Viola Zhou

TSMC makes the world’s most advanced chips in Taiwan. Geopolitical shifts are pushing it to set up a new factory in the American desert. It needs to bring its cutting-edge tech but also a notoriously harsh, military-style work culture to the U.S. 🧵 restofworld.org/2024/tsmc-ariz…

For @restofworld , I reported on the most sci-fi-like AI vs. AI arms race unfolding during China’s graduation season. restofworld.org/2025/ai-detect…

Billions of $$$ of investment and thousands of satellites: what does the emerging internet satellite industry look like on the Earth and in space Very cool story by @khadijaalam_ restofworld.org/2025/satellite… @restofworld

Why try to smuggle Nvidia chips into China when you can just smuggle training data out? Incredible WSJ report: wsj.com/tech/china-ai-… @lizalinwsj @raffaelehuang

China’s driverless robotaxis are in the fast lane to global ubiquity restofworld.org/2025/robotaxi-…

DJI’s fate could signal how the U.S. weighs risks of Chinese tech, given Beijing's “capacity to control and influence its tech sector” says @EBKania. A ban would hit many users, given DJI’s market dominance, such as in public safety agencies. Read more: restofworld.org/2025/dji-drone…

Great read about the rise and fall of Indian edtech startup Byju’s: a charismatic teacher, maths classes in stadiums, pumped-up valuation.. And the reporter got to ride in a Cadillac with the now-disgraced founder restofworld.org/2025/byjus-own… via @restofworld

Released from jail, China's notorious CRISPR scientist @Jiankui_He is fully in his villain era, with weird tweets and a new marriage with @CathyTie that is now blocked by the Chinese authorities. I looked into the biotech spectacle with @antonioregalado: technologyreview.com/2025/05/23/111…

“DeepSeek has shown us that as long as our product is competitive, we should not worry too much about being a Chinese company.” @kinlinglo’s latest story on how tech startups are tackling the suspicions over their Chinese identities. restofworld.org/2025/deepseek-… via @restofworld

“If next year you buy an iPhone and it says “Made in India” on the box, that phone will not be any less dependent on the China-centric supply chain than any other iPhone you have ever purchased.” Q&A with ⁦@restofworld⁩ ⁦@violazhouyi⁩ restofworld.org/2025/apple-chi…

American companies design robots’ brains, while Chinese companies make their bodies. The chip and tariff wars will hurt both countries’ abilities to mass produce humanoid robots. Story by @kinlinglo restofworld.org/2025/china-us-… via @restofworld

An update to this story from 2022: one of the wedding planners that help same-sex couples marry in Utah is now providing “remote divorce” service. Those who married in Utah via Zoom (including gay couples or straight couples separated by Covid) would have to divorce there, too.

Weeks before Zelensky said men from China are fighting for Russia, a tenacious Chinese journalist spoke to one. For NPR, I interviewed Chai Jing (months after I first tried to contact her for another story). npr.org/2025/04/11/g-s…

Asked @stephenwitt what questions he got while promoting his latest Nvidia book in China and Taiwan. In China: How can my teenage son or daughter become the next Jensen Huang? In Taiwan: “are we all gonna die” is the subtext of every question. restofworld.org/2025/nvidia-ai…

Think semiconductors are spared from the tariffs? Think again. We found that the list of exempted imports contains only a narrow range of items, omitting key products like GPUs, servers, lithography machines. It makes building data centers & chip plants harder. @willknight