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 😍
Alvin Foo retweeted
✨🇨🇳 Huawei’s new compact foldable laptop has a handy rear external screen. Even the matching keyboard can fold up easily.😯
We chase deadlines.
We chase opportunities.
We chase numbers, titles, recognition, and growth.
Until one day… the body says “Stop.”
And in that moment, all the things that felt urgent suddenly don’t matter.
The calls can wait.
The emails can wait.
The meetings can wait.
Because health doesn’t wait.
Everything is super important. Until you are sick.
Then you realize there was only ever one thing that truly mattered.
Your health is the foundation that holds everything else in place.
Take care of your mind.
Take care of your body.
Rest before you break.
Invest in habits that sustain you, not just your career.
Success means nothing if you’re too unwell to enjoy it.
Health first. Always.
Alvin Foo retweeted
China responds to the claim that a “Chinese female spy” exploited Jensen Huang:
The “Chinese spy” allegation is purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.
Translation:
Stop concocting spy-themed erotic fiction.
The funniest part of this story is the logic.
We are told that China was so desperate for Nvidia chips that it allegedly needed to deploy a female intelligence asset to get close to Jensen Huang and influence his lobbying in Washington.
Jensen Huang did, in fact, spend years urging Washington to loosen chip restrictions on China.
And then Washington loosened them.
So what did Beijing do?
Around 600,000 H200 chips are now sitting in Hong Kong because China has not approved large-scale imports.
Jensen Huang himself has complained that Nvidia went from roughly 95% of China’s advanced AI-chip market to 0%.
So let me understand this:
China was supposedly desperate enough to run a spy operation around Nvidia’s CEO—
but once the chips became available, China decided it would rather keep building its own ecosystem than become dependent on Nvidia again?
That is a very strange definition of “desperation.”
Maybe the problem with this story is not China.
Maybe it is the story.
The U.S. wants two incompatible things from China at the same time.
It wants China dependent on Nvidia and the American AI stack.
It also wants to make sure China never gets enough cutting-edge compute to surpass American models.
So Washington restricts the best chips, then acts surprised when Beijing treats those restrictions as a forced industrial policy for domestic substitution.
And here is the part nobody can ignore anymore:
Without access to the most advanced chips, homegrown Chinese models are already on par with cutting-edge models from the United States.
That tells you that chip supremacy was never the same thing as intelligence supremacy.
The U.S. tried to use semiconductor controls to preserve dependence.
Instead, it gave China the strongest possible incentive to build an AI ecosystem that no longer needs permission from Washington.
That may turn out to be the most expensive strategic mistake of the entire chip war.
You don’t really get it until you’re on one. The trains just… glide. Even at full speed it’s quiet enough that you can talk normally, and the ride is steady enough that a cup of tea doesn’t slosh. Second class is already fine for most trips, clean seats, power sockets everywhere, decent legroom, and the air-con actually works. First class feels more like a nice intercity seat than “train class.”
Business is the one that surprises people: the seats go fully flat, there’s actual space, and they bring you a meal and a blanket without making a big deal of it.
The stations are big and efficient, the trains leave on time, and once you’re moving it feels less like public transport and more like the country just decided to connect itself properly. If you’re in China for more than a few days and you only fly between cities, you’re skipping one of the things that actually feels different from everywhere else.
Alvin Foo retweeted
Jensen Huang: When I started NVIDIA, I had no idea how to build a company. Our first technology failed, we nearly ran out of money, and I had to beg Sega to pay us anyway.
“We wanted to build a computer that could solve problems ordinary computers could not.”
“We had absolutely no idea how to build a company, raise money, or run NVIDIA.”
“I just thought, how hard could it be? It turns out it is super hard.”
“Our first technology didn't even work. We nearly ran out of money.”
“I had to fly to Japan and explain to Sega's CEO that our technology wouldn't work, then ask that they still pay us.”
“I learned early that being CEO is not about power, but the responsibility of keeping the company alive.”
Life is short, dull, and full of pain. The ones still editing the perfect message keep collecting ordinary evenings. The ones willing to risk sounding ridiculous by saying the quiet part out loud occasionally get the interesting ones.
The Plan vs. The Reality
We all start the day with a plan to get things done.
Then come the distractions, endless emails, random Google searches, unfinished tasks and the occasional social media rabbit hole.
But AI is changing the equation.
Imagine having AI help you:
* Research and summarise in minutes.
* Draft emails, reports and presentations.
* Automate repetitive work.
* Organise your priorities and workflows.
* Make better decisions, faster.
The real opportunity isn’t simply using AI to save a few minutes.
It’s fundamentally changing how you work, think and create.
The goal isn’t to work harder, it’s to multiply what you’re capable of achieving.
That’s what we’re building with 10xme, helping executives and professionals harness AI to work smarter, grow faster and unlock their full potential.
Less busywork, more impact.
Find out more: 10xme.biz
Alvin Foo retweeted
🇨🇳BREAKING: Researchers in China achieved internet transmission speeds fast enough to download 20,000 4K movies in ONE SECOND.
The team set a world record in optical fiber transmission by achieving the world’s FIRST real-time, two-way transmission over 1,000 km of hollow-core fiber.
The 1,007.48-km link carried 64 terabits per second in each direction simultaneously, equivalent to 160 movies per second in each direction at 50 GB per movie.
A signal crossed 1,000 km in just 3.43 milliseconds. Light travels through the fiber’s hollow center, cutting travel time by about 30% compared with conventional glass fiber.
This is a massive breakthrough, especially for AI data centers hundreds of kilometers apart, where latency and bandwidth between facilities directly affect the efficiency of large-model training and inference.
Alvin Foo retweeted
What is currently happening in the market seemed impossible prior to today.
On a day where Nvidia, $NVDA, is down -6.5%, erasing -$300 billion in market cap, the Nasdaq 100 is now up +3.2%.
Even as the leader of not only the AI trade, but the broader market, accounting for nearly 8% of the S&P 500, falls sharply, investors are aggressively buying the dip.
Price action over the last 5 days has been a testament to just how powerful the AI Revolution truly is.
Investors are incredibly eager to buy the dip in US technology stocks, even if it means leaving the biggest leader of the AI Revolution behind.
In fact, the AI trade, and the market's rally as a whole, appears to be broadening.
Innovation is at an all-time high and markets know it.
This is the most resilient market in history.
Alvin Foo retweeted
🇺🇸🇨🇳 Trump says he spoke with Jensen Huang TODAY about the alleged Chinese spy at the center of the Nvidia scandal.
He said he did NOT know about the alleged intelligence ties when Huang joined him on the China trip earlier this year.
Trump says he asked Huang directly whether he knew who she was.
“He said, ‘I had no idea that she was a spy.’
I really believe him.”
Writer: Sol
Alvin Foo retweeted
The reduction of extreme poverty in Indonesia has been almost as impressive as China's.
In 1984, 86% of Indonesians lived in extreme poverty. By 2025, that figure had fallen to 3.7%.
I can’t agree more with Shaun on Jensen Huang!
Alvin Foo retweeted
Nvidia’s board stated today that it has found “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised” as a result of Jensen’s actions.
They are initiating an independent investigation overseen by a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, that will examine all available information. This will be an unbiased, exhaustive and thorough investigation given the fiduciary responsibilities of these independent directors.
Jensen said that “I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American.”
I have known Jensen for almost 30 years. I simply do not believe he would ever knowingly do anything to disadvantage either America or Nvidia.
The only thing he has ever said to me about China is the absolute importance of keeping the American hardware ecosystem, led by Nvidia, ahead of China. That’s it.
More detailed thoughts follow below:
Jensen Huang @JensenHuang has spent more than thirty years building NVIDIA from a small graphics startup into the company that sits at the centre of the AI era and one of the most consequential technology successes in American history. The results are plain: the firm under his leadership has become essential infrastructure for the industry.
In his note to employees he wrote: “Leading NVIDIA is the privilege of my life. My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust. I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence.” He also took full personal responsibility for the hurt caused to his wife and children and said he hopes the family can heal.
That is a private matter between him and his family. They deserve the privacy and quiet needed to decide what comes next, without further public speculation. Wishing them peace and the space to find their own way forward.
Jensen’s professional record at NVIDIA is long, public, and exceptional. The personal admission is between him and his family; treating it as further material for media commentary or speculation does not help the company, the employees, or the people most directly affected. The board’s investigation can address any legitimate business or security questions. The rest is not ours to litigate.
BREAKING: Nvidia, $NVDA, CEO Jensen Huang sends a company-wide email regarding his recently reported relationship with a Chinese spy.
Technology over the long run: zoom out to see how dramatically the world can change within a lifetime.
Read more : buff.ly/FQcalfd
