For the first time since the First industrial revolution of the 18th century, Asian countries have become leaders in the technology race of the Fourth industrial revolution. This article analyzes main areas, in which Asian countries have emerged as leaders. Several Asian countries have become leading exporters of computer and telecommunications equipment. Exporting digital equipment they enable digital transformation of other Asian and African countries. Powerful TNCs have emerged in the ICT sphere of these countries. Within a short period of development of the Fourth industrial revolution, in the East Asia (Japan, China, the Republic of Korea), a center of industrial robots manufacturing and of robotics use has been established, these countries being ahead of both the USA and Western Europe. Such a significant technological leadership of a large group of Asian countries, both in terms of production indicators and the volume of production and use of new equipment, has been observed for the first time in the entire era of industrial development. Even with a much cheaper labour force than in developed countries, China has chosen the path of robotics development in industry with the risk of losing a large number of jobs. Since the 1990s outsourcing and offshoring of IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) have been rapidly developing in India; other Asian and African countries also develop this sector. At present, the sector of IT services and BPO outsourcing faces challenges of robotics and automation, with the risks of loss of jobs. However, the development of digital economy in Asian and African countries also offers new opportunities generating internal demand for these services.  Prospects of socioeconomic development of Asian countries in the context of the Fourth industrial revolution are analyzed. The shift in productive forces is destroying the catch-up model of developing countries as developed countries due to automation lose interest in their cheap labor. Capital and qualified labor in the production and maintenance of new equipment become the major productive forces, reducing the role of natural resources and of large masses of workers with medium and low qualification. There is a risk that the world will disintegrate into a developed one and underdeveloped one by technological criteria, and it will be extremely difficult for the latter to break through into the category of developed. A new caste system can be formed, dividing the society into those who are able to develop or at least support new productive forces and all the others who are not needed for this.