Volv Concierge #67

Hey guys,

It’s Priyanka.

I’m sure you have already overdosed on DeepSeek news this week (doing ChatGPT-level magic 95% cheaper, wild!). But when you zoom out, there's an even bigger story here - Asia is flipping Silicon Valley's entire playbook. Think champagne tech at beer prices. I’m diving into that today, plus some other wild stories you definitely missed this week. Let's go!

Champagne Tech at Beer Prices

Eastern innovation meeting Western ambition at a fraction of the cost

India landed on the Moon for less than it cost to make “Interstellar.” Let that sink in. At $75 million, their Chandrayaan-3 mission cost a fraction of what NASA plans to spend on its lunar rover. This isn’t just about space – it’s the latest tremor in a seismic shift rattling Silicon Valley’s foundations.

While the West’s AI fever dream sent NVIDIA past the trillion-dollar mark and turned tech stocks into lottery tickets, China quietly rewrote the rules of the game. Plot twist: AI supremacy isn’t about who has the biggest valuation – it’s about who can deliver champagne results on a beer budget.

Sure, “Made in China” still makes you think of cheap plastic goods and knock-off handbags. But the reality is BYD is making Tesla break a sweat, and now DeepSeek is offering AI capabilities at prices that make OpenAI look like a luxury brand. We’re talking $0.14 per million tokens versus OpenAI’s $15. When a former Intel CEO is opting for China’s alternative, you know the tectonic plates of tech are shifting.

The irony? Silicon Valley spent decades outsourcing to Asia for cost savings, and now they are being beaten at their own game for the same reason. Did they really not see this coming? As a “frugal startup founder,” I agree with it. Snapchat couldn’t believe what we built that too “on a shoestring of a budget” while they were using all their might on the same problem (which is they invested in us).

Even Trump – yes, Trump – called DeepSeek “a wake-up call for America.” The East isn’t just manufacturing anymore; they’re innovating at warp speed without the cushy budgets Silicon Valley got drunk on. The price war isn’t coming – it’s here. The question isn’t if the tech landscape will change but how many billion-dollar blindspots we’ll discover along the way.

🗞️ Interesting headlines from the week

1. Bill proposes fining men $10,000 for ejaculating, goes viral

2. Panicked celebrities are now buying ‘cancel culture’ insurance

3. Iran: Instead of deporting Palestinians, send Israelis to Greenland

4. Alibaba claims its latest AI surpasses DeepSeek’s... and now experts think the flurry of Chinese AI models is a ‘coordinated psyop.’

5. SpaceX’s Starlink is coming to iPhones

6. 200 companies sign up for a permanent four-day work week

7. Gen Z is now canceling ‘Call Her Daddy’

8. Fashion critics slam Jacquemus for being ‘Alaïa on a budget.’ Also critics are calling Dior’s couture show a flop.

9. Most British Gen Zs believe a dictator should rule the UK

10. Starbucks has pissed off the internet

11. There’s a new ‘spray for depression’–and people have thoughts

12. Bathhouses are trying to become the new social clubs

That’s it for now. See y’all next week!

This newsletter was edited by Ishita Sen