, drawing global attention and prompting concern in Taiwan.
TSMC, which produces more than 90% of the world’s advanced semiconductor chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to weapons, will build two new advanced packaging facilities in Arizona, among others.
Here’s everything you need to know about advanced packaging technology, which has seen exponential demand growth along with the global AI frenzy, and what that means for the struggle between the US and China for AI dominance.
While the two countries have announced a temporary truce that rolled back disruptive three-digit tariffs for 90 days, the relationship remains tense because of ongoing feuding over chip restrictions imposed by the US and other issues.
What is advanced packaging?
Last month at Computex, an annual trade show in Taipei that has been thrust under the limelight because of the AI boom, the CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, told reporters that “the importance of advanced packaging for AI is very high,” proclaiming that “no one has pushed advanced packaging harder than me.”
Packaging generally refers to one of the manufacturing processes of semiconductor chips, which means sealing a chip inside a protective casing and mounting it to the motherboard that goes into an electronic device.
Advanced packaging, specifically, refers to techniques that allow more chips — such as graphic processing units (GPU), central processing units (CPU) or high bandwidth memory (HBM) — to be placed closer together, leading to better overall performance, faster transmission of data and lower energy consumption.
Think of these chips as different departments within a company. The closer these departments are to each other, the easier it is, and less time it takes, for people to travel between them and exchange ideas, and the more efficient the operation becomes.
“You’re trying to put the chips as close together as possible, and you’re also putting in different solutions to make the connection between the chips very easy,” Dan Nystedt, vice president of Asia-based private investment firm TrioOrient, told CNN.
In a way, advanced packaging keeps afloat Moore’s Law, the idea that the number of transistors on microchips would double every two years, as breakthroughs in the chip fabrication process become increasingly costly and more difficult.
While there are many types of advanced packaging technologies, CoWoS, short for Chips-on-Wafer-on-Substrate and invented by TSMC, is arguably the best known that was thrown under the limelight since the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which sparked the AI frenzy.
It has even become a household name in Taiwan, prompting Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), to say that the island is the “only place that you can say CoWoS and everybody would understand.”
Why is advanced packaging so important?
Advanced packaging has become a big deal in the tech world because it ensures AI applications, which require a lot of complex computing, run without delays or glitches.
CoWoS is indispensable to producing AI processors, such as the GPUs produced by Nvidia and AMD that are used in AI servers or data centers.
“You could call it the Nvidia packaging process if you want to. Almost anyone making AI chips is using the CoWoS process,” said Nystedt.
That is why demand for CoWoS technology has skyrocketed. As a result, TSMC is scrambling to ramp up production capacity.
In a visit to Taiwan in January, Huang told reporters that the amount of advanced packaging capacity currently available was “probably four times” what it was less than two years ago.
“The technology of packaging is very important to the future of computing,” he said. “We now need to have very complicated advanced packaging to put many chips together into one giant chip.”
What’s in it for the US?
If advanced fabrication is one piece of the puzzle in terms of chip manufacturing, advanced packaging is another.
Analysts say having both pieces of that jigsaw in Arizona means the US will have a “one-stop shop” for chip production and a strengthened position for its AI arsenal, benefitting Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom, some of TSMC’s top clients.
“It ensures that the US has a complete supply chain from advanced manufacturing to advanced packaging, which would benefit the US’ competitiveness in AI chips,” Eric Chen, an analyst with market research firm Digitimes Research, told CNN.
Because advanced packaging technologies key to AI are currently only produced in Taiwan, having it in Arizona also reduces potential supply chain risks.
“Instead of having all eggs in one basket, CoWoS would be in Taiwan and also the US, and that makes you feel more safe and secure,” said Nystedt.
How was CoWoS invented?
While CoWoS got its moment recently, the technology has actually existed for at least 15 years.
It was the brainchild of a team of engineers led by Chiang Shang-yi, who served two stints at TSMC and retired from the company as its co-chief operating officer.
Chiang first proposed developing the technology in 2009 in an attempt to fit more transistors into chips and solve bottlenecks in performance.
But when it was developed, few companies took up the technology because of the high cost associated with it.
“I only had one customer … I really became a joke (in the company), and there was so much pressure on me,” he recalled in a 2022 oral history project recorded for the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
But the AI boom turned CoWoS around, making it one of the most popular technologies. “The result was beyond our original expectation,” Chiang said.
In the global semiconductor supply chain, companies that specialize in packaging and testing services are referred to as outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) firms.
In addition to TSMC, South Korea’s Samsung and America’s Intel, as well as OSAT firms including China’s JCET Group, America’s Amkor and Taiwan’s ASE Group and SPIL are all key players in advanced packaging technologies.
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Spending Review to include £86bn science and tech package
Adam Hale – BBC News and Marc Ashdown – Business correspondent
Sun, June 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM GMT+5
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An £86bn package for the science and technology sector will help fund research into drug treatments and longer-lasting batteries, the government has said ahead of Wednesday’s Spending Review.
The package also includes up to £500m for regions across the UK with local leaders having a say on how it is spent, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, whose review will outline day-to-day departmental and investment budgets over the next few years, said investing in the sector would create jobs and boost security.
But research backers have warned that the government needs to do more to secure the UK’s reputation for science on the world stage.
- Spending Review: Massive cheques from the chancellor for some – but what do totals hide?
- Reeves admits some will lose out in spending review
- Spending Review: When is it and what might Rachel Reeves announce?
Reeves will set out departmental spending plans on Wednesday, with the package for science and technology expected to be worth more than £22.5 billion-a-year by 2029.
DSIT said “every corner of the country” would benefit, with communities able to direct funding to expertise specific to their areas.
In Liverpool, which has a long history in biotech, funding will be used to speed up drug discovery. Northern Ireland will receive money to develop defence equipment, while south Wales will use the money to design microchips used to power mobile phones and electric cars.
The chancellor said: “Britain is the home of science and technology. Through the plan for change, we are investing in Britain’s renewal to create jobs, protect our security against foreign threats and make working families better off.”
Tony McBride, director of policy and public affairs at the Institute of Physics, welcomed the funding but said the government would need to commit to a decade-long plan to train workers.
“This must include a plan for the skilled workforce we need to deliver this vision, starting with teachers and addressing every educational stage, to underpin the industrial strategy,” he said.
John-Arne Rottingen, chief executive of Britain’s biggest non-governmental research funder Wellcome, warned that visa costs for scientists from overseas, financial challenges at universities and a budget that was not adjusted for inflation could hamper the government’s ambitions.
“The UK should be aiming to lead the G7 in research intensity, to bring about economic growth and the advances in health, science and technology that benefit us all.”
The shadow technology secretary, Alan Mak, said the investment for the sector seemed to be a “copy and paste” of Conservative plans set out in its manifesto last year.
“As Labour and Reform squabble over how to spend more taxpayers money, only the Conservatives are creating a serious plan for government to deliver growth and give you your country back,” he added.
Earlier this week, Reeves admitted that not every government department would “get everything they want” in Wednesday’s review, saying she had turned down requests from ministers and argued a squeeze on funding was a “product of economic reality”.
Reeves said her fiscal rules on borrowing to pay for public services were “non-negotiable” and insisted they were necessary because of “Conservative maltreatment” of the economy.
The Treasury said earlier this year that the chancellor’s fiscal rules would ensure day-to-day spending was matched by tax revenues, meaning the government would only borrow to invest.
Big chunks will go to favoured departments, with suggestions of an extra £30 billion for the NHS over three years.
Whitehall insiders have told the BBC they expect the spending review will be “ugly”, and that ministers have been fighting over winning small amounts of cash for their respective departments.
DATE . JUN/8/2025
