Asianometry

By Jon YTechnology

Asianometry episodes

February 22 Chip Fabs in Space: Technically Possible, Completely Impractical
In July 2025, a startup called Varda Space Industries raised $187 million to make drugs in orbit. They are not the only startup trying to make stuff in space. Starcloud - formerly called Lumen Orbit - raised $21 million to try and assemble a 5-gigawatt data center in space. And tech giants Elon and Bezos have been talking a great deal about putting AI data centers in space. A few people on the internet have riffed off those trends and ideas to also ask, “Why not do semiconductors in space too?”. Bezos himself said all the way back in 2016: “We can build gigantic chip factories in space”. Sure we can. But it’s not going to be practical. In this video, Jon spends way too much time on space fabs.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
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Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
25 min
February 16 South Africa’s Ruined Synthetic Oil Giant
South Africa’s Sasol is the world’s only commercial-scale synthetic oil producer. Founded in 1950, they convert millions of tons of oil from coal each year. In 2011, high oil prices turned them into South Africa’s second most valuable company - with stock returns of 1000% since 2000. Then they took a massive swing on a multi-billion megaproject in Louisiana. It could have transformed them into an international chemicals giant. Instead, it smashed them to bits. In today’s video, South Africa’s synthetic oil giant, and the $13 billion US megaproject that ruined it.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
34 min
February 12 The Epochal Ultra-Supercritical Steam Turbine
In 1993, Japan broke through with the first commercial-scale Ultra-Supercritical steam turbines. For thirty years, turbines operated at mere supercritical temperatures. Limited by the properties of the steel they were produced from. It took nearly two decades of R&D for Japan to develop the technologies to bring that steel to the market. In today’s video, we explore a coal-centric technology. The 30-year march from supercritical to ultra-supercritical steam turbines.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
23 min
February 09 The Great Golden Age of Antibiotics
Over half of the therapeutic antibiotics used today were discovered in a brief 20-year period. A fortuitous discovery in the 1940s led to a global rush for miracle medicines in the soil. That wondrous method ended in the late 1960s. And unfortunately we have yet to find another. In today’s video, let us look back at the golden age of antibiotics when people spanned the globe for the next big drug.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
0 min
February 05 Invasion of the Microplastics
I just want to say one word to you. Are you listening? Microplastics. Starting in the 1950s, plastics got into everything. They were this wonder material. Useful for its flexibility and flame resistance. Then gradually we started using them for convenience. For the experience of using them once and then throwing them away. But what happens to that plastic after then? Where does it go? In the 1960s, we began to find out. In today’s video, a brief look at ocean microplastics.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
0 min
February 01 Silicon Valley Thinks TSMC is Braking the AI Boom
Stratechery has a recent piece out titled TSMC Risk, in which he calls out TSMC’s conservatism as costing the American hyperscalers “hundreds of billions” in revenue. Before we continue, I want to disclose that I work with Ben. The Asianometry newsletter runs on his platform Passport, and I am friendly with him. I am not trying to flame him. But I am hearing many similar views in the Silicon Valley Borg. That TSMC is the “brake” or “limiter” on the AI boom. As if they’re the reason why we don’t have AGI yet. Because they didn’t and still don’t BELIEVE. If we can ever say that a company that spent $41 billion of capital expenditure in 2025 with another $53-56 billion in 2026 is sitting on its hands doing nothing. And to be clear, I largely agree with Ben’s final message. TSMC having 90% share of the AI chip market looks pretty unhealthy. I was supposed to be working on video about bananas, but I had to do this first. In today’s video, a few scattered thoughts on TSMC taking away the AI punch bowl.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
0 min
January 29 The Japanese AI Boom Needs A Little More Ambition
There has been so much attention paid to the AI boom in the United States and China. Japan has sorta been ignored. Should it be? Japan has in recent years launched a leading edge AI lab, a leading edge semiconductor foundry, and several integrator startups. Over the past week, I had another set of conversations with various companies and people in Tokyo. Mostly, I explored the question: How is the AI boom going in Japan? I recognize that talking to a few people does not a country profile make. But in today’s video, a small vibe check on the Japanese AI boom.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
20 min
January 25 Toshiba’s Breakthrough Laptop PC
In the early 1980s, portable computers were either one of two categories. Big and functional. Or small and basic. And while there were successes within each category, you can hardly identify them as today’s modern laptops. Then in 1985, the Japanese company Toshiba releases a ground-breaking laptop PC that brings it all together for the first time. In today’s video, let us look back at the first commercially successful laptop PC: The Toshiba T1100 and its successors.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
23 min
January 22 Why Diamond Transistors Are So Hard
In the movie “Diamonds are Forever”, James Covalent Bond is chasing some missing South African diamonds. He discovers that his nemesis Blofeld is cooking up an evil plot to use those diamonds for a big space laser that he intended to auction off. I find the plot impractical. Blofeld should have instead concentrated his criminal organization’s resources on developing diamond transistors! Had he succeeded, he might have reaped far greater profits than with some silly space laser. In this video, we look at a very hard gate.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
22 min
January 18 How Westinghouse Lost its Way
Founded in 1886, Westinghouse Electric grew to be one of America’s industrial giants. Second only to General Electric. In August 1998, the company sold off its industrial and power generation businesses and became a media company. How did such a titan so badly stumble and lose its way? We like the simple answers. Managers were greedy. They took their eyes off the ball. Dive into the history, and things get a bit murkier. In today’s video, we discuss how Westinghouse Electric lost its way.
Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
Listen to Stratechery.
Listen to Dithering.
Listen to Sharp China.
Listen to Sharp Tech.
Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.
35 min

About Asianometry

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Newsletter for the Asianometry channel. Studies on Asia - Financials, semiconductors, history, demography, development and other stuff.

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