Kevin Xu - Interconnected (Page 5)

🤑H1/Q2 2023 Performance Update (and A Poll)

With the first half (H1) of 2023 behind us, it is time again for my quarterly performance update on my investment portfolio. Here is the H1/Q2 2023 performance and benchmarks comparison (as of June 30): * Interconnected Portfolio H1: +220.12% (Q2: +53.66%

Topics: AI• Regulation•

🤖EU, China, US: Three Different Attitudes Toward AI Regulation

One interesting aspect of the fast-evolving landscape of generative AI is the global consensus on the need to regulate it. This was not the case at the dawn of the Internet or the early days of mobile social media. Perhaps precisely because regulators regretted

Topics: Resources• VC•

Good Chinese Language Tech Podcasts

A big part of my learning process is listening to audio products – audiobooks, podcasts, earnings calls, investors presentations. I can glean a lot of nuances from listening that are missing from reading transcripts, though listening does take more time. One overlooked genre I listen

Topics: Semiconductor• Geopolitics• South Korea•

🏴‍☠️Traitors or Treasures: the Semiconductor Talent Conundrum

Last month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the global semiconductor competition “a national all-out war.” As the home country of the world’s two largest chips manufacturers, Samsung and SK Hynix, South Korea is a global semiconductor leader in all respects. Its

Topics: Cloud Industry• Geopolitics• Sovereign AI•

US vs China: A Cloud Proxy War

The US-China tech “cold war” appears to have a new front: the cloud. According to the New York Times, both the Departments of State and Commerce are looking into new ways to restrict Chinese cloud hyperscalers, e.g. AliCloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc.

Topics: Open Source• Facebook• AI•

Meta Wants to Make AI “Moatless"

When Meta first released its open source foundation AI model, LLaMA, I thought it was a shrewd move to gain public trust for a social media giant with a huge trust deficit. However, the more I think about Meta’s open source AI posture

Topics: AI•

China's Underestimated AI Convening Power

Ever since Large Language Models (LLMs) became synonymous with AI, thanks to ChatGPT, the consensus is that LLMs created in China lag those from the US, and the gap will persist. For a variety of reasons – from tighter government regulations, to lack of quality

Topics: Announcement•

Re-Introduction

Last week, I spent a few days in New York City catching up with old friends and making new friends with readers of my newsletter. It was exhilarating! (Thank you to everyone who made time to hang out with me IRL. To those who

Topics: AI• Nvidia• Jensen Huang•

Jensen Huang NTU Commencement Speech 2023

Jensen Huang, two days after Nvidia's historic quarterly earnings, delivered the commencement speech at National Taiwan University – one of the elite universities in Taiwan. He shared three near-death Nvidia stories – making the wrong architecture choice when building for its first customer Sega,

Topics: Alibaba• Cloud Industry•

Is the Next Alibaba...AliCloud?

During Alibaba’s Q4 2023 earnings call, Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group’s CEO, expressed a rather romantic optimism that “we would love…to see one of these little Alibaba's spinning off from Alibaba becoming another big Alibaba.” Among the six “little Alibaba’

Topics: Developer• AI• Open Source•

AI Will Create More Developers, Not Less

Last week, I started using a new brokerage service for my investments. It is one of those brokerages that can help produce an audited track record, access to more international exchanges, and other bells and whistles designed for the “pros”. Yet, the UI and

Topics: VC• China• Geopolitics•

“Hardtech” Corporate VCs Rising in China

Huawei runs a little-known corporate VC division called Habo Investment. I first wrote about Habo back in early 2021, when it was barely two years old. Yet, at that time, it had already made 22 investments, five of which have gone public on the

Topics: Investing•

Q1 2023: Performance Update

Back in January, I published our first Interconnected Annual Letter to share the Interconnected public market portfolio performance in 2022 and my learning along the way. Even though I don’t manage anyone else’s money but my own, writing the letter was a

Topics: TikTok• ByteDance• China•

RESTRICT First, Ban Later

Since my first post on the RESTRICT Act two weeks ago, the bill has gotten a lot more attention and scrutiny than when it was first announced on March 7. And deservedly so. Its definition of what types of technologies may constitute national security

Topics: Alibaba•

Alibaba Reorg

If you work in tech long enough, you will experience many company reorgs. They are almost as routine as sales kickoffs or quarterly earnings calls. But every once in a while, a consequential company does a reorg so major and out of the box

Topics: Regulation• China•

RESTRICT China

From time to time, I like to read the full text of a legislative bill, if only to put my past work experience at the White House and my law degree to some good use. What caught my attention recently was the RESTRICT Act,

Topics: Cloud Industry• JD• National Champion•

Is JD Cloud the New “National Champion”?

JD Cloud is quietly, but effectively, positioning itself as the new “national champion” in China’s cloud computing market. This move became apparent when, during the weeklong “Two Meetings” deliberation that anointed China’s leaders of the next five years, JD Cloud’s top

Topics: Meta• Open Source• AI•

Is Meta Becoming a Trustworthy AI Company?

Among all the Big Tech companies who are planting flags in the red hot generative AI arms race, I think the most trustworthy one may actually be Meta. Yep, Zuck’s Meta. I say this because its recently released large language model (LLM), LLaMA

Topics: EVs• Ford• Geopolitics•

Ford Hearts CATL: America's Awkward Battery Deficiency

Deglobalization may be the megatrend of this decade, but it unfolds differently depending on the sector, technology, relative cost, and which country has the most leverage and most friends. In the US-China context, the United States appears to have more leverage over China in

Topics: ByteDance• Data Regulation•

Are Americans Worried About Chinese Apps?

Not really. Actually, not at all. If you look at the top three free apps on the Apple App Store, they are Temu (by Pinduoduo), CapCut, and TikTok (both by ByteDance). If you happen to be an Android person, the top three free apps

Topics: AI• Baidu• Cloud Industry•

Will ChatGPT Make Baidu Relevant Again?

ChatGPT has set off an AI arms race – and this arms race is global. Even though the seemingly ubiquitous chatbot is blocked in China, Baidu is set to release its own ChatGPT-like bot in March. Most of the reporting so far, in both English

Topics: Delisting• IPO• Stock Market•

Reflections on the Delisting Saga

In the last three years, the threat of forced delisting for Chinese companies publicly traded in the US was constant. Billions of market cap evaporated while the investment world waited to see if the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (or PCAOB or the auditor

Topics: Deglobalization• TSMC• Semiconductor•

How Much Does Deglobalization Cost?

When TSMC’s Arizona fab held its “tool-in” ceremony to much fanfare last December, its founder, Morris Chang, sagely framed the event as simply the “end of the beginning [https://interconnect.substack.com/p/globalization-is-dead-and-no-one].” This “end” not only marks the end of the

Topics: Annual Letter• Semiconductor• Investing•

Interconnected Annual Letter 2022

As we shake off the holiday-induced “mental cobwebs'' and embrace a new year, I’m starting a new ritual – the Interconnected Annual Letter. Admittedly, this is a shameless mimicry of the ritual behind Warren Buffett’s famed Berkshire Hathaway annual letters, as

Topics: TSMC• Semiconductor• Morris Chang•

Globalization is Dead and No One is Listening

The “tool-in” ceremony of TSMC’s new fab in Arizona drew a lot of attention last week. CEOs from Apple, Nvidia, and AMD attended and spoke. President Biden, along with a coterie of cabinet officials, congresspeople, and local Arizona politicians, came to rally, celebrate,