Eleanor Olcott
@EleanorOlcott
China Tech Correspondent @FT based in Beijing email: eleanor.olcott (@) http://ft.com DM for alt contact
While the world has been hunting for clues about the mysterious DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, I hopped on a plane down to Guangdong to visit the village where he grew up. Liang returned to Mililing 米历岭村 for the Lunar New Year celebration with his family this week.
McKinsey bars China practice from generative AI work amid geopolitical tensions. Scoop by @EleanorOlcott, @TomHale_ & @elleshevakissin ft.com/content/9907da…
Cc: India Inc China is going big into the business of lab-grown diamonds, my colleague @EleanorOlcott reports
Today, most synthetic diamonds are grown in China using the “high pressure, high temperature method”. However, increasingly, manufacturers are using the “chemical vapour deposition method” for larger gems, which builds diamonds layer by layer in a microwave chamber. Graphic…
Zhengzhou makes your iPhone. Now the central Chinese city is churning out cheap lab-grown diamonds for your engagement ring. The prices for synthetic diamonds have plummeted, falling by nearly 90% over the past five years. It is cheaper than ever to buy sparkling stones that…
Answering questions for an hour outside on summer afternoon in Beijing. He does have stamina.
That the Chinese trade negotiators put H20 on the table during talks suggests they're fully aware that domestic chips aren't ready to replace Nvidia. Says a lot.
It’s still funny to me how export controls turn everything upside down. You have Nvidia’s Jensen Huang calling Huawei “formidable.” And then you have Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei saying the US exaggerates Huawei’s achievements and that the company is still a generation behind. How…
Still yet to talk to any engineers here who say Huawei Ascend working for AI training. It’s ok for inference on small models. DeepSeek doing all of their R2 training on Nvidia, can still get hands on enough H100s to scale up their cluster.
BBAT continue to favor NVIDIA chips. Their diversification efforts remain limited, although they are accelerating due to increasing compute demand and export controls.
Last year, China's parcel delivery industry handled 174.5 BILLION packages — equivalent to more than 124 per person.
China makes up around 50% of the global e-commerce market. It’s no surprise that many global trends in e-commerce are coming out of China. Astounding chart from @tejparikh90’s latest FT piece. 1/
From the archives
Fascinating profile of Li Lu by @EleanorOlcott ft.com/content/5308cd…
Happy to be nominated for SOPA Young Journalist alongside fellow badass China tech reporter @QianerLiu
China technology correspondent @EleanorOlcott is nominated for the @sopasia #SOPAwards2025 Award for Young Journalist. From scoops to sharp analysis on China tech, Ellie’s instinct and journalistic edge mark her as one to watch. on.ft.com/43mTJFt
Where will the US-China rollercoaster take us all? Join us on 28 May and put your questions to our expert panel for @FT subscribers with @gideonrachman @EleanorOlcott @oren_cass and @oertel_janka expertly moderated by @DyerGeoff. Register now at ft.com/us-china
SCOOP - Treasury secretary Bessent & Chinese finance minister Lan held a #secretmeeting in the IMF basement 3 weeks ago that helped paved the way for the trade deal reached in Geneva at the weekend #USChinaScoop ft.com/content/a541bd…
The making of the first electro state: Xi's aggressive pursuit of energy self-sufficiency could give China the upper hand in the trade war with the US ... via @FT w @nassos_ @janatausch ft.com/content/f86782…
NEW: Huawei is building a 7nm fab in Shenzhen for its smartphone and Ascend chips, its first effort to manufacture its own high-end chips. The Guanlan site is part of a sprawling network of new chip manufacturing sites all working on various elements of Huawei's push to become…
Some updates regarding Huawei's Ascend 910C According to engineers, porting a model from CUDA to CANN requires a team of about 200 people working for six months, and even then, the performance reaches only around 90% of the original.
An executive of a sanctioned AI company complained to me that they were "sanctioned from profiting from human rights abuses". But after the local government failed to pay their bills, there was no "profit to speak of".
We estimate that over 40% of the FY21 revenues (the time of its IPO) of Chinese AI company, SenseTime (20.HK), were subsequently impaired. But does anyone really care? Seemingly not its auditor @PwC (yes, them again), nor the regulator...