HONG KONG, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Questex's IHIF Asia united leaders spanning hospitality, investment and real estate to explore market trends, economic factors and opportunities. It attracted 470+ delegates from 38 countries, a testament to its international reach. 46% of attendees were from investor, capital and ownership-related organisations representing $450B in AUM, 60% were first-time attendees.
"IHIF Asia demonstrated the strength of hospitality investment across the region, uniting the capital and leadership shaping the future. It reinforced its position as the premier platform for hospitality investment in Asia-Pacific," said IB Saravanan, VP, Questex Asia.
The programme delivered thought leadership through panel discussions, fireside chats, presentations and networking. 125 speakers from 21 countries shared perspectives on investment, ownership, development, operations and policy.
The CEO panel united leaders from Minor Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide Inc. who discussed competitive advantages, unlocking new value streams and building future-ready organizations.
Hospitality has emerged as a real estate asset class for family office capital. Reflecting on this investment, IHIF Asia featured content and networking for family offices and family office-owned property groups, supporting engagement and connections across this investor segment. The dedicated programme united 30+ family offices and family office-owned property groups.
Two new tracks focused on the region's areas of growth. The BxR Asia – Brand x Residential track examined the intersection of hospitality brands and residential real estate. The Nippon Track examined the opportunities within its domestic hospitality market and the growing role of Japanese capital. It attracted 160 attendees and 20 speakers across four hours of focused programming.
Government and tourism organisations reinforced IHIF Asia's role in connecting public and private sector stakeholders to advance hospitality investment and destination development including Singapore Tourism Board, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Tourism Western Australia, Oman, Turismo de Portugal, Brunei Investment Agency and Marjan. UN Tourism provided a global perspective on tourism growth, capital flows and investment opportunities.
IHIF Asia Digital lets you watch coverage of main stage sessions, extending the event's reach to the broader hospitality investment community.
IHIF Asia 2027 takes place 8-10 September in Hong Kong.
Media Contact
Meryl Franzman
mfranzman@questex.com
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Questex's IHIF Asia Connects Hospitality Leaders with Investors Managing $450B in AUM
SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5th GMIF Innovation Summit (Global Memory Innovation Forum 2026, GMIF2026) recently concluded in Shenzhen. Co-hosted by the Shenzhen Memory Industry Association (SMIA) and the School of Integrated Circuits at Peking University, the summit was themed "The Future Built on AI Memory and Storage," with discussions spanning technology innovation, industry trends, and real-world AI applications.
The summit opened with remarks from Rixin Sun, President of the SMIA, who noted that as AI shifts from generative to agentic, inference efficiency and system coordination have become shared priorities, and GMIF will keep building a more diverse global platform for the AI value chain.
Capital Meets Technology: Memory & Storage Moves to the Center of AI Infrastructure
Daniel Yen of Morgan Stanley projected that AI capex continues to climb, with more than half of cloud data center capex expected to go to memory and storage (excluding HBM) by 2027. Prof. Yimao Cai from Peking University pointed to HBF and heterogeneous architectures combining HBM, NAND, and RRAM as a way to balance performance, capacity, and cost.
Kevin Yoon from Samsung outlined progress on Z-NAND, PCIe Gen6 SSDs, and ultra-high-capacity data center SSDs. Sandisk highlighted NAND's expanding role in AI infrastructure and QLC adoption, while Solidigm showed how pairing high-capacity QLC SSDs with high-performance storage enables memory offloading and data tiering. Arm emphasized that inference demands holistic optimization across compute, memory, storage, and data movement.
Moving from cloud to edge, Silicon Motion shared devices are the ultimate carrier of AI experiences, and its PerformaShape technology allocates resources flexibly across agents to improve read/write consistency. BIWIN mentioned that scenarios from data centers to on-device applications each call for distinct memory and storage, and it is leveraging full-stack capabilities for customized solutions.
Token Factories Move Enterprise AI from Pilot to Production
Lenovo ISG China introduced the "token factory" concept, describing how enterprise AI is moving from compute buildout to systematic operations. Numbers Law and NEXWISE showed how storage hardware connects to compute scheduling and model operations. Infplane and Genstoraige lowered the barrier to on-device large models through AI SSD tiering, while OKN Technology addressed test equipment for PCIe 6.0 SSDs under real-world workloads. SYNCORE, Dify, and Paratera advanced vehicle-cloud intelligence, private AI agents, and MaaS platforms.
Beyond the Sessions: Exhibition, Awards, Global Livestream and Golf Match
Alongside the keynotes, GMIF2026 offered a broader program. The concurrent exhibition hosted 40 exhibitors, offering a real-world snapshot of the memory and storage solutions shaping the AI era. As evening settled in, the spotlight turned to the GMIF2026 Annual Awards, where 33 companies were celebrated for driving progress across the industry chain, from breakthrough technologies to the AI infrastructure that powers it all.
The showcase extended to international audiences through the GMIF2026 Global Livestream by Memory Brands, where eight companies presented their latest products, technologies, and innovations for the AI era. And the next day's "BIWIN Cup" golf match kept conversations among technology, capital, and markets going.
Conclusion
Across the summit program, one message stood out: global AI competition is moving beyond the "single-point era" of peak GPU performance into a "system-level era" that integrates memory, compute, networking, and software. In the token economy, memory and storage is shedding its auxiliary role and becoming the strategic foundation of AI inference. Going forward, GMIF will keep connecting key players across the global memory value chain to promote joint standards, technology development, and market expansion.
Learn more, please visit https://www.gmif.com.cn/. Follow GMIF on LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.
Media Contact: Carina Gu, wenjing.gu@gmif.com.cn
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GMIF2026: AI Inference Powers the "Token Factory" and Drives System-Level Rethinking of Memory & Storage
