China, China, China. Breaking Down China’s Tech Surge | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner

Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week, they dive deep into China’s explosive innovation across AI and EVs, the rise of open-source models, lessons for U.S. competitiveness, the real story on tariffs and trade—and what America must do to win the global tech race. Enjoy another episode of BG2!

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:20) OpenAI, Anthropic, Private Market Overheating

(03:30) China's Role in the Global Tech Order

(04:50) Why Bill Went to China

(06:40) Dan Wang's Breakneck: Engineers vs Lawyers

(10:30) Xiaomi, BYD, and Auto Innovation

(14:00) Factory Productivity, Automation, and the Jobs Debate

(15:20) Open Source Model Culture in China

(19:30) Can the US Compete Without Reform?

(23:30) Tariffs, Trade Deals, and a Path to Cooperation

(28:00) Waymo, Baidu, and Cost Innovation

(33:00) Is China Winning Global Trade?

(36:30) Debunking the Subsidy Narrative

(38:30) What the CEOs Who Visit China Actually Say

(41:30) China's AI Ecosystem: DeepSeek, Qwen, Alibaba Cloud

(44:00) Open Source in China and the US: Strategic Choices

(48:00) VC Pullback from China & What's Still Happening on the Ground

(53:00) China's New K-Visa vs US Skilled Immigration Policies

(56:30) Gurley: Read Dan Wang’s Breakneck, Watch the Ground Game

(01:03:00) VC Pullback from China

Show Notes:

Open Source Development in China https://merics.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/MERICS%20Primer%20Open%20Source%202021_0.pdf

Lei Jun 2024 Annual Speech: https://www.youtube.com/live/l5f3wvLwLXY

Produced by Dan Shevchuk

Music by Yung Spielberg

Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com

Follow:

Brad Gerstner @altcap https://x.com/altcap

Bill Gurley @bgurley https://x.com/bgurley

BG2 Pod @bg2pod https://x.com/BG2Pod