Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure • Hacker News Board

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#31

Post by chewbacha » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

In conjunction with the trade wars and increasingly hostile posturing between leaders, I'm nervous that the ultimate consequence may be war between super powers.

If raising the number of trading partners decreases the likelihood of war, decreasing may increase it's chance instead.

https://phys.org/news/2015-12-partners-wars-nations.html

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#32

Post by snarfy » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #10

ulfw wrote: post #7

Do all of you have WSJ and NYTimes subscriptions? I can't read any of those links submitted quite frequently

Click the 'web' link.

that hasn't worked in a long itme

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#33

Post by Causality1 » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

Even if the Chinese government never interfered with a single company, I don't want Chinese corporate culture "leeching into the groundwater" as it were. They put Europe and the US to shame when it comes to not giving a damn. About safety, the environment, intellectual property, you name it.

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#34

Post by PakG1 » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

antiviral wrote: post #16

Here is a snippet of the article, which I am posting under the Fair Use Act (I think you should all consider a subscription): "Silicon Valley startup Pilot AI Labs Inc. signed a Chinese-backed venture-capital firm as its first big investor. By last summer, Pilot AI wanted it gone. The U.S. startup hoped to sell more of its artificial-intelligence software to the U.S. government after working with the Pentagon, accord…

That's a horrible example. Of course that's not going to wash. Of course an investor would not be willing to sell back their stake before seeing the return they were looking for. If they wanted to sell AI software to the US GOVERNMENT, they should have found US investors. If they couldn't, then investors from US allied nations. They should have seen this coming a mile away, no?

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#35

Post by internet_user » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #27

rawrmaan wrote: post #17

Good. We raised Series A from Chinese investors a few years ago and they were toxic. Not to mention the political implications of enriching countries like China and Saudi Arabia. In hindsight would have rather closed up shop than taken their money.

Could you elaborate? What made it toxic?

Yes, please elaborate. +1

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#36

Post by C1sc0cat » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

mediaman wrote: post #5

Leary wrote: post #3

What is the legal basis, if any, for getting rid of your investors for this or other reasons?

There isn't. In order to get rid of an existing Chinese investor, you have to work out a deal. If the investor really likes their investment, the terms will have to be fairly attractive to the investor to exit.

I would expect that there are national security laws that could be used if not explicit nationalisation.

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#37

Post by bduerst » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

omginternets wrote: post #27

rawrmaan wrote: post #17

Good. We raised Series A from Chinese investors a few years ago and they were toxic. Not to mention the political implications of enriching countries like China and Saudi Arabia. In hindsight would have rather closed up shop than taken their money.

Could you elaborate? What made it toxic?

Not GP, but I've pitched to a crossover fund from China and they were super seedy. On top of having a questionable website and other investments, one of the red flags was they wanted their engineers to review our source code before/without signing any NDAs or commitments.

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#38

Post by parliament32 » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:25 PM UTC

Why would you post the paywalled version of the link?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-cash-is-suddenly-toxic-...

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#39

Post by kirubakaran » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #37

omginternets wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate? What made it toxic?

Not GP, but I've pitched to a crossover fund from China and they were super seedy. On top of having a questionable website and other investments, one of the red flags was they wanted their engineers to review our source code before/without signing any NDAs or commitments.

You were surprised that China has red flags?

(Thank you, I'll be here all week)

Re: Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. Pressure

#40

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Jun 11, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

Which is amazingly hypocritical coming from the same administration that just passed a tax cut that will get us deeper in debt with much of that debt being held by the Chinese government.