Ryan McMorrow

Brilliant read on all the ways that Elon is exerting his control over SpaceX in the upcoming IPO by @sjhmorris @GeorgeNHammond @rwmcmorrow. It’s like a corporate governance masterclass in reverse. Investors are lapping it up anyway.

The FT spoke to Henry Kravis and George Robert as KKR turned 50. We spoke about the private markets they helped create and which now face a crunch, and how their once rebel partnership had changed the corporate mainstream before ultimately entering it. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/ac…

SCOOP: Meta is building its own OpenClaw equivalent to carry out everyday tasks for its billions of users The advanced assistant will be powered by its new Muse Spark model It comes after OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger chose to join OpenAI over Meta as.ft.com/r/e9dea469-e3d…

@dakekang Congrats Dake, well deserved!

Sharing some truly surreal news: My colleagues and I have won the Pulitzer prize for International Reporting. An incredible honor. And a real team effort. pulitzer.org/winners/dake-k…

@immichaelwang @byersblake Good point

@rwmcmorrow @byersblake Voters thinking about second order effects is a tall ask. See LA's "mansion" tax that actually made building 5+ units impossible.

Unfortunately, those in power in Sacramento seem blind to second order effects. We are now in a situation where this wealth tax is very likely to pass. This means founders who control their companies through super voting shares (instead of ceding control to VCs) need to start preparing to leave the state. I wish we could entice more founders to come and build here instead of forcing people away. The top 1% of earners pay 40% of income tax (CA actually has the most progressive income/cap gains tax system in the world). If we could double that 1% group (by building people up and recruiting people here), we’d increase our taxes by 40%! Instead, we are pushing away those top 1% of earners and risking dropping our tax revenue by 40%. And for founders with super voting, they effectively are forced to leave. Basically we need to hope that Gavin pulls off a last minute save and negotiates with the sponsoring union to pull the Wealth Tax proposition.

@tonypengcomms Sure happy to

@rwmcmorrow @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy Hey Ryan let's catch up!

After a decade reporting in China, I've finally moved home to SF! As my wife noted, I'm bringing back two girls and an extra forty pounds Hope to meet old friends and new and excited to be reporting on finance and tech in the FT's SF bureau with @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy @CristinaCriddle @GeorgeNHammond @sjhmorris

@AnnicaBenning Thanks Annica!

@rwmcmorrow @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy welcome to town!!

@ritacyliao Thanks Rita. Would love to meet if you're here too

@rwmcmorrow @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy Welcome to sf!

@annafifield @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy Thanks Anna!

@rwmcmorrow @rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy as a reader, I'm so sad to hear this news. thank you for all your amazing reporting, Ryan! and happy homecoming

@rafeuddin_ @MsHannahMurphy And of course @MActon93 too!

This story - November 14 - received considerable criticism at the time. Congrats to my colleagues @tim @sjhmorris @MActon93 @DanielThomasLDN for nailing it. Enormous scoop, now confirmed by @apple

Great story — also the subject of the Apple in China epilogue, coming out for the paperback edition next month. It ends: “China, once the world’s work-shop, has emerged as something far more consequential: an innovation and production hub, with gargantuan scale and equal ambition. This is the largest geopolitical shift of our lifetimes, and we’re just beginning to reckon with what that means.”

NEW: Meta has been attempting to build photorealistic, AI-powered characters. But so-called 3D "embodiment" is difficult due to compute demands and latency issues So Meta is now focused on developing an AI clone of Zuckerberg And the CEO is personally training and testing it

China reviews Manus sale to Meta as founders barred from leaving country * Red & Peak restricted from exiting after NDRC meeting, re potential FDI violations * No official investigation or charges; both remain free to travel within China More details: as.ft.com/r/6bd99a37-410…

This is a classic Chinese industrial approach applied to a new high-tech industry. Robotics has a chicken-and-egg problem. Robots need data to improve, but they need to be good enough to actually be deployed. Enter Chinese state-backed robot data gyms. ft.com/content/85bca5…

👋 Back from maternity leave & into a world of the AI-driven “kill chain”. I wrote about how the technology we all use has brought unprecedented speed and scale to how the US and Israel are waging war in Iran. ft.com/content/fedb26…

Here is a link to our article about the labs: as.ft.com/r/bea0917b-b2a…

While it's unclear for now if the data collection labs will lead to physical AI breakthroughs or be a waste of money, they are at least providing a market for China's legions of humanoid startups:

I visited some of China's state funded robot training labs which are popping up around the country to collect training data for physical AI Young grads at the labs spend their days showing the robots how to do the same thing over and over again, like picking up packages: