文 | Tech商业
最近，一段来自硅谷投资圈的观点引发了广泛的共鸣与讨论。一位Midas（全球顶尖投资人榜单）级别的投资人透露，每年他都会收到成千上万个来自中国人的创业项目。这些项目的创始人主要来自硅谷大厂的中国籍员工，以及高校的留学生和教师。这位投资人特别强调，他们中大多数并不是ABC（American-Born Chinese，即美国本土出生的华裔），而是第一代移民。他坚信，一个庞大的华人创业者群体正在美国整体性崛起。
这段话里包含几个极其关键的洞察：过去，像Zoom创始人袁征（Eric Yuan）这样的成功者，由于基数太小，只是一个孤立的“点”；而现在，随着基数的急剧扩大，华人创业者正在迅速铺开，变成一个“面”。与此同时，越来越多的华人GP（General Partner，基金管理合伙人，原推文机翻误作“全科医生”）正在硅谷成长起来。
结合当下全球大模型与AI浪潮的演进，我们会发现，这绝非单纯的情感共鸣，而是一场正在硅谷真实发生的权力结构与人才版图的重塑。
从“打工皇帝”到“造局者”：打破硅谷的玻璃天花板
回顾过去二十年的硅谷历史，华人的身影并不少见，但他们更多地扮演着“高级打工者”的角色。从早期的雅虎、思科，到后来的谷歌、Meta、英伟达，华人工程师以其扎实的代码能力、极强的执行力和吃苦耐劳的精神，撑起了这些科技巨头的底层工程体系。
然而，在那个以互联网商业模式创新为主导的时代，华人极难触及核心决策层。即便强如陆奇、李开复，他们也是在职业经理人的赛道上触到了天花板；而像袁征这样能独立跑出来创办Zoom并大获成功的，实属凤毛麟角。那个时代，华人被贴上了“优秀的执行者，平庸的领导者”的刻板标签。
但AI时代的到来，彻底掀翻了这张牌桌。
AI大模型的竞争，本质上是一场极其硬核的底层技术、系统工程与数学算法的较量。它不再仅仅依赖于敏锐的商业嗅觉或精妙的商业模式设计，而是依赖于算力、数据、架构创新和极致的工程优化。而这些，恰恰是这代“非ABC”华人精英的绝对舒适区。
他们大多毕业于清华、北大、交大或中科大等国内顶尖理工科高校，经历过最残酷的数理竞赛选拔，随后赴美深造，在斯坦福、伯克利或MIT拿到博士学位，接着进入OpenAI、谷歌DeepMind、Meta AI或英伟达的核心研发团队。
当大模型的技术红利爆发时，这批人突然发现，自己不仅掌握了最前沿的AI技术，更具备了从0到1定义下一代计算平台的能力。 于是，从做大厂的一颗螺丝钉，变成AI时代的造局者，成为了一种必然的选择。
AI“基建狂潮”下的华人中坚力量
如果你深入梳理这一波AI浪潮，会发现华人的身影早已不是边缘的参与者，而是占据着极其关键的C位。
看看当下的硅谷AI图谱：在OpenAI的核心研发团队中，华人科学家的比例高得惊人，正是他们支撑起了GPT系列模型一次次不可思议的迭代；在Inflection、Adept等知名的AI初创公司里，华人创始人和高管比比皆是；在算力芯片、多模态框架、模型推理等硬核赛道上，无数年轻的华人工程师正在填补技术空白。
为什么是现在？
一方面，大厂的溢出效应达到了临界点。过去几年，Meta、谷歌等巨头用天价薪酬囤积了海量的AI人才。当大厂内部的创新效率开始降低，或者当某些实验室被重组、裁员时，这批拿着高额遣散费和充足现金的华人工程师，自然选择投身创业。
另一方面，第一代移民的“饥渴感”与生存哲学。相比ABC（美国本土华裔），第一代华人移民往往带着更强烈的阶层跃迁渴望与危机感。他们在职场上经历过签证的折磨、异国他乡的孤独，更渴望通过极致的努力去掌握自己的命运。在AI这个有着无限增量的赛道里，他们愿意承担极高的风险，去博取一个改变世界的可能。
资本内循环：华人GP的觉醒与抱团
那位投资人提到的一句话非常关键：“还有众多新的华人GP正在涌现和成长。”
过去，华人创业者在硅谷融资时，往往面临一种隐性的“语言与文化壁垒”。面对红杉、A16Z这些由美国人主导的顶级VC，华人创业者可能因为不善言辞、或者不熟悉美国那套“画大饼”的路演话术而遭遇估值压制。
但现在，情况变了。
大量的华人投资人正在走向前台。比如Atypical Ventures的Edith Yeung、Menlo Ventures的Grace Chuang，或者一些从大厂高管转型做早期基金的华人GP。他们不仅懂技术，更懂中国创业者的底层逻辑，也懂美国资本市场的游戏规则。
华人GP的崛起，意味着一个资本与人才的“内循环网络”正在硅谷形成。当华人创业者出来融资时，华人GP能够更精准地评估其技术价值，提供早期支票；并且通过他们的人脉网络，帮助这些初创公司对接大厂资源、招募工程师。
这是一个极其良性的生态。就像当年的印度裔高管们通过“抱团”，不仅在硅谷打通了从工程师到CEO的晋升通道，更建立起了庞大的资金网络。今天，华人群体正在AI赛道上复刻并超越这一过程。
硬币的另一面：从“点”到“面”的残酷淘汰赛
当然，作为一个理性的观察者，我们不能仅仅沉醉于“硅谷遍地是中国创业者”的宏大叙事中。从点变成面，固然代表了基数的扩大和势力的崛起，但“面”也意味着极度的内卷与惨烈的淘汰。
每年成千上万个项目，最终能成长为下一个Zoom或OpenAI的，依然只有万分之一。AI创投圈的泡沫，对华人创业者同样无情。
我们在之前的文章中曾揭露过硅谷创投圈的“数据造假”乱象：两周订单乘以26吹成全年ARR、互签意向书伪造增长、甚至花6美分去黑市买GitHub星标。在巨大的融资压力下，部分华人创业者也不得不卷入这种“格雷欣法则”（劣币驱逐良币）的游戏中。
此外，这一代“非ABC”创业者，往往在技术研发上拥有绝对的降维打击能力，但在“商业软实力”上——比如跨文化团队的管理、对美国本土客户需求的细腻捕捉、以及对监管环境的博弈——依然存在明显的短板。很多硬核技术出身的华人创始人，依然容易陷入“技术自嗨”，做出来的产品在PMF（产品市场契合度）上折戟沉沙。
结语：属于中国大脑的硅谷大航海时代
回到那个话题：华人创业者正在美国AI浪潮中崛起。
这不仅仅是一个关于财富的故事，更是一个关于智力资本全球化流动的深刻隐喻。
如果把过去二十年的科技发展看作信息时代的平原期，那么AI大模型就是一次向深渊投石的探险。在这场探险中，中国的高等教育体系，无意间为硅谷输送了最庞大、最精锐的理工科“兵团”。
从袁征那个时代的孤军奋战，到今天成千上万个项目构筑的“面”；从依托大厂做高级工程师，到自己成为掌握底层技术的创始人；从仰仗美国VC鼻息，到华人GP群体建立自己的资本话语权。
华人，正以一种前所未有的“群体姿态”，站到了这波AI革命的最核心牌桌上。他们或许还会面临无数的失败与偏见，但这股从硅谷大厂工位、从高校实验室里喷涌而出的中国力量，已经成为了不可阻挡的洪流，深刻地嵌入了人类通往AGI的史诗征途中。
本文由 AI图鉴自动抓取并翻译，版权归原作者所有；如需查看原文请点下方链接。
Man, Tech Business
Recently, a view from the Silicon Valley Investment Circle has generated widespread resonance and discussion. An investor at the Midas level revealed that every year he receives thousands of entrepreneurial projects from Chinese. The founders of these projects were mainly Chinese employees of Silicon Valley and students and teachers in higher education. The investor stressed in particular that most of them were not ABC (American-Born Chinese, a Chinese native American) but first-generation immigrants. He strongly believed that a large group of Chinese entrepreneurs was emerging in the United States as a whole.
This phrase contains several extremely critical insights: in the past, successful people such as Zoom's founder, Eric Yuan, were too small to be an isolated “point”; and now, as the base figure expands dramatically, Chinese entrepreneurs are spreading rapidly into a “face”. At the same time, an increasing number of Chinese (General Partners, Fund Management Partner, original tweeter mistook as “general practitioner”) are growing up in Silicon Valley.
In combination with the current evolution of the global LLM and the AI wave, we will find that this is not a mere emotional resonance, but a reshaping of the power structure and talent that is actually happening in Silicon Valley.
From "Admiral of Work" to "The Builder": Breaking the Glass ceiling in Silicon Valley
Looking back at the history of Silicon Valley over the past two decades, the Chinese are not uncommon, but they play more of the role of “high-level workers”. From the early Yahoo, Cisco, to the later Google, Meta, and In Weida, Chinese engineers, with their solid code capabilities, their strong enforcement and their patient spirit, sustained the bottom-up engineering systems of these technocrats.
However, in an era dominated by innovation in Internet business models, it was extremely difficult for Chinese to reach the core decision-making levels. Even if they were as strong as Lucky and Lee, they had hit the ceiling on the track of the professional manager; and it was a poignant fact that Yuan had been able to independently set up Zoom. At that time, the Chinese were branded as “good implementers, ordinary leaders”.
But with the arrival of the AI era, the table was completely turned over.
The AZLLM competition is essentially a very hard-core competition between bottom-of-the-ground technology, system engineering and mathematical algorithms. It no longer relies solely on sharp commercial smell or fine business model design, but rather on arithmetic, data, structural innovation and extreme engineering optimization. And these are the absolute comfort zones of this generation of “non-ABC” Chinese elites.
Most of them graduate from top polytechnic colleges in the country, such as Qinghua, North, North or Middle, and have undergone the most brutal mathematical competitions, then go to the United States for advanced studies, obtain a Ph.D. in Stanford, Berkeley or MIT, and then enter core research and development teams in Open AI, Google DeepMind, Meta AI, or Inweda.
When the technical dividend of LLM erupted, the group suddenly found that it had not only the cutting edge of AI technology but also the ability to define the next generation of computing platforms from 0 to 1. So, from being a screw in a big factory to being an AI-time maker, it became a necessary choice.
The Chinese are strong under the Al's Capital Flash.
If you look deep into this wave of AI, you'll find that the Chinese figure is no longer a marginal participant, but a critical C position.
Take a look at the current Silicon Valley AI map: In Open AI’s core research and development team, the Chinese scientists are strikingly high, and it is they who support the GPT series model over and over again; in well-known AI start-ups, such as Inflection, Adept, the Chinese founders and executives are all over the world; and in hard-core tracks, such as computational chips, multimodular frameworks, and model reasoning, countless young Chinese engineers are filling the technology gap.
Why now?
On the one hand, the spill-over effect of large plants has reached a critical point. Over the past few years, giants such as Meta, Google and others have hoarded large numbers of AI talent at a price. When innovation within large plants begins to be less efficient, or when certain laboratories are restructured and laid off, the Chinese engineers with high severance pay and sufficient cash naturally choose to become entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, first-generation migrants' “honorment” and survival philosophy. The first generation of Chinese immigrants tends to have a stronger sense of desire and crisis than ABC (American native Chinese). They have experienced the torture of visas on the job, the isolation of foreign countries, and are more eager to take charge of their destiny through extraordinary efforts. In AI, a track with unlimited increments, they are willing to take a very high risk of gaining a chance to change the world.
Capital inner cycle: Chinese GP awakening and entanglement
One of the key words of the investor was: “There are many new Chinese GPSs that are emerging and growing.”
In the past, Chinese entrepreneurs often faced a hidden “linguistic and cultural barrier” when financing in Silicon Valley. In the face of Redwood, A16Z, the top American VCs, Chinese entrepreneurs may be subjected to valuation repression because they don't speak well or are unfamiliar with the American troupe.
But now things have changed.
A large number of Chinese investors are heading for the front desk. For example, Edith Yeung of Atypical Ventures, Grace Chuang of Menlo Ventures, or some Chinese GP who have been transformed from big factory executives to early fund. They understand not only technology, but also the bottom logic of Chinese entrepreneurs, as well as the rules of the United States capital market.
The rise of the Chinese GP means that a “inner circulation network” of capital and talent is forming in Silicon Valley. When Chinese entrepreneurs come out to finance, the Chinese GP is able to assess their technical value more accurately and provide early checks; and through their personal networks, help start-ups to match large plant resources and recruit engineers.
This is an extremely benign ecology. Just like the Indian executives of the year, by “growing in”, they created a huge financial network, not only for the promotion of engineers to CEOs in Silicon Valley. Today, the Chinese community is recapitulating and moving beyond that process in the AI track.
On the other side of the coin: from point to face to brutal phase-out.
Of course, as a rational observer, we cannot simply be intoxicated by the grand narrative that “Silica Valley is a Chinese entrepreneur”. While the shift from point to face represents the expansion of the base figure and the rise of power, the “face” also implies an extreme internal and dramatic phase-out.
Tens of thousands of projects each year, which eventually grow into the next Zoom or Open AI, remain only one in 10,000. The bubble of AI to create circles is equally ruthless to Chinese entrepreneurs.
In previous articles, we have exposed the “data fabrication” of Silicon Valley Circle: a two-week order multiplied by 26 to become a year-round ARR, a signed letter of intent forged growth, and even spent six cents on the black market to buy GitHub's logo. Under enormous financial pressure, some Chinese entrepreneurs have also had to be involved in this “Grehin Law” game.
In addition, this generation of “non-ABC” entrepreneurs, who often have absolute downfalls in technological development, still have obvious short-sets in “business soft power” — such as the management of cross-cultural teams, the careful capture of the needs of local clients in the United States, and the game of regulatory environments. The founders of many Chinese with hard nuclear technology are still vulnerable to “technology self-exercising” and the products produced are sunk on the PMF (product market convergence).
Conclusion: The age of Silicon Valley, which belongs to the Chinese brain
Turning back to the subject: Chinese entrepreneurs are rising in the US 'Ai waves.
This is not just a story of wealth, but a profound metaphor for the globalized flow of intellectual capital.
If the development of science and technology over the past two decades is to be seen as the plains of the information age, AZLLM is an expedition into the abyss. In this expedition, China's system of higher education inadvertently delivered the largest and most sophisticated scientific and technical corps to Silicon Valley.
From the loners of the Yuan era to the “face” of today's thousands of projects; from being a senior engineer in large factories to being the founder of bottom-up technology; from relying on the American VC's nose to building their own capital discourse in the Chinese GP group.
The Chinese, in an unprecedented “group gesture”, are standing on the central table of this wave of Ai revolution. They may also face countless failures and prejudices, but the Chinese power that sprung from Silicon Valley’s factory, from the university’s lab, has become an unstoppable flood, deeply embedded in the epics of mankind leading to AGI.
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.