Kevin Xu

Wootton Wawen Railway Station

Founder and Writer at Interconnected

Building/Investing @ Interconnected Capital; Writing @interconnect_ed; ex. GitHub, PingCAP, Obama White House/Commerce Dept; no one's quant

Articles

($) Oracle Cloud: the Largest "Chinese Cloud" in America?

1 week ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

The first (known) phone call between Trump and Xi since the inauguration finally happened this week. Soon after the call, the new round of negotiation will take place in London on Monday, June 9th. A new wrinkle is added to the negotiation dynamic – Commerce
Contours of a US-China Tech Grand Bargain

2 weeks ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

The first (known) phone call between Trump and Xi since the inauguration finally happened this week. Soon after the call, the new round of negotiation will take place in London on Monday, June 9th.
“Overachievement”: Xiaomi's Decade-Long Chip Development Journey

1 month ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

Today’s post is a translation and transcreation of an article published by Jiemian News, a Chinese language tech outlet, that profiled Xiaomi’s homegrown chip-making backstory. While I rarely do translations, this article was sufficiently interesting and included some fascinating insights and anecdotes behind the overnight success of Xring O1, Xiaomi’s recently released flagship chip, that was a decade in the making.
“Overachievement”: Xiaomi's Decade-Long Chip Development Journey

1 month ago | interconnect.substack.com | Kevin Xu

Today’s post is a translation and transcreation of an article published by Jiemian News, a Chinese language tech outlet, that profiled Xiaomi’s homegrown chip-making backstory. While I rarely do translations, this article was sufficiently interesting and included some fascinating insights and anecdotes behind the overnight success of Xring O1, Xiaomi’s recently released flagship chip, that was a decade in the making.
($) Is 2025 the Year of the AI RIF?

1 month ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

Topics: AI • ($) Is 2025 the Year of the AI RIF? AI RIF is the best, if not only, form of walking the walk to show what AI can really do Kevin Xu Author and founder of Interconnected. See "About Interconnected" for more information. More posts by Kevin Xu. This post is for paying subscribers only Subscribe now Already have an account? Sign in
($) Is 2025 the Year of the AI RIF?

1 month ago | interconnect.substack.com | Kevin Xu

This post is for our premium members only. If you are reading this in full, thank you for being an Interconnected Premium member! If you aren’t, I hope you become one by scrolling down and tear down that paywall!RIF, or Reduction in Force, is one of these euphemisms in corporate tech culture that gets used to soften the narrative blow every time layoffs happen.
The Middle East Swings to American AI

1 month ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

About a year ago, I wrote a post calling the Middle East – specifically Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – the “swing vote” of the global AI competition between the US and China. Last week, it looks like this swing vote has swung decidedly towards the US, at least for now. Trump’s four-day swing through the three countries – the first major foreign trip of his 2nd term – had all the relevant CEOs of leading AI companies in tow, ready to take purchase orders.
The Middle East Swings to American AI

1 month ago | interconnect.substack.com | Kevin Xu

About a year ago, I wrote a post calling the Middle East – specifically Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – the “swing vote” of the global AI competition between the US and China. Last week, it looks like this swing vote has swung decidedly towards the US, at least for now. Trump’s four-day swing through the three countries – the first major foreign trip of his 2nd term – had all the relevant CEOs of leading AI companies in tow, ready to take purchase orders.
Benchmark Invests in Manus: VC Math vs Geopolitics Math

1 month ago | interconnected.blog | Kevin Xu

About a month ago, I got early access to Manus, the AI agent product made by the Chinese startup, Butterfly Effect, that briefly went viral globally. A month later, Bloomberg scooped that Benchmark, a leading Silicon Valley VC firm, invested to fuel the company's growth. (I wrote an earlier post on how Manus stacks up against GPT and Gemini as a hypothetical junior analyst, if you are interested in a product review.)The investment, if true, is of course notable.
($) Huawei's Global AI Ambition: The Core Depends on The Soul

2 months ago | interconnect.substack.com | Kevin Xu

A version of this essay was first written a few weeks ago as a contribution to a closed-door workshop hosted by a leading DC think tank on Huawei’s global AI strategy. It is updated with the latest developments on Huawei, Nvidia, and export control. This is for our premium members only.

Contact details

Emails

[email protected]

Socials & Sites

Try JournoFinder For Free

Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →

X (formerly Twitter)

Followers: 11K
Tweets: 8K
DMs Open: Yes

Kevin Xu @kevinsxu

28 Jun 25

cooked

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

Increasingly think this might be the most important chart in the world right now https://t.co/d3ELANKEhI

Kevin Xu @kevinsxu

27 Jun 25

A factoid that Jensen Huang likes to share is that China has 50% of the global AI talent. The source of this “50%” came from the MacroPolo project. The more precise number is actually 47%, or as @damienics who ran the MacroPolo project points out: it's 47% of the top 20% talent

Kevin Xu @kevinsxu

26 Jun 25

Uber to help TK buy the US subsidiary of Pony AI. What a fascinating deal if true! $PONY Uber is already an investor in WeRide, a Pony competitor, and is slated to add another $100m into $WRD this year Robotaxis war is heating up! 🔥 https://t.co/Grb3vlelSN