Venture Partner | ex-Google | Decoding AI • Motivational stories on innovation & resilience • Tesla/SpaceX insights 🚀
Joined February 2007
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Huawei Built a European Palace for 35,000 Researchers, Then Spent $28 Billion on R&D in a Single Year
I walked into what looked like a European palace.
Marble floors. Crystal chandeliers. Gilded railings. Classical statues. Vaulted ceilings that belong in a ministry building in Vienna or Paris.
Then the giant screen lit up with the Huawei logo.
This is not a government building.
This is Huawei’s Shanghai research campus.
A self-contained research city with lakes, landscaped grounds, modern laboratory blocks, elevated walkways, and its own internal light-rail system. Designed for 35,000 researchers. Current density is already extreme: roughly 80% hold a master’s degree or higher. About 10% are PhDs. Throw a stone and you hit advanced technical talent.
In 2025, Huawei generated CNY 880.9 billion in revenue.
It spent CNY 192.3 billion on R&D, 21.8% of total revenue, roughly US$27.9 billion.
That single-year R&D outlay exceeds the entire GDP of multiple countries with larger populations.
Total employees: ~213,000.
R&D headcount: 114,000 (53.7% of the workforce).
Most companies and most nations still treat research as a residual. Huawei treats it as the core operating expense.
The result is not just beautiful architecture. It is sustained technological capacity under pressure.
This is the case study that matters.
Resource allocation at this intensity, sustained for more than a decade, produces outcomes that incremental budgets and short-term political cycles cannot match.
Have you visited a corporate campus that genuinely changed how you think about what’s possible?
Video produced and edited by Arianne, my beloved daughter 😍
Pressure is a privilege.
We often complain about pressure, but forget that pressure comes with opportunity.
Nobody expects much from someone they don’t believe in.
The bigger the responsibility, the higher the expectations. And the greater the opportunity to grow.
Diamonds aren’t formed in comfort. They’re formed under pressure.
So don’t run from pressure. Learn to thrive under it.
Because sometimes, pressure isn’t a burden. It’s proof that you’re playing at a higher level.
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Alvin Foo retweeted
Jensen Huang and the Nvidia board just made a massive mistake.
He should not have resigned.
The board should have taken the time to conduct a thorough investigation, consult with shareholders, and carefully evaluate the long-term implications of this decision.
There is no clear replacement for Jensen Huang, and we believe his departure will ultimately be a net negative for Nvidia, $NVDA, and its shareholders.
This will go down as the most costly mistake of the AI Revolution.
Alvin Foo retweeted
🇨🇳🇺🇸 Jensen Huang's affair just set off a GOLD RUSH for Nvidia chips in China.
Chinese AI firms are scrambling to secure Nvidia computing power overseas before Washington closes the loophole.
The U.S. bans exports of Nvidia's top chips to China, but Chinese companies have found a workaround: rent them from data centers abroad.
Now they fear the spy scandal could shut that door too.
A major Chinese cloud provider has already discussed reserving overseas Nvidia capacity, while smaller AI labs are reportedly looking to Southeast Asia.
The threat is the Remote Access Security Act, which would target exactly this workaround.
It passed the House 369-22 back in January. The Senate has been sitting on it for 10 months.
Meanwhile, grey-market traders in China are reportedly stockpiling restricted Nvidia chips.
One affair, one alleged spy, and suddenly a bill nobody cared about is back on the table.
Source: Reuters / Writer: Julie
We spend so much of our lives trying to prove ourselves to ourselves.
To achieve more.
To earn more.
To collect titles, status, recognition.
But at some point, the question shifts from:
“What does my life mean to me?”
to
“What does my life do for others?”
Impact > Achievement.
Contribution > Validation.
Legacy > Success.
When your work lifts others, inspires others, or simply makes someone’s life a little easier, you’ve already won.
Your value isn’t measured by how big your life looks from the outside,
but by how deeply your life touches others on the inside.
That is the real game.
And that is where meaning lives.
Credit : Simon Sinek
This High Low Buffalo thing is such a simple way to skip the usual small talk. High, low, and one random interesting detail, suddenly the conversation has somewhere real to go.
Alvin Foo retweeted
"My partner Charlie says: there's only 3 ways that a smart person can go broke -- he says 'liquor, ladies and leverage'" - Warren Buffet
Agents now make up the majority of web traffic, write more than half of new articles published online, and generate most of the code pushed to production.
This is what the early stage of a platform shift looks like: adoption is measurable, but the business models it enables mostly aren’t visible yet.
Welcome to the agent economy, most of that traffic is still dumb bots, not real agents. The part that matters is when they start spending money.
Agents now make up the majority of web traffic, write more than half of new articles published online, and generate most of the code pushed to production.
This is what the early stage of a platform shift looks like: adoption is measurable, but the business models it enables mostly aren’t visible yet.
Welcome to the agent economy.
a16z.news/p/welcome-to-the-b…
Alvin Foo retweeted
We began this Fortune interview by unpacking 3 misconceptions about China’s AI development: that Chinese open models cannot be monetized, that China competes as a unified entity, and that export controls will constrain the development of Chinese AI. We then broadened the conversation to explore the key ideas and insights behind my new book, AI Native.
youtube.com/watch?v=3FggIG15…
There comes a point in life where you stop performing for the world and start living for yourself.
Anthony Hopkins said it beautifully:
“It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.
I am what I am, and I do what I do.
I expect nothing and accept everything.”
When you release the need for validation, something powerful happens:
•Your mind gets quieter.
•Your decisions get clearer.
•Your energy stops leaking into things that don’t matter.
You start choosing yourself, not to prove, not to impress, but to live in alignment.
Most people struggle not because others are judging them,
but because they are busy judging themselves through the eyes of others.
The moment you let go of that…
life becomes lighter. Simpler. Freer.
Not everyone will understand your journey.
Not everyone is meant to.
But you know when you’re walking the path that’s yours.
And that’s enough.
Alvin Foo retweeted
雷军的防绯闻管理，值得大佬们学习。雷军创业以来，从未传出绯闻。
原来，小米总部有套独特的防绯闻规则，女员工不得单独进董事长办公室，文件交接需三人同行，工作、讨论要保持一米距离，会议室的百叶窗全年不拉。
在财产关系上，雷军与妻子深度绑定，名下37家企业都同时登记了妻子张彤的名字，小米上市时，两人共同持股。
据小米员工爆料，在公司庆功宴上，雷军的第一杯酒永远敬给坐在角落的夫人，手机屏保也一直是两人的大学合影。
雷军妻子张彤出生于湖北省武汉市蔡甸区，毕业于武汉大学，是汉阳一中的状元，大学期间与雷军相识并成为初恋女友，后来结为夫妻，并育有至少一名女儿。
虽然半场不能开香槟，但我相信，看着老实巴交的雷军，在防绯闻问题上能够坚持到终场。黄仁勋事件再度提醒，大佬们尤其应该管住自己的腰带。
Alvin Foo retweeted
🚨𝗠𝗔𝗝𝗢𝗥 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: David Beckham is reportedly exploring a sensational move to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Inter Miami in January, with the intention of pairing him alongside Lionel Messi.
Beckham’s biggest motivation is reportedly to fulfil Ronaldo’s long-standing dream of sharing the same pitch with Messi before both legends retire.🐐
