Will DeepSeek deep-six the US economy? – Asia Times

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By selling technology companies to immigrants, America has financed a current account deficit that soared to US$ 1.2 trillion in 2024. Tech stocks, however, are trading at valuations not seen since 2000, when the NASDAQ Composite began a descent that wiped out 75 % of its market capitalization by 2002.

If expectations deteriorate regarding synthetic intelligence’s ability to generate revenue, was a technology crash lead to a financing crisis for the United States? The question of the January 27 collision in AI-related stocks in response to less expensive and more effective Chinese rivals still lingers. Every capital investment in the world pays close attention to these issues.

Graphic: Asia Times

Europeans stopped buying US debts of all kinds – Treasury, loan, and business – after the post-Covid prices of 2021 and the Federal Reserve’s subsequent rise in interest rates. That signaled the end of a 40-year bulls industry in US securities. From a 1981 peak of 15 %, the US 30-year bond yield fell in a nearly straight line to an August 2020 low of just 1.41 %.

The inflationary wave of 2021-2022 put an end to this bull work. In March 2022, moreover, the US and its allies seized half of Russia’s$ 600 billion in foreign exchange reserves, prompting other central banks to shift away from US Treasury securities to gold and other assets.

However, the world’s appetite for American tech stocks has been stagnant for the past ten years, which was rekindled by the development of Large Language Models ( LLMs) last year. Are raised valuations for AI-related shares justified? Which two aspects affect how quickly and which industries are most likely to make money from AI?

China’s DeepSeek R1 type appears to have made a model performance discovery: tale layout and related improvements reduce the amount of processing required by one or two orders of magnitude.

DeepSeek, also, offers its unit at a small fraction of the price that its US competitors then charge. That is not always detrimental to the overall US tech sector. If China has a better systems, US companies may choose it speedily, and lower costs for AI simulation does benefit the users of AI models.

US and China compete in seven distinct subcategories of AI uses. China leads most of them, and its Artificial skills are likely to strengthen it. They are

  1. Manufacturing: China has poured huge resources into stock technology. One test is the number of companies outfitted with devoted 5G systems, which support AI applications. China claims 10, 000 for installations, while the US has only a few hundred, concentrated in the automobile industry. The benefit is enormously advantageous for China, and breakthroughs in AI are likely to help. However, US production has had a small influence on equity valuations.
  2. Internet of Things: China is back in simplifying vehicles and warehousing, with entirely mechanical stores now in operation.
  3. China is now a major manufacturer of professional computers, installing more industrial computers each year than the rest of the world combined.
  4. China leads the so-called low level market, which was first cited by federal planners in a December 2024 working papers. Drone taxis, drone deliveries, and other applications are currently a$ 100 billion industry in China, and they are projected to double by 2026.
  5. Autonomous cars: We’ll call this a toss-up between the US and China, although China now has autonomous car companies operating on a smaller scale.
  6. Huge Language Models: afterwards, a toss-up. The Philippines ‘$ 40 billion call center business, which saw the most potential gain from AI systems, includes the gains made by LLMs. However, at this point, there are no guarantees that Bachelor applications will be approved for all of their possibilities because they are so varied and extensive.
  7. Biotech: The US has a distinctive advantage with a powerful medical development system. China has a direct in health statistics, but America’s advanced of large pharmaceutical companies, businesses and venture entrepreneurs give it an edge.

The big question is about LLM’s timing. Although the payoff might be significant, it may not be as quick as anticipated.

LLM deployment in the enterprise still has little to do with organizational performance and human adaptation ( management buy-in, workflow adjustments, etc. ). seems to be years away. Cost savings for specific categories of expenses, such as call centers or repetitive coding tasks, may be easily realized. However, the development of AI for higher-skill work is still in its infancy.

What does this mean for Nvidia’s chipmakers? On the assumption that Nvidia GPUs will provide a lot of this activity, one could argue a bullish case for Nvidia based on all of the AI sectors listed above. However, this hypothesis requires closer scrutiny of Nvidia’s competitive advantages.

Nvidia has a greater advantage in computation when training language and vision models, but less so when inference ( running the resulting models to get useful results ) is at its disposal. Notably, Huawei’s Ascend AI chips already perform fairly well with the new DeepSeek models, with comparable or even better cost performance than the weakened Nvidia H800s ( the weakened Nvidia chip that was cleared for export to China ) &nbsp.

Additionally, the case that the top US tech companies ( the so-called Magnificent Seven ) will control equity returns going forward is much weaker than the market is currently perceptive of it. If we are right, and tech market valuations shrink to some significant extent, what are the macroeconomic implications? Key capital flows are more dependent on a small number of very large companies than at any other time in US history.

Let’s say foreigners reduced their purchases of tech stocks as the value of the stocks declines. The United States would need to sell more bonds to both domestic and foreign investors to pay off its current account deficit and federal budget deficit. The chart below shows the amount of new Treasury debt bought by US banks, US households, foreign official institutions, and foreign private investors, respectively.

Banks stepped in and reabsorbed the$ 4 trillion in Covid subsidies that were funded by the Treasury debt, but by 2023 they had exhausted their savings deposits. Households, who were drawn to the higher interest rates on Treasuries, saw the biggest increase in new investment in Treasury securities. Additionally, foreign private investors decreased their Treasury holdings. &nbsp,

A full-blown financial crisis is most unlikely. The cash-burning dotcoms of 2000 have been replaced by cash-rich monopolies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta. By offering higher bond yields to domestic and international investors, the United States can adjust to an air-pocket in the demand for its tech stocks.

However, the DeepSeek shock exposes flaws in Big Tech’s core strategies as well as in the stratospheric valuation of its best-performing stocks. The outcome is likely to be a combination of persistently higher interest rates, slower growth, a decline in wealth, and strong economic headwinds.

Graphic: Asia Times

The S&amp, P’s technology sector, correspondingly, trades at a P/E of 37, compared to an overall P/E for the S&amp, P 500 of 26. That accounts for the largest portion of the difference between the lofty valuations of American stocks and those of European, Japanese, and Chinese stocks.

Graphic: Asia Times

A brass-tacks gauge of equity valuation is the free cash flow (FCF ) yield, namely the ratio of cash income to market price. Investors accept less current income because they anticipate higher income in the future, the higher the FCF is expected to be. For the S&amp, P 500 as a whole, FCF is below 3, a level not seen since the eve of the tech stock crash of 2000.

Graphic: Asia Times

For a monopoly like Microsoft, the free cash flow yield has fallen to just 2, the lowest on record.

Graphic: Asia Times

Between 2020 and 2024, Big Tech invested more than double in capital expenditures, and it is still investing heavily in AI-supporting data centers. The DeepSeek shock raises questions about the viability of these plans economically: If Chinese developers can create cutting-edge models using innovative model architecture designs, the raw computing power under development could be significantly overvalued.

Graphic: Asia Times
Graphic: Asia Times

To entice price-sensitive buyers into the Treasury market, the US government—still running a record peacetime non-recession deficit of 6 % to 7 % of GDP—probably will have to offer higher yields. That’s a problem for the economy and also a problem for the Treasury, which is already paying$ 1 trillion a year in interest, nearly quadruple the service cost of America’s national debt in 2020.

It also puts a headwind in front of the US economy for interest-sensitive activity, particularly housing. Longer-term, the US runs the risk of an Italian-style spiral, in which the rising cost of debt service eats away at the budget and limits what the federal government can do to support the economy.

Steve Hsu is professor of theoretical physics and of computational mathematics, science, and engineering at Michigan State University, and the founder of several AI startups. Follow him on X at @hsu_steve. David P. Goldman serves as Asia Times ‘ deputy editor. Follow him on X at @davidpgoldman

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SuperReturn Saudi Arabia 2025: A window into Saudi Arabia’s investment ambitions

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  • Saudi home practices playing a crucial role in the privatization of the economy
  • Govt has devotion to regulatory clarity, co-investment options

A panel on govt policies & how economic reforms in Saudi Arabia support the development of a thriving private capital ecosystem.

The first SuperReturn Saudi Arabia conference took place in Riyadh on January 27 to 28th, 2025, and Riyadh was brimming with enthusiasm. This premier private investment event brought together executives in private capital, venture capital, and family offices for two days of in-depth discussions, effective networking, and proper collaborations.

Kicked-off by Abdulmuhsen Alkhalaf ( pic, below ), the Saudi vice minister of finance, who emphasised that the contribution of private investment to Saudi’s GDP had increased from 14.6 % in 2016 to 23.4 % in Q3 of 2024. This reflects a market-friendly and energetic environment that encourages investment in important and appealing sectors of the nation.

His open remarks were followed by precise speeches, which resembled five-minute floor innings, setting the tone for the panels that followed. From general partners ( GPs ) and limited partners ( LPs ) to family office executives and venture capitalists, all of whom were interested in opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA ( Middle East North Africa ) region.

Saudi’s aspirations and dreams are encapsulated in its Vision 2030 plan and progress has been rapid since the plan’s introduction with non-oil activities accounting for 52 % of GDP in 2024 versus 4.9 % ( in 2015 ) before the plan was introduced. Its talent pool has been expanded, and there is more women’s workforce participation than expected ( 36 % ). It was below 10 % before Vision 2030, as women were disallowed to drive ( before September 2017 ) and work ( before 2008 without seeking a guardian’s permission )! SMEs have likewise doubled since 2016, with 45 % owned by Saudis, underscoring a vibrant entrepreneurial habitat.

Abdulmuhsen Alkhalaf (pic, below), the Saudi vice minister of finance who opened the 2-day conference.

Key elements and restaurants

The” People Business” of investment: Investors emphasized the long-term, large-scale commitment required to develop the Kingdom’s economy. Co-investment and collaboration positioning came into play as necessary components for success.

Problems in secret markets: Valuation, fee structures, and achievement persistence were recurring themes, with calls for discipline and clear effectiveness monitoring to create buyer trust.

Tech, AI, and companies: The rollout of AI in Saudi Arabia remains emerging at 2.5 %, creating significant opportunities for VC opportunities. Panelists emphasized the need for localized innovation and unusual talent to promote growth in startups and technology.

Family practices as game-changers: Panel featuring top managers like Fares Al Balwi, &nbsp, Chairman of Saudi based Al Blagha Holding Company for Investment, and Raied Alseif, CEO of Saudi based Sultan Holding Company, who shed light on Saudi family offices ‘ important roles in transforming private markets, focusing on long-term strategies, world co-investments, and concentrated excellent investments.

Opportunities in technology

Nearly every panel focused on the potential for growth, with almost every panel focusing on technology and AI. While an estimated 40 % of VC deployment globally is in AI related startups, only 2.5 % occurs in Saudi Arabia. Soumaya Ben Beya Dridje, Partner at Rasmal Ventures, the first VC firm established in Doha, Qatar, stressed the need for resilience. ” Investments are not for the faint-hearted. GPs must be passionate, patient, and committed to adding real value”.

Gaming and startup industries also took center stage. Abdullah Altamami, founder &amp, CEO of Merak Capital, a Saudi-based VC, highlighted the Kingdom’s cultural alignment with gaming. ” With 50 game studios and a young, tech-savvy population, Saudi Arabia is perfectly positioned to create and export local IPs globally”.

Ibrahim Sagna, Executive Chairman of Silverback Holdings, a Mauritius-based private investments firm, echoed this sentiment. ” Startups are emerging as local champions, scaling to the UAE, India, and beyond. Saudi Arabia has the resources and talent to accomplish all of this and more.

Family Offices: Driving private market transformation

A powerful panel involving Fares Al Balwi and Raied Alseif discussed how family offices are revolutionizing private markets, with Raied urging attendees to embrace co-investments:” Partnerships, whether local or global, thrive on trust and alignment. A long-term view is key to success”.

Hamdi Al Zaim, the managing partner of Saudi-based Alma Limited, described how his holding company, which oversees both an international and local portfolio of investments, has changed its investing strategy. ” Concentration in quality is better than quantity”, he said. ” We’ve shifted from making 6–8 deals annually to focusing on 3–4 high-quality investments. This ensures sustainable returns”.

The two-day event concluded each day with rich cultural showcases, including traditional Saudi coffee, sweet dates, and live performances, providing an authentic glimpse into Saudi Arabia’s heritage. These informal settings facilitated further discussions, turning business connections into meaningful relationships.

Saudi Arabia’s significant influence on the MENA region’s and beyond-related private capital dynamics was highlighted in SuperReturn Saudi Arabia 2025.

Saudi Arabia is quickly emerging as the epicenter of transformative investments, a vibrant and sustainable investment landscape, with SuperReturn acting as a platform to catalyze this evolution, from regulatory milestones to burgeoning industries like gaming, AI, and fintech.

SaudiReturn 2025: A panel on 'How will family offices transform private markets.'

Final Reflections: A global perspective on Saudi Arabia’s ambitions

Participants in SuperReturn Saudi Arabia 2025 reflected on the insights gained and their wider impact on global markets as the curtain came to a close. A senior executive from a major investment firm stated that” Saudi Arabia’s private capital ecosystem is maturing rapidly. The Kingdom has successfully created a climate in which foreign investors are open to competition and who can co-invest in deals and co-invest with family offices and venture capitalists. Those who have been in the Kingdom for the past 20 years, building relationships, connections and trust, see real real long-term potential” .&nbsp,

Strong government support has also made a difference, he added,” The commitment to regulatory transparency, co-investment opportunities, and emerging sectors like circular renewable energy, AI, manufacturing and gaming makes it an attractive destination”.

Looking beyond the Kingdom, the event also sparked discussions on what other nations, including Malaysia, could learn from Saudi Arabia’s transformation. Malaysia can take inspiration from Saudi Arabia’s approach to investment reform because it needs more private equity firms. By aligning policies with long-term investments— such as food security, desalination, hydrogen economy, healthtech, and gaming — Malaysia can attract Saudi’s family offices and scale its own startups to regional, MENA and international markets”, a Norwegian consultant shared.

SuperReturn Saudi Arabia 2025 was more than just a conference; it was also a gathering of the best global PE firms where GPs met LPs to network, exchange ideas, and network with local Saudi pension fund managers and chief investment officers ( CIOs ) from the richest Saudi Family Offices. Countries that want to grow their private markets and become potential future investment hubs could benefit from the Kingdom.

At DNA, Muhammad Adrian Wong serves as a contributing editor.

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Western private equity firms return to Japan – Asia Times

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They’re again. After a break earlier in the new millennium, American private equity firms are increasingly&nbsp, targeting Japan for their Eastern investment techniques. And the Chinese government and regulators have taken bold steps to welcome them and help make Tokyo Tokyo the world’s first global financial hub.

Back in the late 1990s and early&nbsp, 2000s&nbsp, Japan was a favored destination for European alternative property managers. In 1999, for example, Newbridge Capital, co-founded by Texas Pacific Group ( then TPG), took a lot interest in&nbsp, the online service provider&nbsp, Livedoor. &nbsp,

And, in 2000, J. Christopher Flowers and Ripplewood Holdings organized a consortium of investors to purchase Japan’s distressed Long Term Credit Bank, renaming it Shinsei ( translation: &nbsp, “rebirth” ). After Shinsei went public in 2004, the bargain was commonly regarded as one of the most successful private equity investments ever, both in Asia and in the early days of private equity investment. &nbsp,

Curiosity Waned&nbsp, &nbsp,

But by the time of the Great Financial Crisis, American businesses began to find other Asian nations, &nbsp, most notably&nbsp, China and South Korea, &nbsp, more open and welcoming –countries&nbsp, where owners could achieve greater financial returns with fewer regulation roadblocks.

While American investors retreated, Eastern PE money continued to undertake to Japan. The Eastern PE large PAG continued to build its staff and&nbsp, investments&nbsp, in Tokyo. The company bought Universal Studios Japan in 2015 and reportedly exited three years later with&nbsp, a&nbsp, five-times&nbsp, return&nbsp, on&nbsp, their purchase. &nbsp, PAG ‘s&nbsp, most significant investment of late&nbsp, is&nbsp, the&nbsp, largest theme park by physical size, Nagasaki’s Huis Ten Bosch.

Nagasaki’s Huis Ten Bosch topic area. Photo: Japan Guide

One industry observer&nbsp, told Asia Times&nbsp, that&nbsp, while, about a decade ago, &nbsp, there were a few&nbsp, of&nbsp, what he calls&nbsp, one-off “predecessor transactions” &nbsp, by mega&nbsp, global&nbsp, funds &nbsp, including KKR and Bain, &nbsp, Western PE firms&nbsp, had&nbsp, largely&nbsp, remained circumspect&nbsp, about Japan&nbsp, – at least &nbsp, until recently&nbsp, when&nbsp, the country &nbsp, made a conscientious effort to win them back by committing to a series of sweeping&nbsp, regulatory initiatives. These included:

•&nbsp, Implementation of the Corporate Governance Code ( 2015, revisions in 2018 and 2021 ): &nbsp, Introduced to improve transparency, accountability, and decision-making in Japanese corporations, which aligns with international standards, the&nbsp, code encourages companies to have more independent directors&nbsp, to provide companies&nbsp, an outside perspective&nbsp, and&nbsp, commitment to shareholder&nbsp, rights, making Japanese companies more attractive to foreign investors, including PE firms.

The Stewardship Code’s implementation ( 2014, revised 2020 ): This code encourages institutional investors to work with the companies they invest in more, putting an emphasis on shareholder returns and sustainable growth. American PE firms discover working with shareholders that promote the implementation of value-adding techniques.

•&nbsp, Tokyo Stock Exchange&nbsp, market restructure ( 2022 ): &nbsp, This initiative simplified and restructured the TSE into three new segments: Prime, Standard, and Growth Markets. By highlighting encouraging growth sectors, the restructuring aims to define market dynamics, boost market visibility, and draw in foreign investors.

•&nbsp, Guidelines for Corporate Takeovers&nbsp, ( 2023 ): &nbsp, This bold action by The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ( METI ) &nbsp, is designed&nbsp, to facilitate mergers and acquisitions ( including hostile takeovers ), recognizing them as critical to business revitalization and growth. The 2023 Guidelines aim to improve Chinese people M&amp, A practices by incorporating principles like shareholders ‘ intentions and the union’s fiduciary responsibility to make the Asian business manage business more visible to international clients. &nbsp, This directly benefits private equity firms, which&nbsp, are a major driver of email M&amp, A&nbsp, and as a” white hero” alternative to hostile protesters.

Business observers&nbsp, today&nbsp, say the governmental change toward&nbsp, encouraging&nbsp, greater foreign investment is also aided by a poor yen and persistently low interest rates.

Solid rise

The&nbsp, effect on&nbsp, offer growth has been&nbsp, remarkable. &nbsp, The&nbsp, Japanese&nbsp, Private Equity Association and the Japanese Venture Capital Association &nbsp, track the number of&nbsp, private equity&nbsp, offers in the country as well as the price of&nbsp, those&nbsp, purchases. In 2020, &nbsp, there were 96 personal equity&nbsp, deals valued at&nbsp, 1.2&nbsp, trillion renminbi. By 2023, &nbsp, the&nbsp, deal&nbsp, figures and length had jumped to 125 private equity deals valued at 5.9&nbsp, trillion renminbi.

Expediting the re-entry of&nbsp, western&nbsp, secret equity&nbsp, firms&nbsp, has fallen mostly to FinCity Tokyo, founded in 2019. FinCity Tokyo, &nbsp, a public-private&nbsp, engagement, &nbsp, was created to support &nbsp, owners understand and improve value in the novel regulatory environment. &nbsp, Its&nbsp, stated aim is&nbsp, making&nbsp, Japan’s capital&nbsp, an “international monetary centre”.

To do so, &nbsp, FinCity Tokyo&nbsp, coordinates with the government of Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government&nbsp, and 57&nbsp, part companies including business associations, major financial institutions, international investors&nbsp, and&nbsp, service&nbsp, services. The&nbsp, organization&nbsp, also&nbsp, provides proper assistance to&nbsp, financial&nbsp, firms&nbsp, seeking to&nbsp, enter and&nbsp, operate smoothly&nbsp, in Japan. Since 2022, it has helped nine global companies, with goods of almost$ 1.3 trillion, &nbsp, to successfully activate and engage in Japan. &nbsp, &nbsp,

FinCity Tokyo ‘s&nbsp, Executive Director Keiichi Aritomo&nbsp, says one of its tasks is helping international investors secure workers in a tight labour market. The company even covers the costs of hiring new PE investors in search of qualified workers.

Accepting non-family control

The failure of&nbsp, Japanese business owners&nbsp, to establish family succession&nbsp, plans&nbsp, used to strike Western investors as a stigma, &nbsp, but owners now&nbsp, have come to&nbsp, welcome&nbsp, external ownership and professional management by Western buyers. Or, as Aritomo of FinCity Tokyo writes, “private equity firms provide the experience to offset labor shortage with skilled management and productivity gains.”

Bain &amp, Company, in a report published last spring, &nbsp, said&nbsp, that Japan was the leading deal market in Asia-Pacific in 2023&nbsp, with private deals as the dominant strategy, noting “more companies are preferring to go private”. And&nbsp, the&nbsp, capital&nbsp, needed&nbsp, to complete deals via limited partnerships is plentiful. ” There is increasing LP appetite for Japan”, noted Sebastien Lamy, co-head of Bain &amp, Company’s Tokyo-based Asia Pacific PE practice.

PE firm&nbsp, Carlyle, based in Washinton, DC, with investments and operations&nbsp, globally, &nbsp, is&nbsp, also focused on&nbsp, Japan. &nbsp, In a report last September, the firm pointed to the positive regulatory changes, the attractive valuations, the stable political climate and the continued investment opportunities. ” We are seeing many overseas GPs]general partners ] establish offices in Japan for the first time” ,&nbsp, the firm said.

And, in an analysis last year, &nbsp, the management consulting firm, &nbsp, McKinsey&nbsp, &amp, Company, &nbsp, noted that, &nbsp, while&nbsp, Japanese&nbsp, private equity&nbsp, is&nbsp, a growing presence in the financial landscape, the industry still has &nbsp, more room&nbsp, to grow.

Increasingly, western private equity players&nbsp, have gotten&nbsp, the message.

Owen Blicksilver is a private equity-focused public relations executive in New York.

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Trump’s ball of confusion bedeviling global markets – Asia Times

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Global traders are faced with a string each new month that they must play out in real time. As the Donald Trump 2.0 administration hits the ground running in 2025, punters will fight three.

They are: the direction of the US dollar, Xi Jinping’s ideas for the renminbi, and how business tensions may play out in the end.

Making matters worse, each relies in piece on three more imponderables: Trump’s propensity for&nbsp, plan chaos, how China might reply, and the ways in which Washington might react against Beijing’s retaliation— and vice versa.

” As we step into 2025, the global market stands at a perilous juncture, greatly shaped by an overall theme: uncertainty”, says Marcello Estevao, chief economist at the Institute of International&nbsp, Finance.

Estevao adds that “from political choices to plan implementations, the lack of quality emanates mostly from the new Trump presidency. This confusion extends far beyond the United States, permeating world markets, business relationships and regulatory systems”.

This year, Jerome Powell’s board successfully defied the leader, adding urgency to the first wildcard. Trump stated to the crowd in Davos earlier this month that he would “demand that interest rates drop soon.”

In the days before the Fed’s January 29 determination to remain touch, Trump let it be known that lower levels are a vital second-term goal. &nbsp, Team Powell&nbsp, ignored the jawboning, sparking an instant response. Trump even accused&nbsp, Powell’s team&nbsp, of letting diversity, equity and inclusion ( DEI ) considerations get in the way.

As Trump wrote on cultural media:” If the Fed had spent less time on DEI, female ideology,’ clean’ power and false climate change, inflation would never have been a problem”.

Trump complained that “because Jay Powell and the Fed failed to stop the difficulty they created with inflation, I will do it by unleashing American power output, slashing rules, rebalancing global trade and reigniting American manufacturing”.

Investors know better than to reject Trump’s babblings. In his first word from 2017 to 2021, Trump went after his hand-picked Fed chair early and often. Trump encouraged Powell to reverse the Fed’s tightening pattern and reduce costs in 2019. It worked.

Since then, Trump has made a place of slamming the Fed at every opportunity. On the campaign route last October, &nbsp, Trump&nbsp, mocked Powell’s Fed. ” I think it ‘s&nbsp, the&nbsp, greatest job in government”, Trump&nbsp, told&nbsp, Bloomberg. ” You show up to&nbsp, the&nbsp, department once a month and you say,’ this state flip a coin ‘ and everybody talks about you like you’re a heaven”.

Trump&nbsp, even argues that leaders should have a strong claim in financial decisions. ” The Federal Reserve is a very&nbsp, interesting&nbsp, thing and it’s kind of gotten it wrong a lot”, Trump told an audience next year.

He added that,” I feel&nbsp, the&nbsp, leader should have at least stayed that, yeah. I feel that clearly. I think that, in my situation, I made a lot of money. I was extremely prosperous. And I believe I have a better sense of instinct than those who would frequently serve as the president of the Federal Reserve.

Commandeering&nbsp, Fed policy&nbsp, choices may be a way to weaken the money. Trump and his officials make it clear that the Fed’s liberation is in jeopardy. The” Project&nbsp, 2025″ scheme that Republican operatives cooked up for Trump 2.0 includes curbing the Fed’s autonomy.

Some economists believe that a part of the reason for lower rates is because Trump is more easily finance his governmental programs. The$ 1.7 trillion tax cut that Trump signed in his first term and additional cuts that his Republican party is considering are among them.

With the federal loan now topping$ 36 trillion, Trump’s management will need to keep costs as low as possible. However, Trump and the Fed may soon have a strained relationship, which could lead to dollar-neutrality.

The yuan string may be quite&nbsp, Trump-dependent, also. The Xi government is currently restraining itself from stifling the renminbi for trade advantage. Investors have a unique view of China’s path, betting on a strongly lower exchange rate.

In recent months, the difference between 10-year royal Chinese bill provides and similar US securities reached an unprecedented&nbsp, 300&nbsp, basis&nbsp, points. Despite Team Xi’s storm of signal efforts, that’s despite. It suggests owners think&nbsp, China’s worst move of deflation&nbsp, since the late 1990s amid the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis is here to stay.

It suggests, also, that investors think a Taiwanese devaluation was soon rock world markets.

The People’s Bank of China has been keeping a lid on the renminbi for a variety of factors. One goal is to maintain Beijing’s current efforts to devalue the financial system. PBOC Governor&nbsp, Pan Gongsheng&nbsp, may fear that cutting costs does incentivize poor banking and saving decisions.

Another: Property developers could mistake as a result of a weaker yuan because they find it more difficult to pay off offshore debt. Global traders are now keeping an eye on China Vanke’s cash issues.

Putting&nbsp, renminbi internationalization&nbsp, in trouble is another issue. The Xi’s government has been working to improve the dollar’s use in industry and finance for almost a decade.

Beijing stepped up cooperation with the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa— and International South countries to tilt away from the dollar-centric world order.

Reverting to the old beggar-thy-neighbor guidelines may irritate foreign investors. And tarnished the dollar’s chances of securing reserve-currency position.

A weaker rmb could lead to the belief that Japan, South Korea, and other leading Asian nations have the right to ingrain them on trade prices. That could lead to a turbulent descent in money markets. The Trump White House, which is in danger of starting the biggest trade conflict in world past, do not ignore that.

The Trump issue feeds into string No 3: where trade hostilities might keep the&nbsp, world economy&nbsp, by the end of 2025.

This is unquestionably the least foreseeable policy outlook. Trump, after all, continues to change his mind about the direction of US tariffs. One day, they’re coming. The next day, Trump is stating that he hopes taxes on Chinese goods won’t be necessary.

” For the sake of business certainty and visibility, particularly for small businesses, figure out what you’re doing with tariffs as quickly as possible”, Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Financial Group. ” Right now, it’s just a&nbsp, giant global cloud&nbsp, overhead that has businesses around the world on edge”.

The US economy, says Desmond Lachman, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, “is not an economic island, and serious economic problems abroad could come back to harm our financial system, our export sector and adversely impact our companies ‘ earnings”.

According to US media reports, the billionaire brigade surrounding Trump’s second administration is lobbying Trump not to start a&nbsp, tariff arms race&nbsp, with Beijing. The impact of global growth, aside from being inflationary for the US, could devastate the bottom lines of businesses from Amazon to Apple to Tesla.

According to economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics, “any of these suggested tariffs would lead to a rebound in consumer price inflation this year, taking it even higher above target and making it more difficult for the Fed to resume loosening monetary policy.”

II F’s Estevao adds that” the complex interplay of these factors has already begun to reshape expectations for growth, inflation, and investment. The early days of the Trump administration’s second term have been marked by a flurry of executive orders and&nbsp, policy signals&nbsp, that underscore its intent to recalibrate US trade and immigration policies. The administration has indicated plans to target key industries, including European automobiles and Asian electronics, despite not having any new tariffs yet in place.

So far, Trump is keeping markets guessing on China tariffs. Though Canada and Mexico could be hit with&nbsp, 25 % levies&nbsp, on February 1, China appears to be getting a reprieve. Question is, can it last? Many policymakers, investors, and corporate CEOs are hopeful that Trump will prioritize a significant US-China trade agreement over tariffs.

According to ING Bank’s chief economist for China, Lynn Song believes that Trump’s trade war threats are merely” a bargaining chip” in achieving his China policy objectives, which include limiting the flow of fentanyl, agreeing to a deal for a TikTok sale, etc.

Team Trump also may realize that today’s China is markedly less reliant on the US economy than in 2017, when Trump’s first term began, notes economist Louis Gave at Gavekal Dragonomics. China, Gave argues, “is probably more productive than any economy has ever been”.

China’s innovative game, meanwhile, is on display with the sudden emergence of DeepSeek&nbsp, as an artificial intelligence game changer. Nvidia’s shares alone lost$ 600 billion, the biggest deluge of red ink in corporate history.

Investors are pondering how to invest in the remainder of 2025 as a result of the general stock plunge. Vivek Arya, an analyst at Bank of America, says many clients “view the recent selloff as an enhanced buy opportunity” for Nvidia shares.

Others sense that this” Sputnik moment” in AI speaks to China’s huge investments in semiconductors, electric vehicles, renewable energy, robotics, biotechnology, aviation, high-speed rail and other sectors finally gaining traction in ways the Trump 2.0 gang might not realize.

However, asset classes across asset classes will be in control of how this trifecta of risks develops this year. And how much of the dollar, yuan, and Trumpian assaults on the global trading system change.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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Glaring and widening gap in Asia justice – Asia Times

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The Asia-Pacific area is a powerful gateway of economic growth and individual development. Network tower is rising, life expectancy is increasing, hunger is declining, health care and education, albeit with some limitations, are improving.

By contrast, quite remarkable progress is lacking in some areas of management, no least the rule of law and access to justice. In the Asia-Pacific, where millions of people are denied their legal rights, protracted prison without trial is common, and where the court systems frequently lack integrity, transparency, and transparency, the justice system remains a place.

Not everyone is treated equally in court or before a court. In some Asia-Pacific states, women face widespread prejudice, most vividly in Afghanistan. They do not have the same access to authorities as men do, and their judgments frequently disregard their statements and rights. They also do not have the same property rights and inheritance rights as men.

Also, excluded and minority neighborhoods – such as indigenous cultures, persons with disabilities, and remote and displaced populations find access to justice to be a difficult problem, especially in matters of civil justice. And some people in conflict-ridden nations like Myanmar are left without access to formal fairness systems.

Justice is more than regulations and courthouses, it is the basis of capital, respect and resilience. It is a crucial component of social cohesion and unity in areas. Justice is a common fine that must be provided to all, just like it is with healthcare and education.

When righteousness is denied, it is not only an individual who suffers—it is the very fabric of society that is affected. Injustice perpetuates cycles of poverty and isolation, destabilizes communities, and undermines public trust.

Unfairness compounded by corruption, financial crises, and poverty ignites hate, that drives people to rally in the roads, as witnessed just in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Building on fundamental principles, the justice gap in Asia’s then prosperous development story needs to be filled.

Justice systems may be visible and fair to everyone, going beyond traditional authorities. Proper legal systems should coexist more closely with indigenous and conventional laws that have for centuries been the core of community justice across Asia and the Pacific.

Justice for all requires greater appreciation of conventional justice systems that promote diversity and trust, as well as typical law. Inspiration and potential for propagation are provided by powerful examples.

Bangladesh’s Village Courts, for example, enable remote communities to effectively handle daily disputes and develop trust and fairness by providing attainable and reasonably priced justice in remote areas.

Other mechanisms for dispute resolutions you improve justice and, in movement contexts, ease tension. In the Kachin state of Myanmar and the Cox’s Bazar, where local negotiators and civil society organizations are negotiating housing, property, and property rights, as well as work problems, this has happened in the Rohingya tents.

Legitimate assistance and having access to data are a neglected tool for improving justice. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this view proved effective, in countries like Sri Lanka and Fiji, where technology facilitated increased access to legal information, assistance, and guidance, streamlined case management, and addressed the issue of pretrial detention.

Legal assistance and access to information must move away from being a component of a crisis response and toward mainstream justice, as can be seen from these examples.

Justice must also change in order to deal with pressing issues that have been ruled out of court for far too long. Environmental protection and climate change are two of the most obvious examples. In today’s world, justice for the planet is inseparable from justice for the people.

Farmers are losing their land as a result of rising seas, homes are destroyed, and livelihoods are ruined, and air pollution threatens the health of millions of people.

At a recent United Nations Conference on Inclusive Justice Pathways for People and Planet, Richa Shrestha, a young Indigenous climate activist from Nepal, posed a powerful question:” As a law student, I learned to defend freedom of speech and political assembly. But how do I defend the air we breathe”?

Environmental harm, conflict, climate-induced displacement, exclusion, and inequality are not unrelated issues, they are deeply intertwined, leaving millions vulnerable and deprived of basic human rights. Legal frameworks must, therefore, evolve to recognize and enhance environmental justice, address climate-related disputes, and the competence of tribunals linked to environmental cases.

States are currently being sued by citizens all over the world for failing to uphold their legal obligations to protect citizens from climate and environmental issues.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in April of last year that Switzerland had violated the rights of its citizens by failing to address climate change, setting a precedent globally. Similarly, in 2021, Germany’s highest court delivered a historic ruling that deemed the government’s climate legislation insufficient for lacking detailed emission reduction targets beyond 2030.

In Asia and the Pacific, momentum for environmental justice is also growing. Since 2017, there have been more than double the number of climate change-related legal cases in the world, with about a third coming from Asia and the Pacific.

In December 2024, the International Court of Justice held hearings on governments ‘ legal obligations to protect the environment and combat climate change, following a historic 2023 UN resolution spearheaded by Vanuatu, Pacific students and 17 other countries, including Samoa, Vietnam, Micronesia and New Zealand.

The court’s decision is anticipated to be a turning point in climate justice, possibly putting international commitments into action, in 2025.

A legitimate right and a pressing need are justice systems that are fair, truly centered on the needs of the people they are meant to serve in Asia and the Pacific.

Christophe Bahuet is deputy regional director for&nbsp, Asia&nbsp, and the&nbsp, Pacific&nbsp, and director, &nbsp, UNDP&nbsp, Bangkok Regional Hub.

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DeepSeek: Chinese AI model overtakes ChatGPT to top app charts

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DeepSeek, the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the US, UK, and China, has overtaken ChatGPT and another AI competitors.

Since its January release, the app has soared in popularity, challenging the widely held notion that America is the invincible head of the Artificial industry.

It is powered by the open-source DeepSeek-V3 design, which its scientists say was developed for less than$ 6m- significantly less than the trillions spent by competitors.

However, others in the AI storage have disputed this assertion.

After DeepSeek-R1 was launched earlier this month the company boasted of “performance on par with” one of ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s latest models – when used for tasks such as maths, coding and natural language reasoning.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Donald Trump advisor Marc Andreessen described DeepSeek-R1 as “AI’s Sputnik moment”, in a reference to the first artificial Earth satellite that was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

Advanced bits enable AI types like DeepSeek and ChatGPT to be trained.

However, the US government has tightened its ban on selling sophisticated cards to China since 2021.

Chinese AI engineers have shared their labor with each other and experimented with new techniques to the systems in order to continue their work without constant supplies of imported developed chips.

As a result, AI types now require significantly less processing power than they did before. Additionally, it means that they cost significantly less than what was formerly believed possible, which has the ability to destroy the sector.

Shares in AI-related firms based in the US, such as Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta were lower on Monday morning.

According to some estimates, DeepSeek training will cost less than the typical US AI companies.

Vey-Sern Ling, a Singapore-based technology capital advisor, told the BBC:” It could possibly undermine the investment case for the entire Artificial supply chain, which is driven by substantial spending from a small number of hyperscalers.

Citi, a major bank on Wall Street, warned that while DeepSeek may challenge the strong positions of American companies, such as OpenAI, Chinese firms ‘ issues might hinder their growth.

” We estimate that in an undoubtedly more stringent environment, US ‘ access to more sophisticated chips is an benefit”, its analysts said in a statement.

Last week, a consortium of US tech firms and foreign investors announced The Stargate Project, a company which is putting $500bn into AI infrastructure in Texas.

The company was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng in Hangzhou, a city in southeastern China.

The 40-year-old, an information and electronic engineering graduate, also founded the hedge fund that backed DeepSeek.

He reportedly built up a store of Nvida A100 chips, now banned from export to China. Experts believe this collection – which some estimates put at 50,000 – led him to launch DeepSeek, by pairing these chips with cheaper, lower-end ones that are still available to import.

Mr. Liang recently attended a meeting between industry experts and the Chinese premier Li Qiang.

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Making sense of Musk in the White House – Asia Times

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In the new Trump presidency, Elon Musk has gained a reputation as one of the most powerful and contentious powerbrokers. He campaigned alongside Donald Trump throughout the nation and contributed at least US$ 277 million of his own funds to his success.

What does the world’s richest people hope to receive in return from this substantial investment of time and money? Criticism has raised the question of whether Musk’s support for Trump is merely a simple business transaction, with Musk anticipating receiving political favors.

Or does it represent Musk’s personal fairly held social views, and probably personal political ambition?

From left to alt-right

It’s challenging to understand and track how Musk’s social beliefs have changed over time. He’s difficult to pin down, mostly by style.

Musk’s present X supply, for instance, is a bewildering mixture of far-right conspiracy theories about emigration, clips of liberal economist Milton Friedman notice about the dangers of prices, and advertisements for Tesla.

Previously, Musk claims to have been a left-libertarian. He says he voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

Musk claims that as the Democratic party has shifted more to the left over time, giving him a more skewed political outlook than the Democratic party.

Essential to Musk’s political change, at least by his own accounts, is his alienation from his trans child, Vivian Jenna Wilson. After Vivian’s change, Musk claimed she was “dead, killed by the woke thinking virus”. She is very much intact.

He’s since frequently signaled his opposition to trans rights and gender-affirming attention, and diversity, equity and inclusion policies more widely.

However, if the mere presence of a transgender man in his home was enough to elicit a political hegemony, Musk was already on a far-right path.

It makes more sense to understand Musk’s changing politics as part of a much more recent phenomenon known as” the libertarian to alt-right pipeline” than to react to a change in the Democratic Party.

The political technology, explained

Left-wing and right-wing ideologies have previously been the norm.

Left libertarian help monetary policies of limited state, such as cutting taxes and social spending, and restructuring more widely. This is combined with liberal social procedures, such as wedding justice and drug legalization.

By comparison, right-libertarians support the same set of financial plans but hold liberal social landscapes, such as opposing abortion right and celebrating loyalty. The Libertarian Party in America has previously adopted a tense middle ground between the two wires.

The previous century, although, has seen the Libertarian Party, and libertarian more frequently, walk firmly to the right. In particular, some libertarians have played leading jobs in the alt-right activity.

The alt-right or “alternative correct” refers to the new resurgence of far-right social activities opposing diversity, gender equality and diversity, and supporting white patriotism.

The alt-right is a very website movement with its top activists renowned for “edgelording” and “internet trolling,” which is the posting of content that is questionable and provocative to purposefully stoke debate and garner attention.

Though some libertarians have resisted the move of the alt-right, many have been swept along the network, including notable leaders in the action.

Musk Nazi parades

Despite the chaotic posts and Nazi parades, this theoretical discussion can be useful in understanding what Musk’s principles are.

In financial terms, Musk remains a limited-government republican. He advocates lowering fees, lowering government spending, and repealing restrictions, particularly those that restrict his company’s ability to operate.

These objectives are the focus of his formal role as head of the” Department of Government Efficiency” ( also known as DOGE ) in the Trump administration. Musk has suggested that in cutting government spending, he will particularly target diversity, equity and inclusion ( DEI ) initiatives. This is the alt-right impact on screen.

Alt-right tastes are most noticeable, yet, in Musk’s net image. Musk has purposefully stoked discussion on X by promoting and engaging with light nationalists and racist conspiracy theories.

For instance, he has strongly spoken to far-right figures who support the racist” Great Replacement theory.” According to this theory, Jews are urging mass movement to the world’s north as part of a deliberate effort to eradicate the white race.

More late, Musk has endorsed the far-right in Germany. Additionally, he’s shared clips from well-known white supremacists that detail the prejudiced” Muslim grooming groups” crime theory in the United Kingdom.

Whether Musk really believes these absurd prejudiced conspiracy theories is, in many ways, useless.

Instead, Musk’s public comments are better understood as reflecting scientist Harry Frankfurt’s popular concept of “bullshit“. For Frankfurt, “bullshit” refers to statements made to impress or enrage, in which the speaker is merely uninterested in whether or not the statement is accurate.

Much of Musk’s online persona is part of a deliberate alt-right populist strategy to stoke controversy, upset” the left”, and then claim to be a persecuted victim when criticised.

Theory vs practice

Though Musk’s public statements might fit nicely into contemporary libertarianism, there are always contradictions when putting ideology into practice.

For example, despite Musk’s oft-stated preference for limited government, it’s well documented that his companies have received extensive subsidies and support from various governments.

Under a president who is primarily transactional, like Trump, Musk anticipates that this special treatment will continue.

The vexed issue of immigration also presents some contradictions.

Both Trump and Musk repeatedly criticized immigration to the US throughout the campaign. According to Musk, the far-right Great Replacement theory’s themes were reversed when Musk claimed that Democrats had purposefully “replace” the country’s existing electorate with” compliant illegals.”

Musk has argued that Trump should continue to have types of skilled immigration, such as H1-B visas, after the election. This angered more explicit white supremacists, such as Trump advisor Laura Loomer.

Musk’s motives in arguing for the visas are not humanitarian. Temporary workers can enter the country for up to six years with H1-B visas, which leave them entirely dependent on the sponsoring organization. It’s a situation some have called “indentured servitude“.

These visas have been extensively used in the technology sector, including in businesses controlled by both Trump and Musk.

An unsteady alliance

What else can we anticipate from Musk now that he has both political standing and influence?

Musk claimed that Musk’s plan to use DOGE to reduce the US budget by$ 2 trillion would represent a revolutionary change in government. It also seems highly unlikely.

Expect Musk to concentrate instead on provoking debate by reversing DEI initiatives and other politically sensitive initiatives, like those that promote women’s reproductive rights.

Musk will undoubtedly make use of his political influence to protect the interests of his businesses. Following Trump’s re-election, Tesla’s shares reached record highs, suggesting that Musk will be a significant financial beneficiary of the second Trump administration.

In the end, Musk will undoubtedly make the most of his new position to keep himself visible in the general public. This crucial point could cause Musk to conflict with Trump, who is an expert in shaping the media cycle.

Apparently, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have already got into a fight, and they will no longer co-lead DOGE together.

It’s still to be seen how stable the partnership between Trump and Musk is, and whether the two billionaires ‘ egos and goals can still coexist.

If the alliance persists, it will play a significant role in shaping what many people refer to as the “new gilded age” of political corruption and rising inequality.

Henry Maher is lecturer in politics, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Move over CHIPS Act, Stargate is the future – Asia Times

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The US$$ 500 billion Stargate AI system project, which was announced by US President Donald Trump, has sparked media coverage and stoked industry, deflecting attention from the less attractive details of TSMC’s initial chip factory’s opening, and suffocate the more contentious debate over the future of America’s high-tech restoration.

On January 21, the day after his inauguration, Donald Trump made an appearance with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman to make an announcement that artificial intelligence will be the “largest AI system job by much in story… creating over 100, 000 National work about immediately,” as Trump put it. Given some of the responses it has generated, the film went “viral” – a suitable information.

In Abilene, Texas, 10 properties measuring half a million square foot are currently under construction, with additional 10 more on the drawing board, and additional ones will be constructed at locations that are being evaluated nationwide. These data locations may be full of machines equipped with Nvidia’s fresh Blackwell AI chips, which are made by Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s top silicon manufacturer.

” I’m gonna support, a bit, through emergency pronouncements”, said Trump, “because we have an emergency, we have to get this thing built”.

” They have to make a lot of power, and we’ll make it possible for them to get that generation done pretty easily”, he added, “at their personal crops if they want”.

In other words, Trump intends to supersede power regulations that may put off the project, leading to a significant increase in power generation capacity driven by the purchase intentions of a select few big high-tech companies.

Oracle’s Ellison said,” Thank you, Mr President. We certainly couldn’t do this without you”. Altman and Son shared the sentiment. And they probably couldn’t, at least not as quickly and efficiently.

If Joe Biden or Kamala Harris had been attempting the project in the White House, it would likely have been hampered by attempts at social engineering and unionization of the workforce. For the same reason, Stargate is based in Texas, not California.

Masayoshi Son said,” We wouldn’t have decided, unless you won. Yesterday, we agreed. We signed. To achieve this, we would immediately begin deploying 100 billion dollars with the intention of making 500 billion dollars within the next four years, within your mandate.

As explained by OpenAI, the initial equity investments in Stargate will come from SoftBank, Oracle, OpenAI and MGX, the technology fund based in Abu Dhabi. The lead partners are SoftBank and OpenAI, with OpenAI acting as the company’s operational manager and SoftBank as its financial advisor. Softbank’s Son will be the project’s chairman.

Nvidia, Arm ( the British semiconductor design company owned primarily by Softbank ), Microsoft, Oracle and OpenAI are the project’s technology partners. Oracle, Nvidia and OpenAI will build and operate the computing system.

OpenAI has long-standing relationships with both Nvidia and Microsoft. In Japan, Softbank and Nvidia have partnered to set up a nationwide AI grid.

Following Trump to the podium, Ellison, Son and Altman talked about healthcare-related applications from AI-enabled cross-referencing of health records and procedures to cancer detection and treatment, including the development of mRNA cancer vaccines.

But there are other possibilities, including factory automation and national defense. The name Stargate, of course, is reminiscent of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite company.

The stock market approves of the concept. Oracle’s share price was up 7.2 % on Tuesday and another 4.6 % in after-hours trading. The share price of Softbank Group increased by more than 10 % on Wednesday and by another 5 % on Thursday in Japan ( across the International Date Line ). The share prices of Nvidia, TSMC, Microsoft and server maker Super Micro also rose.

Stargate is pitched as a made-in-America-for-America project, but the Nvidia AI processors at the core of the data centers will be made by Taiwan’s TSMC, at first entirely in Taiwan, then partly in the US.

At its new factory in Arizona, where TSMC is most likely to manufacture integrated circuits, on January 10, TSMC began producing integrated circuits for Apple. AMD and Nvidia are likely to be its new customers. For the first time in our country’s history, our country’s leaders are producing cutting-edge four-nanometer chips on American soil, making American workers on par with Taiwan in terms of yield and quality, according to incoming commerce chief Gina Raimondo.

TSMC Chairman and CEO C C Wei, speaking to investors on the company’s 2024 earnings call on January 16, confirmed this:

” We were able to pull ahead the production schedule of our first fab in Arizona, building on the successful result of our earlier engineering wafer production. Our first fab, using N4 process technology and yield comparable to those of our fabs in Taiwan, has already entered high-volume production in 4Q ’24. We anticipate a smooth beginning of the manufacturing process because we are confident that our factories in Arizona and Taiwan will offer the same level of manufacturing quality and dependability.

Wei added that “our plans for the second fab and third fab in Arizona are also on track.” Based on the needs of our customers, these fabs will use even more advanced technologies like our N3, N2, and A16.

In plain English, this means that TSMC will be making 4nm chips in Arizona starting this year and progress to 3nm, 2nm and 1.6nm ( 16-angstrom ), probably by the end of the decade. In terms of 3nm production, TSMC is already ahead of Samsung and Intel, who are both likely to be 1 nm and smaller. TSMC currently makes Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processors using its 4nm process.

All of these process technologies were and are being developed and produced in Taiwan, close to the company’s R&amp, D, and where the procedure is well-established and the capacity is much larger. This suggests that regardless of any agreement Trump has with China, he won’t want to disrupt Stargate’s main production.

A retired Silicon Valley executive and advisor to the US government on the subject of high-tech competitiveness said,” The game with the current administration is zero-sum,” in response to the three executives ‘ praise for Trump.

And that it is given that Trump has already replaced and exceeded$ 500 billion in government funding after cutting more than$ 300 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act and Department of Energy loan programs under his administration, which were then replaced by$ 300 billion from the private sector.

A West Coast venture capitalist who is not a fan of Trump wrote in an email that” It’s all part of the mad scramble for more computing power and energy to fuel it… Remember Trump’s first term. He enjoys planning big announcements, which credit him with making investments that were already planned or that never occur. Everyone tries to ingratiate themselves with Dear Leader, but it’s all part of that. Because that’s what you have to do in an autocratic state” .&nbsp,

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, wrote on X,” They don’t actually have the money. SoftBank has well under$ 10 billion secured. I have that on good authority”. However, if there is one thing Son excels at, it’s raising money. In 2017, Softbank launched the Vision Fund, a technology-focused venture capital fund with more than$ 100 billion in capital – the world’s largest such fund at the time.

For Musk, whose xAI competes with OpenAI and has taken it to court, Stargate is a powerful new competitor. And perhaps worse than that, Ellison, Son and Altman – high-tech moguls like himself – now also have Trump’s ear.

If the build-out of Stargate’s data centers proceeds according to plan, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are likely to lose their first-mover advantage and oligopolistic profit margins in AI-related cloud computing. Oracle, which offers cloud computing services in 25 countries around the world, has a significant opportunity in this regard.

Another critic, physician and biochemist Robert Malone, has published an essay entitled” AI, mRNA, Cancer Vaccines and” Stargate”: Reality check. Curb your enthusiasm, and beware of grifters”.

He writes:” I can’t believe that we are being spoon-fed this hype from the likes of Oracle’s Larry Ellison… Having this guy lecture us on mRNA vaccines for cancer is over the top. &nbsp, This is so amazingly ( and dangerously ) naive that I can hardly believe I am hearing it”.

Maybe so, but Ellison, Son and Altman were delivering a pitch for AI infrastructure, not explaining the technology roadmaps of companies that will use their data centers. They may be overly optimistic, but they are genuinely interested in healthcare and think AI can contribute significantly to the analysis of sizable amounts of medical-related data.

Malone also criticizes “banking some brand-new” cancer moonshot” television programs named after science fiction TV shows.” So, is Stargate a wise use of money or a reckless boondoggle? In reality,$ 500 billion is nearly ten times the$ 52.7 billion in grants and loans provided by the CHIPS Act. Only time will tell.

Follow this writer on&nbsp, X: @ScottFo83517667

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