1/ It would be malpractice for PRC diplomats not to try to capitalize on this and future flare-ups between US and others. We’ll see more of this. Trump will blow up more relationships. Even so, I’m unconvinced the PRC will have great success capitalizing for three reasons 🧵

The key principle of the diffusion framework: build your AI infrastructure in the US and partnered nations. This reflects reality—most AI compute is already here, and if deployed globally it's mostly US companies. Access follows clear pathways based on company HQ and location 1/

Would 100% read a book about the quirkier side of strategic reserves. You've got Polish butter, Canadian maple syrup; the US stockpiles frozen chicken meat, in addition to oil, vaccines, etc. What else?

Poland taps Strategic Butter Reserve to reduce prices ahead of elections Poland maintains strategic ambiguity about the size of its Strategic Butter Reserve

This looks.... **HUGE** The DC Circuit has ruled that CEQ has no authority to issue binding regulations, theoretically axing decades of regs. NEPA is a simply 5 page law. CEQ regs + litigation are the teeth that turn a 5 page law into 1000 page reviews. https://t.co/dFJOcO76Ja

Interesting!

NEW: What does Trump’s win mean for the Chips Act? 1. It’s extremely unlikely that the program goes away 2. Companies, already anxious to finalize awards, are now more anxious 3. Republicans are eyeing reforms of what they consider social provisions 🧵 https://t.co/KMhmympsJV

And that is my 100% true story of how I definitely, probably, maybe met the real Satoshi Nakamoto. ###

As the door swings shut, the man, clutching his paper, turns and yells over his shoulder: "BUT I'M LAUNCHING A NEW CURRENCY!"

We clock the situation immediately, and my bureau chief goes to intercept him. He says, "I'm sorry this is an office, you need to leave now," and respectfully but firmly ushers our visitor to the exit.

In walks a disheveled looking middle-aged guy, about 5 foot 10, 230 pounds, muttering, clutching a shopping bag and a printout of a few dozen pages of 8.5x11 paper stapled together. It looked like a report of some kind. Or a white paper, in retrospect.

It was a quiet afternoon. The receptionist was out. There were just two of us in the office, wrapping up some work after the last edition had gone to press. The doorbell rings. Without really thinking about it, I hit the buzzer.

Which brings us to my possible brush with Satoshi.

We would also get weird emails and letters, like all journalists do. But because of the retail location, we'd also get people in off the street.

A guy named Tom called up one day asking if one of us would be speak on a panel for his prestigious world affairs magazine. He later left a series of increasingly belligerent phone messages claiming that he controlled large parts of the US Navy.

We weren't hard to find. The phone number was listed somewhere, and there was a small "FT" sign hanging out on the street. So, like most news bureaus, we also caught the attention of the occasional crank.

All kinds of people came through the bureau. Bankers trading gossip, tech company execs flogging their latest gadgets; even MC Hammer once, trying to gin up interest in a new dance website (which in retrospect sounded a lot like TikTok).

YouTube had sold for $1 billion less than two years before. The iPhone was still new. Facebook had surpassed MySpace in monthly uniques and was on its way to conquering the world.

It was a heady time. Billions of dollars were still sloshing around the Bay Area, oblivious to the subprime implosion that was consuming banks' balance sheets, and would soon nearly take down the global financial system.

I was one of three correspondents working on the Silicon Valley beat, in an office above a luxury storefront just off Union Square, in the Tendernob borderlands.