Author: James Riley

October 24, 2025

Beyond buzzwords: A policy handbook for global innovation ecosystems

The term “innovation ecosystem” has become a cornerstone of modern economic and urban policy. It is invoked by governments, universities, and industry leaders to justify everything from new infrastructure projects to research funding. Despite this ubiquity, the concept often remains frustratingly vague. Its meaning tends to shift depending on who is speaking. The recently published…

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October 23, 2025

Finance’s bare minimum approach to local companies

The changes to government purchasing arrangements announced by Finance minister Katy Gallagher this week are underwhelming. For the tech sector at least, these reforms will do little to improve prospects for local companies winning a bigger proportion of federal contracts. Small and medium-sized businesses get priority access to a slightly larger pool of potential contracts….

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October 21, 2025

InnovationAus Awards: Speaker line up is locked-in

With just over a month to go before our winners are unveiled at the 2025 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence, it is a pleasure to announce the final speaker line-up for the sector’s biggest night is now locked in. Now in its fifth year, the InnovationAus Awards black-tie gala dinner will be held at the beautiful…

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October 16, 2025

Local companies abandoned as ‘sovereign’ is hijacked

On face value, the Australian Industry and Defence Network is the only association that is paying more than lip-service to the representation of local companies on government procurement. Speaking at the National Press Club this week, the AIDN chief executive Mike Johnson called on Defence to re-write its definition of “sovereign” in its Defence Industry…

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October 16, 2025

Local companies abandoned as ‘sovereign’ is hijacked

On face value, the Australian Industry and Defence Network is the only association that is paying more than lip-service to the representation of local companies on government procurement. Speaking at the National Press Club this week, the AIDN chief executive Mike Johnson called on Defence to re-write its definition of “sovereign” in its Defence Industry…

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October 16, 2025

Local companies abandoned as ‘sovereign’ is hijacked

On face value, the Australian Industry and Defence Network is the only association that is paying more than lip-service to the representation of local companies on government procurement. Speaking at the National Press Club this week, the AIDN chief executive Mike Johnson called on Defence to re-write its definition of “sovereign” in its Defence Industry…

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October 14, 2025

Last Days! People’s Choice award voting closes soon

Voting for the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence People’s Choice category has been extended by 48 hours – this is your last chance to have your say on the best of Australian ingenuity and entrepreneurial drive. The People’s Choice Award is literally the crowd favourite. While all other categories are assessed by a panel of esteemed…

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October 12, 2025

OpenAI weighs US$25 billion Argentina data centre project

OpenAI and Sur Energy have signed a letter of intent for a data center project in Argentina requiring an investment of up to US$25 billion (A$38.6 billion), the Argentinian government said on Friday. The project would involve a large-scale facility with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts to support advanced artificial intelligence computing, according…

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October 12, 2025

EU need for ‘digital sovereignty’ is not protectionist, German minister says

Europe needs to build up its own digital infrastructure to reduce dependence on US providers, but that does not mean turning away from them completely, Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger says. Some Europeans, unsettled by US President Donald Trump’s trade wars to promote US interests, have begun seeking alternatives to the digital services sphere dominated…

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October 7, 2025

Supreme Court allows order forcing Google to make app store changes

The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to halt key parts of a judge’s order requiring Alphabet’s Google to make major changes to its app store Play, as the company prepares to appeal a decision in a lawsuit brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games. The justices turned down Google’s request to temporarily freeze parts of…

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October 6, 2025

Voting opens for the InnovationAus 2025 People’s Choice Award

Our judges have spoken, and our finalists are locked in. Now it’s your turn: The public voting has opened for the celebrated People’s Choice category of the 2025 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence. The People’s Choice is the crowd favourite, with all of our finalists across all categories automatically nominated for the award. The voting is…

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October 4, 2025

India pushes local alternatives to US tech in tariff fight

Three cabinet colleagues of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are promoting use of apps by domestic rivals to Google Maps, WhatsApp and Microsoft, in the strongest backing yet for “Made in India” products amid trade tension with the United States. After the United States imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports in August,…

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October 2, 2025

‘Loathsome and rancid’: SXSW Sydney gets a bucketing

I wonder if the NSW Government thinks it is getting value for money for the $12.5 million it paid to “secure the rights” to host a Sydney version of the famed Austin Texas SXSW event. Probably not I’d say, given the massive online bucketing that SXSW Sydney was given this week. When a leader of…

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October 2, 2025

Finalist: AI-Media offers real-time meeting translation

Sydney-based tech firm AI-Media is on a mission to make language barriers a thing of the past, with the development of real-time translation services for meetings. The company provides artificial intelligence-powered voice translation, captioning and language orchestration. In its new offering, LEXI Voice, the company instantly translate live broadcasts into multiple languages, which is then…

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October 1, 2025

Hollywood union condemns AI-generated ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood

The recent debut of an AI-generated “actress” dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer’s boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Tuesday from the SAG-AFTRA actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with “synthetics.” The Hollywood buzz around Tilly Norwood, introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union’s…

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September 30, 2025

OpenAI unveils AI video app spun from copyright content

OpenAI is releasing an AI video-generating app called Sora that lets people create and share AI videos that can be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams. Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work appear in the video feed, company officials said, describing it…

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September 30, 2025

PsiQuantum breaks ground on Chicago site after US$1b funding

US quantum computing startup PsiQuantum said on Tuesday it has started the construction of a facility at Chicago’s Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), as it capitalizes on a fresh $1 billion funding round. The site, located at a former US Steel South Works site, will serve as IQMP’s anchor tenant and launch with the…

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September 30, 2025

Singtel says Optus CEO needs time to fix Triple Zero issues

Optus’ chief executive will need more time to get its house in order, the boss of parent Singapore Telecommunications said on Tuesday, after back-to-back emergency call outages in Australia intensified scrutiny of the carrier’s governance. The two outages that occurred less than a fortnight apart affected thousands of Australian customers and have been linked to…

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September 29, 2025

Investors look past AI hype to long-term govt spending lift

Some of the world’s biggest investors are looking beyond a boom in artificial intelligence to longer-term spending by governments tackling geopolitical, technological and demographic pressures set to reshape markets over the next few years. Asset managers are spreading bets across infrastructure, energy transition, healthcare and defence, to capitalise on fiscal stimulus from governments, even as Wall…

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September 29, 2025

China’s new K visa beckons tech talent as US hikes H-1B fee

China’s new visa program aimed at attracting foreign tech talent kicks off this week, a move seen as boosting Beijing’s fortunes in its geopolitical rivalry with Washington as a new US visa policy prompts would-be applicants to scramble for alternatives. While China has no shortage of skilled local engineers, the program is part of an…

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September 29, 2025

GenAI may end up being worthless, which might be a good thing

In the rush to cash in on the generative artificial intelligence gold rush, one possible outcome of AI’s future rarely gets discussed: what if the technology never works well enough to replace your co-workers, companies fail to use AI well or most AI startups simply fail? Current estimates suggest big AI firms face a US$800…

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September 28, 2025

AirTrunk’s Robin Khuda confirms as InnovationAus Awards speaker

AirTrunk founder and chief executive Robin Khuda as the featured speaker at the 2025 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence at the Sydney Town Hall on Thursday November 27. In a room full of entrepreneurs and investors looking to scale the businesses, a few words from a man who has enjoyed extraordinary success – and overcome huge…

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September 28, 2025

Trump says Microsoft should fire its global affairs president

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Microsoft should fire its global affairs president Lisa Monaco, who served in the administrations of two Democratic presidents. The move appears to be the latest effort by Trump to exact retribution on those he sees on political enemies and came one day after the indictment of former FBI Director…

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September 25, 2025

NewsWrap: Does a White House visit mean big tech deals?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has a date for a sit-down with US President Donald Trump, with October 20 penciled in for a meeting at the White House – which probably means it’s about to start raining data centres. The last time the Prime Minister was at the White House, in October last year, Microsoft was…

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September 24, 2025

OpenAI, under pressure to meet demand, widens scope of Stargate

At the White House this year, OpenAI outlined its lofty ‘Stargate’ infrastructure project that would cost half a trillion US dollars and be developed with partners including SoftBank and Oracle. Now, after some fits and starts, OpenAI executives say the joint venture is far more expansive than previously outlined and involves almost everything OpenAI does…

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September 24, 2025

Queensland sets out 5-year plan to revive manufacturing

The Queensland state government has released a five-year manufacturing plan to reduce regulatory burdens, improve export pathways, and create more resilient local supply chains. The Transforming Queensland Manufacturing Strategy 2025-2030 includes a $79.1 million grants program designed to improve export outcomes for locally manufactured goods. It also includes frameworks for upskilling the state’s manufacturing work…

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September 24, 2025

Albanese spruiks renewables, manufacturing to US investors

Anthony Albanese has used his visit to the UN in New York this week to also sell Australia as a stable investment destination for American capital, calling for partnerships on renewable energy and advanced manufacturing. The Prime Minister told a Macquarie Group function in New York that Australia and the US can leverage the strength…

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September 23, 2025

Finalists: Paul Shetler Disrupter of the Year 2025

The 2025 InnovationAus Awards season is well underway, and it is always a pleasure to announce the finalists in my favourite category, the Paul Shetler Disrupter of the Year Award. Paul Shetler was a good friend to InnovationAus.com, a classic crash-or-crash-through disrupter who was brought to Australia as the inaugural chief executive of the federal…

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September 22, 2025

Introducing our Innovation Leadership Award finalists 2025

Our most successful leaders within Australia’s commercial innovation ecosystem are the individuals who are able to combine talents across a broad swathe of different disciplines. They are the people who get stuff done – who are able to articulate big picture goals and inspire others to follow, and who understand the smallest operational details of…

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September 22, 2025

Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison look at TikTok

President Donald Trump says that media mogul Lachlan Murdoch and business leaders Larry Ellison and Michael Dell would be involved as US investors in a proposed deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States. Trump has said that the United States and China have made progress on a deal requiring TikTok’s American assets to…

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