[By Guancha Observer Net, Ruan Jiaqi]

On the 16th local time, Simon Kuper, a columnist for the Financial Times of the UK, wrote an article titled "How China Is Catching Up with Silicon Valley" to praise the great progress made by China in the field of advanced technology.

The article reflects on history and marvels that this country once seen by American Silicon Valley elites as a "factory floor" may now be redefining the future of technology that was once monopolized by the United States at an astonishing speed. The real crisis facing Silicon Valley may not only lie in the pressure of technological competition but also in the deep-seated value gap in American society.

Graph showing changes in the number of Chinese enterprises' overseas artificial intelligence-related projects from 2008 to 2021 - Atlantic Council, US Think Tank

Simon writes that from Edison to Amazon, America has continuously defined the global technology future, which has periodically put this nation into anxiety over being surpassed. In the 1960s, it was worried about the Soviet space race; in the 1980s, it was concerned about Japan's automotive wave.

"But today, America is facing its first true competitor: the only opponent with necessary manufacturing scale, consumer market, and research strength — China. A race between China and Silicon Valley has begun."

This year, suddenly, American tech giants unanimously exclaimed that China has already taken the lead in this race:

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google who once claimed that "China lags behind the U.S. in AI," has changed his tune, emphasizing multiple times that "China is on par with or even ahead of the U.S. in many technical fields"; Jensen Huang, CEO of semiconductor giant NVIDIA, strongly agrees with him, echoing that China is "not lagging behind" in the AI field; Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril, a defense upstart producing drones, warned that China's shipbuilding capacity is "350 times that of the U.S."; Travis Kalanick, the outspoken co-founder of Uber, bluntly stated that if you want to see the future of online food delivery, "don't go to New York, go to Shanghai"...

Simon describes that these voices paint a picture: by 2030, perhaps the entire world will be using Chinese AI applications on devices made in China, driving nearly fully autonomous Chinese electric vehicles.

Looking at the actions of Silicon Valley elites, Simon feels even more surprised: in the past, Silicon Valley regarded China as a mere production base. Now, some companies are competing to profit from the future development of Chinese technology: Benchmark Capital, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, enraged the Trump administration with its large bets on Chinese AI companies, prompting scrutiny from the US Treasury Department; In February this year, Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, located Tesla's first overseas energy storage super factory in China.

Nick Denton (Nick Denton), who used to work at the Financial Times and has now transitioned from entrepreneurship to investment, summarized: "Whether they admit it or not, they have become the strongest advocates of 'China's inevitable victory.'"

For a long time, the US side has been keen on labeling China as a "technical copycat" with malicious intent. But faced with the current situation, Simon can't help but raise the question, "If China has leapt from being a so-called 'copycat' to an 'overcomer,' then what will happen to Silicon Valley and its relationship with the US?"

And his answer is: America has once again let down the expectations of Silicon Valley. "This country may not deserve the futurists it possesses."

Simon mentioned that last year, the tech leaders of Silicon Valley formed a "fragile alliance" with a "nostalgic politician"—Trump—who promotes fossil fuels and factory jobs, in exchange for his promise to loosen government regulations.

But on the very day they attended Trump's presidential inauguration ceremony, Chinese AI startups released AI models that were comparable to their American counterparts but cheaper and more efficient. The impact did not end there. Subsequently, Chinese companies introduced the world's fastest electric vehicle charging technology, and Chinese smartphone manufacturers began selling phones that could rival Apple's latest iPhones. In stark contrast, Tesla, a symbol of American future, saw its stock price "plummet to the center of the Earth."

In Simon's view, the US had a way out.

He believes that as former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Toshihiro Nakamura, director of the "China Strategic Initiative" at the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out in Foreign Affairs, the US should not "underestimate China," but rather emulate China by uniting its traditional allies to form a vast economic zone to lay the foundation for the next generation of global tech standards through economies of scale. However, Trump's approach completely went against this. He abandoned allies and drastically cut research funding.

At the end of the article, Simon points out that the most prominent wealth created by Silicon Valley was generated 20 years ago. He warns through Denton's words that if the Trump administration continues to "reverse course" on trade and immigration policies, compared to the massive scale advantage of the "Chinese sphere," Silicon Valley will face long-term elimination risks due to its "insufficient size."

He left a meaningful sentence: "This is not an exaggeration—don't forget, at one time, British shipbuilding once dominated the world."

This article is an exclusive contribution by the Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7504950913900053044/

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