Winter in Silicon Valley, China Sizzles

Winter in Silicon Valley, China Sizzles
Photo: China is building a particle collider almost four times bigger than the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and it is expected to produce over one million Higgs boson particles in its first decade of operation.

 

Where’s the Next Silicon Valley? Follow the startups, Big Science, and AI.

According to Clement Cao, in an opinion piece published by Newsweek:

“…while Silicon Valley is not about to disappear any time soon, its next biggest rival is already on the verge of bursting onto the international scene—not in the US, nor in the EU, but rather in Asia. More specifically, China.”

It’s an observation the author claims is “grounded in a more widespread move to fund start-ups in Asia to the point where more money is being invested there than in Europe.” According to Cao, some tech entrepreneurs think “Silicon Valley may have heated up a little too much.”

He notes that Russell Hancock, head of think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley, recently told The Telegraph that “winter is coming” to Silicon Valley, a place described by some as ‘at the tipping point.’ What’s this about? “The cost of living has shot through the roof in San Jose and there is a widespread fear US tech companies are soon to feel the sting of global regulation.” They have already felt the sting of Washington’s repressive immigration policies.

Cao makes his case in the opinion piece with pesuasive numbers, and by tracking prevailing technology investment trends that also suggest that China’s emergence as a technology super power is not far away, adding that “Information Age recently pointed out around half of the total investment made in AI last year went to China.”

One of the main reasons that makes China so attractive is that local and national governments are far more supportive of technology than elsewhere in the world, Cao says. “This backing stretches from national strategies and tech-friendly policies to actually investing in companies themselves.”

“China’s tech companies will soon be beating American companies on their home turf,” some tech insiders Cao spoke to predicted, adding “one of the reasons is that investors believe US immigration policy is making it more difficult for the best talent from around the world to find work there.”

China is making such massive investments in Big Science projects that it’s led another observer to predict that ‘the future of particle physics will live and die in China. He was referring to China’s next-generation supercollider ( pictured above) that will “unlock secrets of the universe — and destroy the ideals of the scientists running it.”

 

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