The most useful conversation we had in Shanghai last week was about logistics. Not chips, not models — logistics. Who can ship a GB200 board through customs this quarter, and who can't. That's the actual market, and it's not the one you're reading about.
What the trip was for
We ran two small dinners and one warehouse visit. Ten builders, one investor, one ex-chip-foundry engineer who now runs a robotics hardware startup. No press, no decks. The point was to listen.
Three things we learned
- The compiler story is global. The people getting the most out of domestic silicon are the ones with the strongest compiler teams. Same as anywhere else. The difference is they can't afford to wait for upstream fixes.
- Robotics is catching up faster than the US narrative admits. Humanoid demos are still mostly theater, but the industrial-arm-plus-VLM stack is shipping into factories now.
- The talent flow has reversed. Senior ML engineers who left for the US in 2019 are the ones coming back. Ask anyone hiring in Hangzhou.
This is the first issue we're publishing in both English and Chinese. Toggle languages with the EN / 中 switch at the top of the page. The content is the same — translated, not re-written.
Shanghai, briefly
- The coffee at M Stand on Wukang Road is still the benchmark.
- Zhangjiang's hardware cluster feels more like Shenzhen than it did two years ago.
- The K11 rooftop is the single best view of Pudong's skyline. Go at blue hour.
We'll be back in Shanghai in June. Members get the dinner invite list.