ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker: 2025 updates | Battle over Africa IP addresses | TikTok’s big Australian data centre unlikely

ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker: 2025 updates | Battle over Africa IP addresses | TikTok’s big Australian data centre unlikely

Summary

ASPI has updated its Critical Technology Tracker for 2025: the dataset is refreshed and expanded to include 10 new technologies such as generative AI, advanced computing and communications, brain–computer interfaces and geoengineering. The refreshed tracker offers an at-a-glance performance overview across all tracked technologies and highlights where strategic research strengths lie.

The update underscores a widening lead by China in high-impact research: in eight of the 10 newly added fields China holds a clear global lead in research output. ASPI urges international cooperation to manage risks and respond to shifting research dynamics.

Complementing ASPI’s update, investigative reporting highlights two consequential stories: a controversial market in largely unused African IP addresses — scooped up and leased by an entrepreneur, prompting legal fights and straining African ISPs — and TikTok’s stalled plans to build large Australian data centres, delayed by more than a year amid foreign investment and infrastructure concerns.

Key Points

1. ASPI expanded the Critical Technology Tracker with 10 new technologies and refreshed 2025 data to improve comparability and accuracy.
2. China shows exceptional gains: it leads global high-impact research output in eight of the 10 newly added technology areas.
3. The tracker now includes technologies central to strategic advantage — generative AI, neurotechnologies, advanced computing and geoengineering among them.
4. An entrepreneur’s purchase and leasing of millions of leftover IPv4 addresses (mainly from Africa) has sparked lawsuits and hindered local ISPs’ ability to expand networks.
5. The Africa IP address issue highlights how legacy internet resources can be monetised in ways that disadvantage regional infrastructure growth.
6. TikTok’s ambitions for large Australian data centres remain unrealised: no Foreign Investment Review Board approvals after a year, raising questions about foreign ownership/control of critical infrastructure.
7. ASPI recommends governments partner to reduce risk and coordinate responses as research landscapes and supply chains shift globally.
8. Additional items in the digest signal broader tech-security trends: supply‑chain ties between China and Russia, offshore AI model training to access chips, and rising regulatory activity on AI and infrastructure.

Why should I read this?

Short and sharp: if you care about where tech power is heading, who’s building what, and why that matters for security and policy — this saves you time. ASPI’s tracker pinpoints which technologies are accelerating and flags where China is pulling ahead. The Africa IP addresses and TikTok items are practical examples of how tech, markets and geopolitics collide — and why decisions made now will shape networks and rules for years.

Author style

Punchy. This roundup is essential if you work in defence, telecoms, government policy or tech strategy — it quickly surfaces systemic shifts and concrete disruptions (IPs being hoarded, foreign firms blocked from infrastructure). Read the detail if you need to act or advise on risk, investment or regulation.

Source

Source: https://aspicts.substack.com/p/aspis-critical-technology-tracker