😎 Discover our latest 60 pages report & free dealflow: The Adaptation Economy in South East Asia (2025 Edition). 🚀
A testimony for our 4 years support to SEAsian's innovators driving positive impact & resilience towards climate change, with tech.
Four years ago, I published The Adaptive Economy, a book that laid out what was coming. Some people thought it was alarmist. Others dismissed it.
Now, in 2025, everything I warned about is happening—on an accelerated timeline.
The future has arrived.
🔮 2021: The Predictions. 2025: The Reality.
Almost all the technologies once imagined in science fiction are now real, yet we have barely begun to explore how to use them—
To improve life for 8 billion people and tackle our biggest challenges: our crave for unlimited energy and artificial intelligence, our broken connection with nature and the increasing severity of extreme weather.
It’s not just about being green or stopping climate change.
At Atlas Capital, we believe this new technological era opens up opportunities to redesign how we live, making our life systems future-proof today.
A Word To My Friends
I believe every generation has a key challenge to face. For us, the AI revolution and climate change are the two biggest challenges we must deal with.
The future is coming, but after reading George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, I’m not sure it’s the kind of future we want. Our generation has one important task: to create a future that looks more like a utopia than a dystopia.
Over the past ten years in Southeast Asia, I have seen how quickly the region has adapted—embracing digitalization and air conditioning more than anywhere else. For many people, these were not just conveniences but the only way to access economic growth and job opportunities.
From 2021 to Q4 2024, with the Atlas Climate Tech Coalition we’ve organized more than 40+ events mobilizing funding for planet-positive startups across SEA, this is the report encompassing we’ve learned and all the actors we’ve met.
This report shares what I have observed. The Adaptive Economy is no longer just an idea—it is necessary. It is the path that families, cities, and countries need to follow to succeed in the coming decades.
It introduces a framework with seven key areas, helping to direct investment into important innovations that will prepare our homes, cities, and infrastructure for a rapidly changing world.
A Word To Visionary Investors
The world is undergoing a massive transformation. Climate change, technological disruptions, and shifting geopolitical landscapes are redefining how businesses operate and economies function. The old economic paradigms are fading, and a new Adaptive Economy is rising—an economy that thrives in the face of change, leveraging innovation to build sustainable, resilient futures.
With The Adaptive Economy, we invite you—visionary investors, family offices, and forward-thinking leaders—to explore this transformation through our latest report:
✅ The Adaptation Economy in South East Asia (2025 Edition)
This in-depth analyses reveal the massive investment opportunities in climate adaptation, green energy infrastructure, and disruptive AI technologies reshaping Southeast Asia and beyond.
📥 Download the Full Report & Access our compilation of the top SEA climate tech deals → [Link]
Are you ready to future-proof your portfolio and be part of the next trillion-dollar economy?
🌎 The World Is Shifting—By The Numbers
The future isn’t just coming. It’s here. And the data proves it:
📊 AI & Automation
By 2025, automation has replaced 34% of retail jobs and 28% of food service jobs worldwide.
Goldman Sachs predicts that 300 million full-time jobs globally will be automated by 2030.
The AI sector is projected to add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030 (PwC).
📊 Climate Disasters
2024 was the hottest year ever recorded—with 2.1°C of warming above pre-industrial levels.
Hurricane Helena in 2025 caused $312 billion in damages—becoming the costliest disaster in U.S. history.
Flood damage in Southeast Asia has surged 400% since 2010, making Bangkok and Jakarta unlivable by 2035 (World Bank).
Sea level rise will displace 1 billion people by 2050 if urgent adaptation measures aren’t implemented (IPCC).
📊 Geopolitical Instabilities
Geopolitical tensions are making global trade riskier. Supply chain disruptions are expected to cost businesses $1.8 trillion per year by 2030 (Deloitte).
Investors are pivoting to resilient assets— de-globalization & industrial reshoring, AI-driven automation, and energy independence.
Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa are becoming key battlegrounds for new investments as the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies.
In other words: Those who adapt their playbook now will lead the next economic revolution.
💰 Where the Smart Money is Going in 2025
As old industries collapse, new trillion-dollar markets are emerging. Investors who move now will dominate.
🚀 1. Climate Adaptation & Resilient Infrastructure
💲 Market Size: $3 Trillion by 2030
🏗️ What’s Driving Growth:
AI-driven disaster response for floods, wildfires, and storms.
Climate-resilient real estate and urban planning in coastal megacities.
Advanced water management solutions as droughts intensify.
🚀 2. Automation & AI-Powered Economies
💲 Market Size: $1.8 Trillion by 2030
🤖 What’s Driving Growth:
AI-powered supply chains reducing costs by up to 40% for major industries.
Robotics replacing manual labor across logistics, security, and retail.
Generative AI transforming white-collar jobs, automating coding, marketing, and finance.
🚀 3. Southeast Asia’s Green Economy
💲 Market Size: $300 Billion Per Year by 2030
⚡ What’s Driving Growth:
Indonesia and Vietnam leading in renewable energy investments.
Massive growth in circular economy startups, driving sustainability in manufacturing.
Carbon capture and AI-driven agriculture solving food and energy crises.
🚀 4. Water & Food Security
💲 Market Size: $2 Trillion by 2040
🌊 What’s Driving Growth:
Water desalination innovations, cutting costs by 50% since 2020.
Synthetic biology breakthroughs, improving food supply resilience.
Precision agriculture and vertical farming, increasing urban food production.
🚀 5. Security: Relaunching the War Machine*
💲 Market Size: $3 Trillion by 2030
🛡️ What’s Driving Growth:
Military AI & Autonomous Defense Systems, reshaping modern combat with robotic soldiers and smart weapons.
Cybersecurity & Space Warfare Investments, as nations escalate digital and orbital defense strategies.
Global Defense Budgets Surging, exceeding $3 trillion as geopolitical tensions drive rearmament.
Private Security & AI-Driven Threat Detection, fueling rapid growth in defense contracting and urban surveillance.
*Atlas Capital is not investing in this sector
⚠️ The Biggest Risk? Doing Nothing.
So what’s next for me?
Well while I’m interested to continue supporting the SEA climate tech space, my LPs are urging me to look at the US market as well as AI & robotics. So my next reports might be more towards this.
The real question I wanna raise here tho: What’s next for you? And how are you going to update your investment strategy with this new paradigm?
Investors who stay stuck in old industries are already seeing declining returns and rising risks.
🔴 Retail & Hospitality → AI and automation will replace 40% of jobs by 2030.
🔴 Coastal Real Estate → $1.5 trillion in assets will become uninsurable by 2035.
🚨 Most investors won’t move fast enough.
👨👩👧👦 Family Offices: Protect generational wealth by investing in climate resilience. Green infrastructure and sustainable agriculture are future-proof asset classes.
📈 Angel Investors, Venture Capital & Private Equity: Emerging markets in SEA offer high-growth, high-impact investment opportunities in industrial tech, renewable energy solutions, and climate adaptation ventures.
The winners will be those who see what’s coming and act first.
🔥 The Adaptation Economy is No Longer a Niche—it’s the Future.