Hacker News with Generative AI: Silicon Valley

Peter Thiel's Deep Ties to Trump's Top Ranks (bloomberg.com)
A billionaire tech entrepreneur who used his wealth and influence in Silicon Valley to help Donald Trump win the presidency has deep connections to the new administration’s efforts to remake the government.
Politics, Silicon Valley, Donald Trump, Business, Government
15 points by 4ndrewl 1 day ago | 1 comments
The Hottest AI Companies Are "Apps" (bloomberg.com)
Forget LLMs. Silicon Valley investors have a new favorite AI play.
Artificial Intelligence, Startups, Silicon Valley, Venture Capital
3 points by zuhayeer 2 days ago | 0 comments
Sixty Hours a week? How about 4 uninterrupted hours a day? (cdibona.substack.com)
Again, a silly news story leads to me yammering about some of my time in the Silicon Valley. If you want to get to the meat of my response to Sergey’s memo exhorting employees to work 60 hours a week to usher in the next great age of AGI, scroll down a page or two….
Work-Life Balance, Productivity, Silicon Valley, Artificial Intelligence
19 points by mji 2 days ago | 0 comments
Who's Afraid of Peter Thiel? A New Biography Suggests We All Should Be (2021) (time.com)
Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel is famous for destroying media outlets, not paying taxes, and being a conservative tech billionaire. A new biography, The Contrarian, suggests that he is after more than riches. TIME chatted with its author, journalist Max Chafkin.
Biographies, Business, Politics, Silicon Valley
140 points by zfg 4 days ago | 215 comments
Scientist Left OpenAI Last Year. His Startup Is Already Worth $30B (wsj.com)
Silicon Valley’s hottest investment isn’t a new app or hardware product. It’s one man.
Artificial Intelligence, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, Silicon Valley
10 points by gwintrob 4 days ago | 1 comments
Techno-Fascism Comes to America (newyorker.com)
When a phalanx of the top Silicon Valley executives—Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Google’s Sundar Pichai—aligned behind President Trump during the Inauguration in January, many observers saw an allegiance based on corporate interests.
Politics, Technology, Silicon Valley, Social Commentary
67 points by greenie_beans 10 days ago | 17 comments
We don't need startups, we need Digital-Mittelstand (mertbulan.com)
Label it a cargo cult or something else, but countless nations strive to replicate the magic of Silicon Valley. The typical approach involves politicians designating a city and branding it as the “Silicon Valley of [Country Name].” They establish technology parks, offer financial incentives, and hope for the emergence of trillion-dollar enterprises. Yet, no country has succeeded in creating its own Silicon Valley. Why?
Startups, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Germany, Silicon Valley
137 points by mertbio 13 days ago | 236 comments
Why Silicon Valley is bringing eugenics back (disconnect.blog)
Elon Musk has been warning about population decline and smaller families for years. In his 2015 biography, he’s quoted as saying, “if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that’s probably bad.”
Silicon Valley, Eugenics, Population Decline, Elon Musk
13 points by zzzeek 21 days ago | 5 comments
Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley (nytimes.com)
When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen.
Silicon Valley, Religion, Tech Industry, Christianity
6 points by archagon 24 days ago | 6 comments
Silicon Valley Is Embracing Christianity (With the Help of Peter Thiel) (nytimes.com)
When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen.
Silicon Valley, Christianity, Peter Thiel, Technology, Religion
18 points by cpymchn 25 days ago | 11 comments
Oral History of Andy Bechtolsheim (2015) [pdf] (computerhistory.org)
Oral History, Technology, Silicon Valley, Entrepreneurship, Computer History
19 points by stmw 29 days ago | 6 comments
Andreessen Horowitz Defends Hiring of Daniel Penny to Its Investors (nytimes.com)
Partners at Andreessen Horowitz, the blue-chip venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, defended to investors their decision to hire Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide last year, according to an internal memo viewed by The New York Times.
Venture Capital, Law, Business, Silicon Valley
21 points by jrflowers 30 days ago | 18 comments
DeepSeek's rise shows why China's top AI talent is skipping Silicon Valley (restofworld.org)
Facing visa hurdles and high living expenses, more of China’s AI researchers are choosing opportunities at home rather than abroad.
AI, China, Silicon Valley, Talent, Technology
14 points by billybuckwheat 31 days ago | 0 comments
The Inefficiency of Greed: How DeepSeek Exposed Silicon Valley's Tech Bros (medium.com)
Once heralded as the birthplace of transformative technologies and disruptive innovation, Silicon Valley now feels more like an overpriced flea market for recycled ideas. The tech bros, cloistered in their gilded towers, seem more interested in influencing elections and hoarding venture capital than nurturing the homegrown talent that could actually keep the U.S. competitive on the global stage. Enter DeepSeek — a Chinese AI company that may have exposed the limits of Silicon Valley’s imagination and its rapacious greed and inefficiency.
Artificial Intelligence, Silicon Valley, Business, China, Technology
36 points by zackmorris 33 days ago | 12 comments
Why big tech turned right (vox.com)
Democrats have paid a political price for taking on Silicon Valley — but not a very expensive one.
Politics, Technology, Silicon Valley, Democrats
11 points by scarface_74 36 days ago | 9 comments
Silicon Valley Phrases in 100 Playing Cards (almossawi.com)
Silicon Valley, Culture, Technology, Games
8 points by almossawi 40 days ago | 1 comments
China's AI Earthquake: How DeepSeek's Surprise Model R1 Shook Silicon Valley (neuronad.com)
China’s AI Earthquake: How Deepseek’s Surprise Model R1 Shook Silicon Valley
China, Artificial Intelligence, Silicon Valley, Technology, Competition
7 points by imatrix 41 days ago | 5 comments
Democrats Drove Silicon Valley into Trump's Arms (nytimes.com)
Marc Andreessen explains the newest faction of conservatism.
Politics, Silicon Valley, Conservatism, Technology
7 points by sdeer 42 days ago | 6 comments
Marc Andressen: How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley into Trump's Arms (nytimes.com)
Marc Andreessen explains the newest faction of conservatism.
Politics, Silicon Valley, Trump, Conservatism
12 points by Ozarkian 49 days ago | 12 comments
How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley into Trump's Arms (nytimes.com)
My guest is one of those tech leaders, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. For decades he was, in his words, a “good” Democrat. But now he’s been spending time at Mar-a-Lago and advising on Trump’s transition.
Politics, Silicon Valley, Donald Trump, Democrats
15 points by reducesuffering 50 days ago | 8 comments
Meta lawyer Mark Lemley quits AI case citing Zuckerberg 'descent' (bloomberglaw.com)
California attorney Mark Lemley dropped Meta Platforms Inc. as a client in a high-profile copyright case because of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” the Stanford University professor said on LinkedIn.
Legal Cases, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, Silicon Valley
47 points by jsheard 53 days ago | 42 comments
The Path of Our Lives (steveblank.com)
For almost half a century I’ve lived and worked in Silicon Valley. I was lucky to be present at the creation of the technologies that now drive our economy and have transformed the world – for better and worse – the first microprocessor companies, the first personal computers, the first Internet applications, as well building supercomputers, consumer electronics, and systems for national defense.
Silicon Valley, Technology, History, Entrepreneurship
23 points by sblank 53 days ago | 8 comments
Cory Doctorow: Tech's benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline (pluralistic.net)
Silicon Valley's "authoritarian turn" is hard to miss: tech bosses have come out for autocrats like Trump, Orban, Milei, Bolsonaro, et al, and want to turn San Francisco into a militia-patrolled apartheid state operated for the benefit of tech bros:
Politics, Technology, Authoritarianism, Silicon Valley
11 points by moritzruth 55 days ago | 2 comments
Silicon Valley homeless nonprofit sues Microsoft over disrupted email access (mercurynews.com)
One of Silicon Valley’s largest homelessness nonprofits has sued Microsoft to compel the tech giant to restore access to the nonprofit’s email accounts, claiming the nearly month-long outage has impeded its day-to-day operations and ability to connect homeless people with needed services.
Nonprofit Organizations, Lawsuits, Technology, Microsoft, Silicon Valley
5 points by pizza 59 days ago | 0 comments
Silicon Valley Tech Investor Orchestrated Takedown Plot of Startup Toptal (cnbc.com)
Silicon Valley, Venture Capital, Startups, Business
39 points by persnicker 60 days ago | 7 comments
Musk, Ramaswamy defend Silicon Valley's foreign-born hires (thehill.com)
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-chairs of President-elect Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” are defending the tech industry’s reliance on foreign-born engineers as the incoming Trump administration prepares to crack down on immigration.
Politics, Technology, Immigration, Silicon Valley
40 points by moosedman 72 days ago | 18 comments
Trump supporters demand ban on H1B Visa and fewer Indians in Silicon Valley (indiatoday.in)
The appointment of Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the White House has ignited a political firestorm.
Politics, Immigration, Technology, Silicon Valley
35 points by dtquad 72 days ago | 10 comments
China's AI elite rethink their Silicon Valley dream job (restofworld.org)
China’s elite AI tech workers are at a crossroads.
China, Artificial Intelligence, Employment, Silicon Valley
7 points by Brajeshwar 79 days ago | 0 comments
David Sacks' Intellectual Journey (eriktorenberg.substack.com)
David Sacks is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of PayPal. As an early member of the "PayPal Mafia," he has been a prominent voice in Silicon Valley for over two decades. In this wide-ranging conversation with Erik Torenberg, Sacks discusses the transformation of Silicon Valley's culture, the rise of tech censorship, and the future of institutional reform.
Silicon Valley, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Censorship, Institutional Reform
8 points by paulpauper 87 days ago | 0 comments
The PayPal Mafia is taking over America's government (economist.com)
On the night of December 7th San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, with its lakeside colonnade echoing a Roman ruin, turned into Mar-a-Lago, as Silicon Valley’s newly emboldened right-wingers gathered for a Christmas bash organised by the All-In podcast.
Politics, Silicon Valley, Technology, Social Media
145 points by Anon84 88 days ago | 173 comments