Lingling Wei

and China have been negotiating and renegotiating their terms on critical minerals used to make your iPhones, laptops, military jets and more.

We'll have more questions from my newsletter subscribers after the break.

Welcome back.

Now let's get our question from Ram Ramanathan in Houston, Texas.

Thank you, Rem, for your question.

So let's be blunt, Rem, there is no simple resolution here.

The compromises you see now, those are very temporary measures, essentially for both sides to just buy time to build up their respective industrial independence.

The US is investing billions of dollars in things like trips manufacturing and cutting critical mineral deals with partners like Australia and Canada.

And the goal for the United States is a China-free supply chain for the most sensitive technologies.

And for China, it is simultaneously pouring billions, if not trillions, into its own self-sufficiency.

So in the long run, it appears as though the two systems are simply going to drift apart in the most strategic areas, a managed economic divorce.

I also posed Ram's question to Victor Wong, the founder and managing partner of Aimtop Ventures in Silicon Valley.

Victor's firm invests in early-stage technology startups focused on AI and robotics, among other areas.

So, Victor, what do you think?

So in terms of the Chinese strategy, obviously, in the long run, what they're aiming for is a system that doesn't require imports of a lot of foreign stuff.

But in the near to medium term, they still need

access to advanced American technology.

So their strategy right now is, you know, let's slow down the decoupling for as long as possible so that they can keep getting the stuff.

Fascinating.

Thank you so much, Victor, for your time.