@howdymary

nyc has the infrastructure of a T4 chinese city sf has the infrastructure of a forgotten rural chinese village five lane highways, fresh flowers planted in an infinite row along highways, zero potholes, drone deliveries across the sky, no fenty folds, no scent of urban piss https://t.co/uDxbiv3K4T

the contrast between china and the united states has never been more stark the economist wrote that xi jinping need not interrupt while an enemy made a mistake in order to project peace and stability but china need not project; foreign enterprise and frontier startups are increasingly drawn to what IS a peaceful and stable society just yesterday, a friend in san francisco texted our group chat that she was having trouble entering her own home because a homeless man was smoking crack on her doorstep such an encounter is more common than not in silicon valley, amidst an administration that disregards basic science and disdains expertise, large scale infrastructure projects stalled by election cycles and red tape, data center construction delayed by misinformation inspired local protests and institutional distrust, an assassination attempt on the president that many assume was staged, a nationwide pre occupation with financial nihilism and speculation, a sloppy approach to armed conflict that has resulted in disillusionment in american military prowess over the past week in shenzhen, i’ve had the chance to visit cobot and humanoid robotics start ups, a pharmaceutical company that licenses its platform to western biotech companies, an australian neurotech company with headquarters in shenzhen for rapid prototyping (it just makes economical sense) i met new Ivy League graduates that chose to move to shenzhen instead of san francisco, an enterprising moroccan teenager with an exhaustive mental map of who’s building what in shenzhen and what components everyone needs, western technologists who turned their back on the united states entirely this is a city where opportunity is still open and free for the taking, the government supporting founders with tax breaks and special visas i’m writing this now from a government research center in shenzhen run while on a tour guided by a researcher who graduated from MIT the lab works on civic projects; robots whose design is inspired by snails traversing challenging terrain, nanorobots mapping out the human intestine system, freeform robots that climb vertical environments, robots currently in production working on infrastructure in the mountainous chongqing the regional government actively funds and supports prototyping and implementing innovative projects that impact the lives of everyday chinese, companies choose shenzhen over san francisco for cheap high quality components, the supply chain readily accessible and reliable the work ethic is the city’s backbone, that shenzhen is a city full of over educated young people willing to meet a higher standard it’s hard not to feel that shenzhen is living now what should be our future of abundance is china perfect? no, of course not, far from it but the malaise that passes over american gen z is inflicted in no small part that america…seems to not be a serious country committed to a ten year plan, much less one hundred years america is still exceptional, it has not lost its position as number one; but china is accelerating as america preoccupies itself with needless foreign conflict and domestic strife the torch passes east

the manus founders were summoned to Beijing from Singapore for a meeting with China’s National Development and Reform Commission afterwards, they were ‘invited to stay’ in china while chinese officials ruminated on a decision regarding whether or not to allow the deal to pass i was told that normal chinese people are ‘highly discouraged’ from traveling to the United States for more than seven days because too many wealthy chinese are fleeing

china just killed the $2B meta acquisition of manus and the implications go way beyond a single acquisition > $META now has to unwind the deal > this decision closes the offshore arbitrage window that enabled Chinese founders access western venture capital and build western facing products without chinese domestic content restrictions > manus relocated from China to Singapore (a practice known as Singapore washing) to access deeper capital pools from foreign investors like Benchmark > the assumption made was location of the holding company != regulatory jurisdiction > beijings decision means that this offshore jurisdiction is not beyond its reach > developing technology in China before transferring assets to an overseas entity through restructuring is now a red flag > where you build your product matters more than where the holding company is registered > some context: Washington already banned western investors from backing chinese ai companies, this is Beijing reciprocating in a sense there is no more middle lane

schwarzman is the gift that keeps giving thank you steve