PSA International and Granite Asia have launched a US$50 million strategic innovation fund aimed at backing technologies that could reshape ports, logistics and wider global supply chains, in a move that underscores how quickly artificial intelligence, robotics and automation are moving from theory into trade operations.
The G&P Strategic Innovation Fund will invest alongside Granite Asia’s existing vehicles, with the two groups looking for companies developing tools that...
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can improve how goods are moved, tracked and managed across complex trade networks. Rather than focusing solely on early-stage experimentation, the fund is intended to help promising technologies make the leap from pilot schemes to commercial deployment at scale.
For PSA, one of the world’s largest port operators, the initiative gives it a structured way to draw on its global operating footprint and day-to-day experience of container terminals, cargo flows and supply-chain bottlenecks. Granite Asia, meanwhile, brings its technology investment platform and experience in frontier sectors such as AI and robotics. Together, the firms are betting that the combination of operational knowledge and capital can identify solutions that are useful not only in principle, but in the practical realities of shipping and logistics.
The fund sits within a broader strategic partnership between the two companies that also covers technology insights, venture engagement, talent development and innovation partnerships. That wider relationship suggests the collaboration is not limited to direct investment, but is also intended to create a pipeline of ideas, people and businesses that can be tested against the demands of global trade.
PSA said the arrangement supports its broader AI strategy, which is centred on operational excellence, customer solutions, trusted data foundations, enterprise productivity and sustainability across its network of port ecosystems. In practice, that points to a push to embed digital tools more deeply into terminal operations, improve decision-making and strengthen resilience in supply chains that have faced repeated disruption in recent years.
Granite Asia said the fund reflects its own long-term focus on backing category-defining companies. Jixun Foo, senior managing partner at Granite Asia, said the partnership combines the firm’s technology investment capabilities with PSA’s scale and supply-chain know-how, arguing that the joint platform could help support the next generation of entrepreneurs building tools with real-world industrial impact.
The timing of the launch is notable. Global trade operators are increasingly exploring how AI can improve planning, robotics can reduce manual handling and automation can speed up throughput in ports and warehouses. But many technologies stall after early demonstrations, struggling to prove their value in demanding live environments. By explicitly targeting the move from pilot to deployment, PSA and Granite Asia are signalling that the real prize lies in adoption, not just invention.
For the logistics sector, the fund also reflects a broader trend: port operators and supply-chain investors are moving closer together as technology becomes more central to competitiveness. In an industry where margins can be tight and disruptions costly, even modest improvements in visibility, efficiency and reliability can have an outsized effect. PSA and Granite Asia appear to believe that the next wave of supply-chain innovation will come not from isolated software tools, but from systems that can be integrated across the movement of goods from ship to shore and beyond.
Source: Noah Wire Services
