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Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

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Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#51

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #39
baybal2 wrote: post #27

American relationship with "Middle Eastern North Korea" must be destroyed, severed, set on fire, and beshamed. Along with Guatanamo base, it's the biggest stain on US credibility in international relations. In other words, US can't dictate its allies who can they make friends with without taking the prickly subject of Saudi Arabia, and its chainsaw prince off the table.

I'm not sure HN is the place for this, but it's not exactly up to me. Calling a country "Middle Eastern North Korea" in the first sentence isn't really conducive to a nice intellectual discussion on the merits of taking Saudi investment though. I guess what rubs me the wrong way about this is that it's very easy to write an incendiary toplevel comment. The story was posted about 35 minutes ago. Looking over the other…

> isn't really conducive to a nice intellectual discussion on the merits of taking Saudi investment though.

"nice intellectual discussion" my ass ... LOL

fuck the Saudis and their money

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#52

Post by jcims »

m0llusk wrote: post #25

Venture capital is only involved with a fraction of development in Silicon Valley. It may be a large and very loud fraction, but it is still just a fraction. On top of that these well known attention getting firms are just another fraction of the whole. Again, very large and loud, but still just a component. Just to call out one potentially interesting exception, much medical device development goes on in Silicon Val…

Quite a bit of Chinese investment though, no? Different thing entirely but may be of interest to some.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#53

Post by mrweasel »

epc wrote: post #36
neom wrote: post #11

When I was fundraising for my startup, after pitching I always emailed to ask about the LPs and if there's any Saudi/oil money in the pool. More than 10 firms just ghosted me after that email, potentially because they think it's poor form to ask about LPs. (edit:We were still able to raise over $3.5MM seed though, so don't necessarily let asking put you off.)

Am an LP in a couple of tiny funds…a lot of the funds have verbiage to the effect that the GP will not reveal any information about LPs except as required by law (I'm not saying that's what happened here, and the firms should have just responded that they don't disclose information about their LPs rather than ghosting you). There's also typically verbiage restricting what LPs can reveal about the fund, a recent one r…

Is it also possible that asking about the LPs, and especially saudi influence, could indicate that the founders has morals that could be “annoying” down the road?

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#54

Post by rhn_mk1 »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #23
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the money brought in by the government does go to benefit the average Saudi Except the oppressed 33% of the population might not actually benefit: https://aeon.co/essays/are-the-persian-gulf-city-states-slav... > Thus attempts to deny Saudi government-led investment schemes ends up impacting normal people, not just the rulers. This is a weak argument, as it could be extended to mean that any government should be su…

The 33% of the population you talk about are foreign gastarbeiter, not Saudis. Certainly they deserve better treatment and an end to the controls compared to slavery. However, even if gastarbeiter were free, they would not necessarily be entitled to the welfare state that Saudis enjoy; it is common even in free countries that foreign workers have limited recourse to benefits. And again, in solving the problem of expl…

While I mostly agree with the rest, this part:

> However, even if gastarbeiter were free, they would not necessarily be entitled to the welfare state that Saudis enjoy

is not the (only) alternative. The alternative is working under better conditions in general, not necessarily in Saudi Arabia. This shines some light on which countries (?) one should cooperate with, in order to make this cooperation benefit average people the most.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#56

Post by formerly_proven »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #39
baybal2 wrote: post #27

American relationship with "Middle Eastern North Korea" must be destroyed, severed, set on fire, and beshamed. Along with Guatanamo base, it's the biggest stain on US credibility in international relations. In other words, US can't dictate its allies who can they make friends with without taking the prickly subject of Saudi Arabia, and its chainsaw prince off the table.

I'm not sure HN is the place for this, but it's not exactly up to me. Calling a country "Middle Eastern North Korea" in the first sentence isn't really conducive to a nice intellectual discussion on the merits of taking Saudi investment though. I guess what rubs me the wrong way about this is that it's very easy to write an incendiary toplevel comment. The story was posted about 35 minutes ago. Looking over the other…

> Calling a country "Middle Eastern North Korea" in the first sentence isn't really conducive to a nice intellectual discussion on the merits of taking Saudi investment though.

The description is accurate and not incendiary at all.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#57

Post by WalterGR »

DSingularity wrote: post #41
chaganated wrote: post #19

Undermining faith in the NATO alliance? Banned! Dismembered a journalist? Welcome! Would you like a tour?

Who undermined faith in NATO?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-content/twitter-r...

Twitter removes hundreds of accounts it says are linked to Iran, Russia, Armenia

"...Twitter said 100 accounts with Russian ties were removed for amplifying narratives that undermined faith in NATO and targeted the United States and the European Union...”

Some are trying to turn this into a “Twitter censorship” story rather than a “Twitter fighting nation-state manipulation” story such as by misrepresent the same Reuters article, e.g. this submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26260438

You can see sites like rt.com and infowars.com pushing the same agenda: https://www.google.com/search?q=undermined+faith+in+NATO

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#58

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

nabla9 wrote: post #29

Money = Power over what is spoken and done. Think about this: MSB meets Bezos and gives him a video that installs spyware into his smartphone. MSB taunts Bezos about his extramarital affair before it's widely known. Then his affair is leaked to the press. Bezos thinks MSB might be involved in the process that led to revealing the information. MSB kills one of Bezos's employers. Bezos flies Turkey to meet his fiancee…

I'm wondering how many similar cases there are involving politicians where some sort of video (using a toilet, squeezing a pimple and eating it, having sex [or related activities like water sports ... the mysterious Trump tape], nudes, Epstein's peado island, ...) is being used for blackmailing and influencing political positions. I mean attempting this is almost risk-free and simple for a well organized group of hackers, criminals and spies. All you they need is access to a camera in the right place. It's so easy that I have difficulties not coming to the conclusion that such dynamics play an active role in decision making.

If you have a video of a politician having sex with an underage person or doing something disgusting - how far will s/he go to make sure this video is never going to be published.

... and I didn't even put on my tin foil hat.

Re: Silicon Valley Runs on Saudi (2019)

#60

Post by mrweasel »

codq wrote: post #34
paulcole wrote: post #16

> What does it mean for American innovation to be backed by oil wealth? > Uber. WeWork. Flexport. Slack. MapBox. DoorDash. Chat app? Office rentals? Adding a layer of ripping off restaurants to food delivery? If this is the “American innovation” the Saudis want a piece of, let them have it.

It's probably less about raw "innovation" and more about integrating themselves within the fabric of American society. This achieves simultaneous financial investment and political insurance.

Honestly is most likely just about spreading investment. They know that, or most, of these investments will fail, but those who survive will make up for the loses.
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