Business

Why an ASEAN power grid is key to tapping Southeast Asia’s green potential

Published

2 months ago

November 26, 2025

The International Energy Agency reports that energy demand across Southeast Asia rose at twice the global average rate in 2024 and finds that consumption is set to double by 2050. To maintain rising living standards, economies across the region are pushing into higher-value and more energy-intense industries, data centres being one obvious example.

That creates a problem.

The ASEAN nations enjoy vast but as yet largely untapped potential for renewable energy, especially PV solar, and onshore and offshore wind. The IEA puts potential supply at 20 terawatts, roughly 55 times the region’s present generation capacity. And this energy would be cheap. But the increase in overall demand is for now far outpacing new supply from renewables. Until that changes, ASEAN nations remain dependent on rising fossil fuel imports that expose them to price risk, potential supply disruptions, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Asian corporate executives have focused recently on coping with tariffs and trade restrictions, potential supply chain disruptions and geopolitical insecurity—rather than energy and power. In the latest EY-Parthenon Global CEO Outlook survey, Asia-Pacific CEOs expressed greater unease than their peers in Europe and the Americas about geopolitics, macroeconomics and trade. They must not lose sight of how investment in modernizing energy supply and transmission today will provide considerable benefits including, but not limited to, low-cost power. And they should mobilize all sources of finance, private and public, for projects to achieve this.

That is why the recent announcement from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and ASEAN of a new financing initiative to support a connected ASEAN power grid (APG) is so important. It comes ahead of an enhanced memorandum of understanding set to be signed later this year by the ASEAN nations to finally realize the vision for a connected grid that has tantalized since the 1990s.

Building it will be expensive, estimated at over $750 billion. But the returns—cheaper and more reliable electricity, enhanced energy security and regional co-operation, lower emissions—will justify the cost, as long as finance can be mobilized.

At the ASEAN ministers on energy meeting in October, the ADB committed up to $10 billion over the next ten years. The World Bank is providing an initial $2.5 billion. The multilaterals will also offer grants, guarantees, political risk insurance and other concessions to attract private capital, as well as technical assistance.

Why has this connected grid not been built already? Partly for technical reasons. ASEAN nations use different voltages in their transmission systems. Their national grids stand at varying levels of sophistication. They employ distinct operating standards and regulatory frameworks. Politics has also played a part. Countries have previously prioritized domestic industrial development and national energy policies.

Increasing urgency around energy transition has shifted those priorities and focused on how to transmit renewable energy from the widely distributed sources that provide it to the consumers that need it, even in other countries. The key now is to progress beyond simply connecting countries’ networks to a more widespread upgrading of national grids.

In May, leading energy companies from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam agreed a strategic partnership to explore the use of undersea cables to transmit electricity generated mainly from Vietnam’s offshore wind farms through the Peninsular Malaysia National Grid to homes and businesses in Malaysia and Singapore.

Vietnam is prioritizing investment in offshore wind as part of a strategy to become a regional renewable energy hub. Singapore, while lacking the natural resources for large-scale renewables, intends to be a key enabler of cross-border trade in clean energy. It has given conditional approval for ten projects to import it, including solar power from Australia; solar, hydropower and potentially wind power from Cambodia; and solar power from Indonesia; as well as offshore wind from Vietnam. Thailand could be another big importer.

High return on investment

The vision for an ASEAN power grid, connecting a population likely to hit 780 million by 2040 across a $10 trillion regional economy, triple the size in 2022, was laid out one year ago at COP29. Doubling the number of interconnections across the 10 ASEAN countries could boost connected capacity from 7.2 gigawatts in 2022, to 33.5 GW fifteen years from now.

This will take more than undersea cables and high voltage direct current lines capable of transmitting power over long distances with minimal leakage. To succeed at scale a resilient ASEAN grid must cope with the key challenge faced in all renewables—intermittency. This necessitates investments in industrial-scale battery and other storage and conversion technology to balance increasingly variable supply with rising demand. Managing that balance is essential to keep grids stable and prevent outages, including amid extreme weather events that coincide with peak power off-take.

Upgrading domestic networks should include integration of new digital technology, familiar from the internet of things, to monitor and measure systems continuously, spot potential weaknesses before they trip supply, and enable steady maintenance instead of expensive repairs.

An ASEAN power grid paves the way to lower cost manufacturing and enhances competitive advantages, as the region continues to move up the manufacturing value chain.

In the longer term, it can also improve climate-resilient food security and pitch the region into a positive feedback loop. Related investment in agritech might also boost production of biofuel, potentially making air travel greener and helping to decarbonize other sectors that are difficult to electrify.

A significant proportion of total employment across Asia Pacific is in sectors directly impacted by climate, like farming and fishing, putting populations at high risk from global warming and rising sea levels. With the ASEAN grid, governments, large utilities, energy companies and financers are coming together to address this risk, and build a project that promises huge benefits for generations to come.

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Business

What a Walmart CEO contender’s exit reveals about when to move on

Published

10 minutes ago

January 20, 2026

Jace Porter

There’s no such thing as a silver medal in a CEO succession race.

In November, Walmart named U.S. chief John Furner as its next CEO, crowning him the sixth leader in the history of the world’s largest retailer. The decision also quietly closed the door on another highly regarded contender for the corner office: Kath McLay, Walmart International’s CEO and a decade-long veteran of the company. On Thursday, Walmart disclosed that McLay would depart, staying on briefly to ensure a smooth transition.

The sequence was swift, orderly, and entirely unsurprising to those who study corporate succession. Boards rarely say it out loud, but experienced executives understand intuitively that once a CEO is chosen, the long-term prospects for previously whispered-about internal candidates dim almost immediately as power consolidates around the new chief executive.

That’s why many of the most ambitious leaders in American business don’t linger after a succession decision. They move deliberately, and often quickly, because the moment immediately after a board makes its choice is paradoxically when a near-CEO executive’s market value is at its peak. The executive has just been validated at the highest level—close enough to be seriously considered for the top job—without yet absorbing the reputational drag that can follow prolonged proximity to a decision that didn’t go their way.

In that narrow window, the story is still about capability. Search firms and directors see a leader who was trusted with scale, complexity, and board scrutiny, not someone who failed to clear the final hurdle.

When Jeff Immelt was named CEO of General Electric in 2001, the decision concluded one of the most closely watched succession contests in modern corporate history. Among the executives developed as credible successors was Bob Nardelli, then president and CEO of GE Power Systems. Nardelli didn’t stay to see how it might play out. Within months, he left GE to become Home Depot’s CEO.

A decade later, a different scenario unfolded at Apple, but with a similar outcome. Retail chief Ron Johnson had transformed Apple’s stores into an industry-defining, highly profitable global business and was widely viewed internally as CEO-caliber. Apple’s board had long centered its succession plans on Tim Cook, and when Cook was formally named successor to Steve Jobs, it effectively closed the door on a CEO path for Johnson. He left soon after to take the top job at J.C. Penney.

The executives who leave quickly aren’t being disloyal; they’re being realistic. Remaining too long after a succession decision can quietly erode an executive’s standing, both internally and externally, as the narrative shifts from “next in line” to “still waiting.”

At Ford Motor Co., president Joe Hinrichs was widely viewed as a leading CEO contender. When the board selected Jim Hackett in 2017, Hinrichs left not long afterward. Five years later, he resurfaced as CEO of transportation company CSX. Similarly, several senior Disney executives left or were sidelined after Bob Chapek was chosen as CEO in 2020. Most notably, Kevin Mayer, Disney’s head of direct-to-consumer and international, and a widely assumed CEO contender, departed within months to briefly become CEO of TikTok.

There are exceptions. But they tend to follow a different arc.

Although longtime Nike insider Elliott Hill was not passed over in a formal succession contest, he was widely viewed as CEO-ready when the board opted for an external hire in 2020. Hill stayed on for several years and later retired. Only after performance pressures mounted and the company embarked on a strategic reset did Nike’s board reverse course, asking Hill to return as CEO in 2024. Even then, such boomerangs remain exceedingly rare.

McLay’s departure from Walmart fits the dominant pattern. By exiting promptly while remaining to support a defined transition, she preserves both her reputation and her leverage. She leaves as an executive who was close enough to be seriously considered—not one who stayed long enough to be diminished by the process.

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Business

Crypto market reels in face of tariff turmoil, Bitcoin falls below $90,000 as key legislation stalls

Published

41 minutes ago

January 20, 2026

Jace Porter

If you don’t like the price of Bitcoin, wait five minutes, and it will change. The major cryptocurrency’s volatility has been on full display to start the year, this time dipping about 7% since last week to its current price of just under $90,000 as of mid-day Tuesday.

Other cryptocurrencies have also slid. Ethereum is down 11% in the last six days to its current price of about $3,000, and Solana is down about 14% during that time to its price of about $127.

The dip comes as President Donald Trump threatened European nations with tariffs as they pushed back against his plans to take over Greenland, causing markets to scramble. Meanwhile, crypto markets faced an additional headwind as key legislation for the industry, known as the Clarity Act, became stalled after industry giant Coinbase unexpectedly withdrew its support late last week.

“President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Europe has put Bitcoin under pressure,” said Russell Thompson, chief investment officer at Hilbert Group. “The postponement of the Clarity Act in the Senate committee mainly due to concerns from Coinbase eliminated a large amount of positive sentiment in the market.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong objected to the Clarity Act primarily on grounds that crypto owners would not be able to earn yield from stablecoins. The new uncertainty over the bill, which many assumed was on a smooth path towards a Presidential signature, has shaken the price not just of crypto assets but also the share price of companies exposed to digital assets.

It’s uncertain whether the current headwinds will fade anytime soon. Trump has made his intentions of taking control of Greenland clear. When a group of European nations expressed solidarity with the Danish, he threatened those countries with tariffs, saying he would not back down until Greenland was purchased. Bitcoin and other risk assets subsequently fell, along with major stock indices, while the price of gold rose.

It’s not all gloom and doom for crypto, at least according to some analysts, who view Bitcoin’s correlation with macroeconomic forces as confirmation that digital assets have finally gone mainstream.

“Bitcoin’s reactivity is another sign of its increasing integration with broader macroeconomic forces, signaling maturation rather than fragility, even as short-term volatility continues,” said Beto Aparicio, senior manager of strategic finance at Offchain Labs.

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Business

The 9 most disruptive deals of Trump’s first year back in the White House

Published

1 hour ago

January 20, 2026

Jace Porter

President Trump lives on deals: “That’s what I do—I do deals,” he once told Bob Woodward. On the one-year anniversary of his second presidency, he’s pushing hard to make his biggest, most disruptive deal ever, one that would bring Greenland under the control of the U.S.—and the global business community is still scrambling to adapt to his approach. Here are nine of Trump’s most unorthodox deals from the past year.

Nine deals that shook the business world

April 2, 2025: Reciprocal tariffs

Trump imposes “reciprocal tariffs” on 57 countries, with each tariff understood as an opening bid in a negotiation. Several countries have since made deals. The one-on-one negotiations, unlike the multilateral system of the past 80 years, can be chaotic for companies and economies

June 13: U.S. Steel “Golden Share”

In return for allowing Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel, Trump requires that the U.S. receive several powers over the company, including total power over all the board’s independent directors and vetoes over locations of offices and factories.

July 10: MP Materials

The U.S. pays $400 million for a large equity share in MP and signs a contract to buy all of MP’s rare earth magnets for 10 years. The reason for the equity stake was not disclosed.

July 14: Nvidia, Part 1

JADE GAO—AFP/Getty Images

Trump reverses the U.S. ban on selling Nvidia H20 chips to China in exchange for Nvidia paying the U.S. 15% of the revenue.

July 23: Columbia University

The Trump administration restores $400 million of canceled federal research funding for the university under an unprecedented multipoint deal. For example, Columbia must supply data to the federal government for all applicants, broken down by race, “color,” GPA, and standardized test performance. A few other schools later make similar deals.

August 6: Apple

At a public appearance with Trump, CEO Tim Cook announces Apple will invest an additional $100 billion in the U.S. over four years; Trump announces Apple will be exempt from a planned tariff on imported chips that would have doubled the price of iPhones in the U.S.

August 22: Intel

Intel trades the U.S. government a 9.9% equity stake in exchange for $8.9 billion that might already be owed to Intel under the CHIPS and Science Act. The deal is unusual because the company was not in immediate danger or significantly affecting the economy.

December 8: Nvidia, Part 2:

Trump reverses the U.S. ban on selling powerful Nvidia H200 chips in exchange for Nvidia paying the U.S. 25% of the revenue. Both Nvidia deals are unusual because the payments to the U.S., based on exports, appear to be forbidden by the Constitution.

December 19: Pharma

Nine pharmaceutical companies make deals with Trump that are intended to lower drug prices. This is unusual because Trump negotiated separate deals with each company, and the terms have not been released.

All eyes this week will be watching President Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the president has hinted he’ll announce some high-stakes agreements. Expect the unexpected.

A version of this piece appears in the February/March 2026 issue of Fortune.

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