The innovative soil by the river

01

A Question

Whenever a new wave of technological innovation arrives, people's expectations for cutting - edge cities often revolve around finding a towering Mount Everest.

For example, Shanghai, at the forefront of development, when will it produce a giant in the intelligent era?

source: unsplash

This question focuses on the height of a single peak. In fact, today's Shanghai is presenting an answer that continuously elevates the altitude of the entire mountain range.

Shanghai has exceeded the development goals of the 14th Five - Year Plan ——

In 2025, the scale of Shanghai's integrated circuit industry is expected to exceed 460 billion yuan, doubling in five years. The goals of the 14th Five - Year Plan have been completed ahead of schedule.

This means that the coordinated progress of Shanghai's entire industrial chain has silently raised the altitude of the core industrial mountain range for the arrival of the intelligent era.

Next, it's about the density of the peaks ——

At the beginning of the 15th Five - Year Plan, in just over a month, five AI companies in Shanghai went public, including Brionix Technology, Muxi Co., Ltd., and Dayu Zhixin in the GPU field; as well as Xiyu Technology, a large - model enterprise, and Insilico Medicine, an AI pharmaceutical company.

An AI industrial plateau where more technological pioneers can climb has quietly emerged. Shanghai can achieve this largely thanks to ——

Today, in China, Shanghai is doing something that Silicon Valley has never done.

source: unsplash

In the narrative of the history of science and technology, Silicon Valley is often regarded as a temple that cannot be surpassed and can only be imitated.

After all, when Intel, AMD, and Apple went public in the 1970s and 1980s, Shanghai was still struggling with program - controlled switches in the "fixed - line era". In 1980, China's telephone penetration rate was 0.43%, less than that of the United States in 1900. When Jensen Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993, Shanghai had just successfully developed the No. 7 signaling version (CDE5X), which just boosted the telephone penetration rate in rural areas across the country.

With a head - start advantage of more than half a century —— starting early, developing early, and producing giants like NVIDIA earlier, Silicon Valley has the most abundant foundation in the AI era today.

But a fact often overlooked is:

NVIDIA and others actually emerged in "the previous era" —— the computer and Internet era. At that time, the United States was in high spirits, and Silicon Valley had abundant power and active venture capital, truly providing the most favorable soil for entrepreneurs globally.

After that, the story is well - known to everyone. China has achieved what many thought was impossible. Etchers have been developed. The C919 is flying into a broader sky. Chang'e 6 has brought back lunar soil. Tianwen has sent back data from tens of millions of kilometers away.

Today, Shanghai is not only the collaborative center for hardcore industries such as integrated circuits and large aircraft, but also has huge and diverse vertical industry scenarios. Equally important, in the intelligent era, relying on the country's overall strategy, Shanghai has built a complete AI innovation ecosystem covering infrastructure, policy guidance, open scenarios, and capital linkage.

In contrast, Silicon Valley's industrial ecosystem is increasingly becoming a "winner - takes - all" situation —— computing power and capital are highly concentrated in a very small number of star enterprises.

All this means that today, Silicon Valley is still an important pole in global AI development. But looking to the future, in cultivating the industrial ecosystem for the vast majority of enterprises, Shanghai is doing something that Silicon Valley has never done.

Based on the real industrial cultivation soil provided by the two cities, let's assume what two equally practical AI entrepreneurs would encounter when they come to Silicon Valley and Shanghai?

02

Silicon Valley's "Killing Line" and Shanghai's "Super Team"

Entrepreneur A in the AI field, holding a doctoral degree from a prestigious university and having technological ambitions, along with his partners, ventured into Silicon Valley empty - handed ——

They believed that this was the place where dreams took off, with a gathering of venture capital and numerous legends.

In the first few months, everything met Entrepreneur A's expectations. In a shared office space in Santa Clara, the team successfully secured an investment.

The problem arose after the team completed small - scale algorithm verification. At this point, large - scale pre - training was necessary, which required a large amount of computing power. Success or failure hinged on this. Without investing a huge amount of computing power, it was impossible to produce a competitive product.

In Silicon Valley, Entrepreneur A had only one choice —— to burn money.

Currently, there is no federal or city - level "public computing power pool" in the United States. For small and medium - sized enterprises and individual developers to use high - performance computing power, the only way is to spend a fortune.

Whether renting GPUs from AWS, Azure or purchasing chips from NVIDIA to build their own clusters, it is an astronomical bill for small and medium - sized enterprises.

source: giphy

After Entrepreneur A and his partners managed to scrape together enough to get through the computing power hurdle, electricity became another obstacle.

In fact, in the core area of Silicon Valley, two super data centers are still idle —— the SJC37 facility of Digital Realty in Santa Clara and the project of Stack Infrastructure in the local park. Both have been unable to start due to a lack of electricity.

"Starship Knowledge Creation" has previously reported that the end of computing power is electricity. The US power regulatory agency has warned that in the next decade, half of the United States may face insufficient power supply.

Today, even the giants are struggling with their own power consumption. Google has had to spend a large amount of money to restart an old nuclear power plant in Iowa, and Microsoft plans to rebuild the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. As for small and medium - sized enterprises like Entrepreneur A, it is even more impossible for them to get any power support.

The final "blow" came from a direction Entrepreneur A never expected —— exorbitant legal fees.

To be fair, Silicon Valley is not completely ignoring the struggling small and medium - sized enterprises. Generally speaking, there is a lack of computing power and electricity, but there is still some money available.

Most of this money comes from Silicon Valley's rich financing foundation, and a small part comes from the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the relatively meager Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR).

But to get this money, there is a necessary prerequisite: behind every cent, there are numerous rules and regulations. Before getting the life - saving money, the cash - strapped Entrepreneur A first felt the iron fist of capitalism —— to understand the terms, he had to pay legal fees first.

Generally speaking, it is common for a startup in Silicon Valley to pay tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees each year.

Entrepreneur A's company went bankrupt on a cold Christmas night.

He finally had time to stroll around the streets of Santa Clara.

Sometimes, like Sanmao in the old society, Entrepreneur A stared longingly at NVIDIA's futuristic triangular glass building, where the computing power he craved was flowing. Sometimes, like the little match girl, he fantasized: If there was a place where there was never a shortage of electricity, and there was a free "public computing power supermarket" with a wide range of products, where both large and small enterprises could have access. There would also be free legal services, publicity, free consultations and sales...

There couldn't be such a place. Entrepreneur A thought that if there was, it must be heaven.

According to relevant data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US unemployment rate reached a four - year high in 2025. Unemployed Silicon Valley programmers still have to face extremely high living costs.

source: pexels

Entrepreneur Zhang in the AI field, with technology and a practical spirit, ventured into Shanghai with his partners.

Since the day his company was registered, Entrepreneur Zhang found that there was an invisible "super team" around him. It would always give him a hand at the most critical moments for his enterprise.

Entrepreneur Zhang is from a technical background and has skills. Soon after moving into a science and technology industrial park in Shanghai, he received a "computing power package" from Shanghai. This was not something he figured out on his own, nor did he pay a consulting company. Instead, the policy service team of the industrial park took the initiative to inform him. He originally thought that getting this money would require filling out countless forms and running around multiple departments. However, he found that Shanghai's public service platforms, public computing power supermarkets, and the computing power vouchers and model vouchers being issued... Everything was as ready as infrastructure.

It was also easy to find like - minded industrial partners. The company next door was working on voice technology, and the one upstairs was involved in chip development.

As the enterprise grew, the technology needed to be implemented. But which large enterprise would easily open up scenarios for the unknown Entrepreneur Zhang? Just when he was worried, relevant departments in Shanghai organized an "Industrial AI Scenario Matching Meeting". At the meeting, a parts supplier raised a pain point —— and Entrepreneur Zhang's product could solve it.

Finally, the most exciting moment arrived. The enterprise entered a critical financing period, and Entrepreneur Zhang couldn't sleep at night. At the critical moment, Shanghai's "national team" investment team took the initiative to approach him. Although they didn't understand the technical details, based on their solid industrial knowledge and in - depth research, they finally decided to support him —— tens of millions of yuan in strategic investment was in place.

Entrepreneur Zhang is a fictional character, but the things that happened to him can all find prototypes in the enterprises interviewed by "Starship Knowledge Creation" recently ——

The heart - warming story happened to Insilico Medicine, an AI pharmaceutical company in Shanghai.

Insilico Medicine was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 30, 2025.

Ren Feng, the CEO of Insilico Medicine, told us about an incident during the listing process:

In the summer of 2024, the trading in the innovative drug market was sluggish, and the financing winter continued. Insilico Medicine urgently needed effective means to withstand the cold.

At the critical moment, Shanghai extended a helping hand. Recognizing the technological value of the enterprise, Pudong Venture Capital Group injected tens of millions of US dollars in strategic investment into Insilico Medicine. This investment, to some extent, strengthened market confidence and led to subsequent follow - up investments.

Companies such as Brionix Technology and Muxi Co., Ltd. have also received financing support from Shanghai.

Photography: Starship Knowledge Creation

Shen Yichen, the CEO of Lightelligence, a photonics chip company, told us how Shanghai became the company's "golden sales team".

With the simultaneous development of ASIC, photonics, and quantum chips, NVIDIA GPUs will no longer be the only option. Among them, photonics chips are characterized by high computing efficiency and low power consumption, which may enable domestic computing power to find a broader independent path.

But in the cutting - edge field, there is a very real problem: how to find the first customers for new products?

This time, Shanghai became Lightelligence's "sales team". The company's optical interconnection products were able to find application scenarios and pilot customers in Shanghai first. Lightelligence has implemented thousands of cards in the all - optical direct - connected super - nodes in Shanghai Yidian.

source: pexels

Lightelligence is located in Zhangjiang. Shen Yichen said that many industry partners are members of the "Zhangjiang Semiconductor Football Group".

"Starship Knowledge Creation" also checked this football group, and there is very little public information. It seems to be a rather mysterious sports organization for outsiders.

But for people in the industry, Zhangjiang's rich and systematic cultural and sports activities —— the 17 - year - old "Zhangjiang Happy Run" and the "Zhangjiang Youth Sports Meeting" that has been held for ten consecutive years —— can provide more opportunities to find like - minded partners.

These are just a small manifestation of the agglomeration effect of Zhangjiang on enterprises.

Photography: Starship Knowledge Creation

Another company with a similar experience is LightBase Technology. Its core product and key research direction are also photonics AI computing power chips ——

In 2026, LightBase Technology will launch its second - generation optoelectronic fusion computing card. Currently, the chip is in the tape - out process through cooperation with the Shanghai Integrated Circuit R & D Center. The relevant person in charge of the enterprise said that achieving some results in the field of photonics AI computing power is inseparable from the environment in Shanghai:

Shanghai's complete integrated circuit