The Future of Frontier Tech is Being Written--In Chinese

From chip design to quantum breakthroughs, China’s technological surge is reshaping the global balance

Good morning,

Elon Musk has embarked on a fundraising frenzy seeking $500M for his brain-computer interface company Neuralink and $20B for xAI. Suddenly his shell game involving xAI’s acquisition of his social media company X for $45B, last month, makes even more sense, now.

A month ago, we described that acquisition and highlighted how he was able to use it to mask underlying losses in the social media company and tout new synergies. This move also provided some liquidity to his backers in the 2023 acquisition of the company, then known as Twitter. And, it pumped up the pre-money valuation of xAI so that when he reached out to investors, hat in hand, he could justify a larger fundraise and less equity dilution.

All in all, it was a pretty deft maneuver. And, as Peter Thiel once said, you should never bet against Elon Musk.

Elsewhere in frontier tech, China is moving at lightspeed as it researches and implements technology. A study from the Emerging Technology Observatory at Geor…