Op-Ed: What Silicon Valley must sacrifice to curb China’s exploitation of U.S. tech startups
In 2017, China’s state-funded tech firms grabbed a third of all new venture capital funding in the U.S., according to the Kauffman Foundation. Last month alone, according to Crunchbase, the top five U.S.-based Chinese tech giants raised $3.1 billion in new funding.
The rise of the Chinese tech giants has been aided by the massive infrastructure of their companies, which have enabled them to establish hubs in Silicon Valley. Their global ambitions have enabled them to build global teams and global operations.
China has been aggressively expanding its dominance across Silicon Valley since 2012. After initially resisting the threat, Silicon Valley and the rest of the tech sector have started to grapple with the changing geopolitical landscape facing the United States.
China has gained influence because of its growing economic and technological power, its aggressive development of artificial intelligence, its growing ability to use the government to influence businesses and its aggressive expansion of its global presence through technology and the internet.
China has been aggressively expanding its dominance across Silicon Valley since 2012
China has been aggressively expanding its dominance over Silicon Valley since 2012. That’s because it has been able to tap into the economic boom and innovation that has marked the U.S. for decades.
As companies continue to grow in China and use the power of their data storage, algorithms and analytics to identify customers and competitors in the U.S. market, China faces a challenge in competing by adapting. That is, in turning the innovation it has built in its growing companies into real competition. In the process, it risks being pushed back behind its doors.
At least that’s the perspective that TechRepublic’s Chris Wilson believes is taking shape. Wilson, CEO of the Washington-based tech consultancy Digital Frontier Foundation, is writing a series of blog posts on the topic. The pieces will be published through the end of the month.
We’ve been following his efforts with interest, and we asked Wilson to write the following op-ed in response to some of the questions that other Silicon Valley luminaries, like venture capitalist Mike Volpi, have been asking.
We asked Wilson to outline why the Chinese tech giants are posing a threat to Silicon Valley.
Yes, and they have succeeded in stealing the innovation that Silicon Valley has built since the ’80s when the Internet was just starting to