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UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

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Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#41
post #35
post #3

Reading between the lines of his quote, my guess is he's angling for some cash from the government, by securitizing the tech sector. It won't work, because the treasury feels that spending money, like eating people, is always wrong. It won't cost any politicians anything when the bits and pieces of the UK tech sector go down the pipes, because their fortunes rest entirely on house prices, and the opinions of the fine…

> It won't cost any politicians anything when the bits and pieces of the UK tech sector go down the pipes, because their fortunes rest entirely on house prices, People want to live (and buy housing) where there are good jobs.

> People want to live (and buy housing) where there are good jobs.

That sentence is fundamental.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#42
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don’t be surprised when dozens of African and Asian countries choose China over Western interests if push comes to shove. And don't be surprised if they don't. Even if China has a lot of frenemies on its border in Asia, every country in Asia has some fear over China, and this often pushes them to improve their relationship with the USA (e.g. Vietnam). Even Russia and North Korea have some antagonism with China. Non…

1. China has been building out their railroad net for years now, both internally and reaching outwards 2. Those synergize with the loans. They are not "some" loans 3. Cultural exports have been going on for a while, though it has not been as successful as South Korea or Japan 4. China has been seriously wooing back Western-educated citizens to head R&D in a variety areas, for the past ten years or so. Quality-of-life…

> 7. China needs to secure a supply of crude oil

Wonder how that's coming along. I'm sure those African countries will stand up for China even when they can't get any oil.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#43
post #20
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No nation, anywhere on the planet, is by itself technologically sovereign. The ability to get by in the world is a cooperative venture for everyone, even the US. What makes first tier technological nations different is the alliances of which they are active contributing members. Those alliances make trade flow smoothly and securely. That is what creates prosperity in an interconnected world. That is especially import…

China also has a security agreement with the Solomon Islands. While a tiny nation in and of itself, the use of the islands by the Chinese navy allow for quite a bit of force projection into the pacific. It would be very hard, for instance, for the U.S. to use their navy to defend Australia or Taiwan.

The international airport in Honiara is called “Henderson Field” and not whatever name the Japanese gave their airfield. Based on historical precedents, it might be premature to say that a naval base in the Solomons means game over for Australia.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#44
Well, the nerds aren't the super rich here. It's still about public schools and old money and people who studied law or the classics or at least graduated from Oxbridge. The big money in software is all from the world of finance and there's nothing tech about them - no heart or vision except how to make a faster trade.

So who will foster a company that's not going to make money for 10 years?

I think there's also an attitude here that "having failed ever" is a black mark against a person. We really need to believe that experience is helpful and that would require some kind of cultural/personality change which I think are difficult.

Occado is potentially interesting - a lot of technology there - but it has had a lot of the "praise and then trash" kind of attention and it probably just needs to invest a lot more.

Arrival is another interesting one which might or might not make it but we should be hoping that it does and trying hard to enable it.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#45

I don’t know anything about ARM, but is the IP ownership a big deal compared to the manufacturing? My first reaction was to think I’d do everything possible to keep ARM as a domestic company, but does it even make a difference if they don’t actually produce (ex:) CPUs? I can’t run my workload on IP. The expertise is worth something though. We’ve seen that in Canada with companies like Nortel. Once those companies are…

> but is the IP ownership a big deal compared to the manufacturing?

Yes, it is.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#46

It sounds to me like he doesn't actually say that. In the article: >The UK has “no chance in hell” of becoming technologically sovereign Well which is it, having our own Tech champs or being technologically sovereign? Because they're totally different things. To be honest I'm not sure any country apart from China stands any chance of becoming technologically sovereign. Like what does that mean? Do we need to mine our…

This is not how the article approached technologically sovereign at all, as is this is just a strawman argument. No one proposed that sovereignty is about producing everything from scratch yourself. Here's the actual excerpt: > One question countries have to ask themselves if whether they have all the critical technologies needed to run a country and its economy. > “The answer for Britain” is “absolutely no, there is…

Do you mind explaining more clearly the difference between your understanding of what the article means, and what the GP wrote? They seem pretty similar?

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#47
post #3

Reading between the lines of his quote, my guess is he's angling for some cash from the government, by securitizing the tech sector. It won't work, because the treasury feels that spending money, like eating people, is always wrong. It won't cost any politicians anything when the bits and pieces of the UK tech sector go down the pipes, because their fortunes rest entirely on house prices, and the opinions of the fine…

> the treasury feels that spending money, like eating people, is always wrong

I feel the Treasury would be more likely to hand out free soylent green than start spending money

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#48
post #44

Well, the nerds aren't the super rich here. It's still about public schools and old money and people who studied law or the classics or at least graduated from Oxbridge. The big money in software is all from the world of finance and there's nothing tech about them - no heart or vision except how to make a faster trade. So who will foster a company that's not going to make money for 10 years? I think there's also an a…

> The nerds aren't super-rich here. It's still about public schools and old money and people who studied law or the classics

At tech companies? I think not.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget Autonomy for $11B which turned out to be a fraud. Herman Houser and Mike Lynch are still good friends.

Amazing how slow the wheels of justice turn for rich people. He was ruled to be extraditable in summer 2021, lost his appeal in Dec 2021, the UK Home Secretary approved it in Jan 2022, and as of Sep 2022, still has not been extradited or seen a day of prison. For crimes committed in 2011 or before! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lynch_(businessman)

Not for everyone. I knew his CFO's wife and that guy went to jail for a bit. Entertaining stuff, for sure.

Re: UK Has ‘No Chance in Hell’ of Making Its Own Tech Champs: ARM Founder

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don’t be surprised when dozens of African and Asian countries choose China over Western interests if push comes to shove. And don't be surprised if they don't. Even if China has a lot of frenemies on its border in Asia, every country in Asia has some fear over China, and this often pushes them to improve their relationship with the USA (e.g. Vietnam). Even Russia and North Korea have some antagonism with China. Non…

> beyond a some loans for infrastructure made by Chinese companies. You say that like it's not a big deal, but it is. The Belt and Road initiative precipitated major shifts in geopolitics.

I don't think the Chinese have bought as much goodwill as they think they have, and right now many of those loans are going south fast, so it will be a real cost.
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