Henry V Bao Lachaux

Intimate conversations on how to scale your company from our very own @techstars founders, @davidcohen & @dbrown. #FounderCon2017

Together let’s rise with Vietnam 🇻🇳. Grateful to be building @10nexusglobal starting right here at home. #Vietnam #homebound #schwarzmanscholars #sciencespo #Hanoi

Fast forward 12 years later, this month Schwarzman Scholars alumni came to Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi to discuss the rise of Vietnam as an emergent leader in Southeast Asia.

Full Circle Moment ⭕️ I remember meeting Stephen A Schwarzman at the @sciencespo Benefit Gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York in 2013. In this picture, we were discussing the launch of his @SchwarzmanOrg program, modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship at @UniofOxford.

It definitely felt like a full circle moment for me, to witness these conversations in the new Vietnam, the place I left more than 20 years ago, and now have come back to build something new. 🏡

Read the full post at henryvbao.substack.com and join in on the conversation.

Let’s design our Reset, not just survive it. I’ve taken multiple sabbaticals and transitions in my career 🏝️. Each one led me to new destinations and adventures. If you’re in that season now, trust it. Follow the breadcrumbs. And know that you are in great company. Together, let’s unlock the power of Purpose and our Superpowers. 🦸🏻‍♂️

Every chapter of life requires a different version of ourselves. The universe doesn’t give us what we want, the universe gives us who we are. If we aim for particular goals, objectives, or things in life, we ought to become and step into that version of ourselves that deserves these in the first place.

I am so sorry that the U.S. is letting down our friends and allies. Broad tariffs, implemented not just against adversaries but also steadfast allies, will damage the livelihoods of billions of people, create inflation, make the world more fragmented, and leave the U.S. and the world poorer. AI isn’t the solution to everything, but even amidst this challenging environment, I hope our community can hold together, keep building friendships across borders, keep sharing ideas, and keep supporting each other. Much has been written about why high, widespread taxes on imports are harmful. In this letter, I’d like to focus on its possible effects on AI. One silver lining of the new tariffs is that they focus on physical imports, rather than digital goods and services, including intellectual property (IP) such as AI research inventions and software. IP is difficult to tax, because each piece of IP is unique and thus hard to value, and it moves across borders with little friction via the internet. Many international AI teams collaborate across borders and timezones, and software, including specifically open source software, is an important mechanism for sharing ideas. I hope that this free flow of ideas remains unhampered, even if the flow of physical goods is. However, AI relies on hardware, and tariffs will slow down AI progress by restricting access to it. Even though a last-minute exception was made for semiconductors, taxing imports of solar panels, wind turbines, and other power-generation and -distribution equipment will diminish the ability to provide power to U.S. data centers. Taxing imports of servers, cooling hardware, networking hardware, and the like will also make it more expensive to build data centers. And taxing consumer electronics, like laptops and phones, will make it harder for citizens to learn and use AI. With regard to data-center buildouts, another silver lining is that, with the rise of generative AI, data gravity has decreased because compute processing costs are much greater than transmission costs, meaning it’s more feasible to place data centers anywhere in the world rather than only in close proximity to end-users. Even though many places do not have enough trained technicians to build and operate data centers, I expect tariffs will encourage data centers to be built around the world, creating more job opportunities globally. Finally, tariffs will create increased pressure for domestic manufacturing, which might create very mild tailwinds for robotics and industrial automation. As U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance pointed out in 2017, the U.S. should focus on automation (and education) rather than on tariffs. But the U.S. does not have the personnel — or know-how, or supply chain — to manufacture many of the goods that it currently counts on allies to make. Robotics can be helpful for addressing a small part of this large set of challenges. Generative AI’s rate of progress in robotics is also significantly slower than in processing text, visual data, audio, and reasoning. So while the tariffs could create tailwinds for AI-enabled robotics, I expect this effect to be small. My 4-year-old son had been complaining for a couple of weeks that his shoes were a tight fit — he was proud that he’s growing! So last Sunday, we went shoe shopping. His new shoes cost $25, and while checking out, I paused and reflected on how lucky I am to be able to afford them. But I also thought about the many families living paycheck-to-paycheck, and for whom tariffs leading to shoes at $40 a pair would mean they let their kids wear ill-fitting shoes longer. I also thought about people I’ve met in clothing manufacturing plants in Asia and Latin America, for whom reduced demand would mean less work and less money to take home to their own kids. I don’t know what will happen next with the U.S. tariffs, and plenty of international trade will happen with or without U.S. involvement. I hope we can return to a world of vibrant global trade with strong, rules-based, U.S. participation. Until then, let’s all of us in AI keep nurturing our international friendships, keep up the digital flow of ideas — including specifically open source software — and keep supporting each other. Let’s all do what we can to keep the world as connected as we are able. [I had written this letter before the 90 day pause on the tariffs, but am sharing this here since many of the points are still relevant depends on what happens next.] Original text: deeplearning.ai/the-batch/issu…

Super excited to moderate a panel with #AI experts and speakers from @AntlerGlobal and @asianhustlentwk tomorrow evening, April 5th at the Hive Villa Saigon. #Vietnam 🇻🇳 has been a pioneer in the #Web3 revolution with the likes of @SkyMavisHQ and @AxieInfinity. We’d like to bet that it will be home to defining AI companies of tomorrow, too. See you and the entrepreneur community at our fireside chat tomorrow 🔥 ➡️ Register: lnkd.in/gkQ4gwwt #generativeAI #startups #chatGPT #community #Antler #AHN #TheHiveSaigon

Just posted a photo @ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam instagram.com/p/Cnua7WyhKx6/…

Just posted a photo @ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam instagram.com/p/CnmTaBrht8_/…

Just posted a photo @ Burning Man instagram.com/p/CnmQs2sB7jG/…

Back in San Francisco. ❤️🌈🦄⁣ ⁣ #goldenhour #sf @ San Francisco, California instagram.com/p/Ci6eEh8LIPs/…

On top of Los Angeles 🇺🇸⁣ ⁣ And falling in love ❤️… with the City of Angels 🦋⁣ ⁣ #LosAngeles #LA #californiadreaming @ Hollywood Hills instagram.com/p/CiuYMtHrIO-/…

Just posted a photo @ Burning Man instagram.com/p/CitZXx7JNQp/…

“Travel is the healthiest addiction. Life is short, the world is wide.” 😌⁣ ⁣ Where to next? Oh the joy of travels and adventures.⁣ ⁣ #travel #globetrotting #letsgo ✈️❤️ instagram.com/p/CimJgENOQS7/…

Just posted a photo @ San Francisco, California instagram.com/p/Cil1GdSLSa6/…