Only saw this today but as predicted in my article, my piece was picked up and commented on by major Chinese tech publications within a day and your comments are featured too! Chinese tech media loved that a Silicon Valley VC knew about them A very satisfying circular moment

I had to do a double take on the opening sentence and then it only got crazier We know that EAs and rationalists have always had boundary-pushing beliefs that tested the Overton window, and Cami Clark didn't do anything illegal (to our knowledge) so maybe we should lessen judgement But I was reminded of the risks of new-age religious movements today by a religious friend who recently left government and wants to join OpenAI to beat Anthropic Anthropic does believe in a religion, and their followers are willing to sacrifice for this cult. It's actually core to their evaluation of hires whether they are willing to "do the right thing at personal cost" (you hear the employees repeat this line verbatim frequently, which is always cultish) And though the EA cult is one I respect in many ways due to their intense passion for doing good (just like early Communists) the risk is that fanatically good intentions can cause widespread destruction (like later Communists) Orthodox religions are flawed but they have stood the test of time for a reason. New religions are unproven and volatile, and when combined with apocalyptic technology like AI, could wreak havoc. It's ironic that some of the "trad" people in AI are joining the OpenAI camp under the gay twink founder to combat the Antichrist of Dario, the straight guy who collabs with the Vatican

As a kid my mom always told me Zhu Rongji was the leader she looked up to the most along with Deng Xiaoping. Truly end of an era. A great technocratic reformer and loyal servant to the populace who was known to get shit done An elite electrical engineer by training who was persecuted for criticizing Mao during the Great Leap Forward Also a descendant of the Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang. Guess greatness ran in his blood The GOAT

As Elon exhorts, you should visit China No matter your priors: love, hate, admiration, fear There's no doubt China is one of the most important civilizations in the world and it's not going anywhere Now is the best it's ever been to visit, even if you're a skeptic China's soft power is finally working, and it's because it's projecting confidence and opening itself up Previous attempts at propaganda failed cuz they were top-down and kitschy (remember state-sponsored patriotic rap...) Now China has opened up visa-free access unprecedentedly to foreign tourists and is running the "come and see for yourself" strategy, finally making itself "cool" in the way that could only happen from bottoms up interaction People consistently come out with a more respect and admiration towards the country, even the hawks who still view China as the enemy (check out the last Trump delegation) Go for yourself and make up your own mind

Everyone in the Valley has a take on whether China is winning AI, robotics, and biotech. Almost nobody understands how the capital works Notes from meeting China's tier-1 investors and founders on how their venture ecosystem actually works.

Nice & smart piece by Bohan, really hit homes a few topics sitting on my mind: scarcity of capital vs entrepreneurs (hence the onerous terms against them), lack of M&A, risk appetite of gov funds, and mysterious middlemen. The competitive pressures in China breed new species.

The craziest phenomena in the Chinese venture ecosystem to me from this article were: – 明股实债, translatable as “ostensibly equity, in reality debt”, referring to how Chinese founders take personal liability and must return capital in a 6-8yr horizon to meet their backers’ hurdle rate – FA (financial advisors) who broker deals between startups and VCs for a 2-5% take, to provide “relationship liquidity” because culturally there are no cold inbounds: people meet mostly through WeChat group intros Bohan doesn’t write much (yet) but he’s extremely knowledgable about the Chinese ecosystem, something we all ought to know more about.

With the recent Kimi K3 scare, all eyes are on China and the future of our AI reality depends on how the Chinese will innovate in the future. Here are some notes on their venture ecosystem from a recent visit.

Everyone in the Valley has a take on whether China is winning AI, robotics, and biotech. Almost nobody understands how the capital works Notes from meeting China's tier-1 investors and founders on how their venture ecosystem actually works.

If you want to automate the Atoms of first America and then the world, HMU There is no physical AI company that is more stacked One of the most respected and feared founders in valley history, with some of the OG technical minds of AV, and the largest geopolitical and demographic tailwinds behind them. You literally can't be more bullish If you believe the future is Atoms and not just Bits, join.