
Liangzhu, the coder 'village' at the heart of China's AI frenzy
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
A drone buzzed overhead. Inside the house, investors took pitches in the kitchen.
It looked like Silicon Valley, but it was Liangzhu, a quiet suburb of the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a hot spot for entrepreneurs and tech talent lured by low rents and proximity to tech companies like Alibaba and DeepSeek. "People come here to explore their own possibilities," said Felix Tao, 36, a former Facebook and Alibaba employee who hosted the event.
Virtually all of those possibilities involve AI.
As China faces off with the US over tech primacy, Hangzhou has become the centre of China's AI frenzy. A decade ago, provincial and local govts started offering subsidies and tax breaks to new firms in Hangzhou, a policy that has helped incubate hundreds of startups. On weekends, people fly in from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to hire programmers.
Lately, many of them have ended up in Tao's backyard.
Now Tao's home is a hub for coders who have settled in Liangzhu, many in 20s and 30s. They call themselves "villagers", writing code in coffee shops during the day and gaming together at night, hoping to harness AI to create their own companies. Hangzhou has already birthed tech powerhouses, including Alibaba and DeepSeek. Graduates from Hangzhou's Zhejiang University have become sought-after employees at Chinese tech firms.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Mingming Zhu, founder of Rokid that makes AI-enabled eyeglasses, said govt officials had helped him connect with Rokid's earliest investors, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
But some said the govt support had scared off some investors. Founders said it was difficult to attract funds from foreign venture capital firms, frustrating their ambitions to grow outside China. Another uncertainty is access to the advanced computers chips.
Many in Tao's backyard said the atmosphere in Hangzhou, set on the banks of a lake that was muse to generations of poets and painters, fuelled their creativity. Lin Yuanlin, whose Zeabur provides back-end systems to those making apps and websites, said he can lean over to someone in a coffee shop or wander into a neighbour's living room and learn what kind of support they need for their startups. Lin found himself going to Liangzhu so often that he moved there.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Goyal pushes for diversified fertiliser sourcing, eyes ₹20 trillion farm exports
Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday stressed the need to build a resilient supply chain for fertilisers, insecticides, and pesticides to shield India from future global disruptions, after China sharply cut exports of key raw materials needed for fertiliser production. 'India must ensure it is not overly dependent on any one country for inputs essential to our agricultural economy,' Goyal said at an event on Wednesday. Goyal's remarks follow Beijing's move to tighten shipments of phosphatic materials, including Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), which is India's second-most consumed fertiliser after urea. India, which relies heavily on imports to meet its fertiliser demand, sources a significant share of DAP and phosphate-based raw materials from China. The sudden export restrictions have pushed up global prices and strained availability, prompting the government to explore alternative sourcing strategies and promote domestic production capacities. Goyal, addressing industry stakeholders, said the fertiliser sector must diversify its sources and invest in long-term supply partnerships with other mineral-rich countries. 'The government is committed to supporting industries in identifying alternative global sources and promoting indigenous capabilities,' he added. According to trade data, India imported over 2.5 million tonnes of DAP in FY25, with a significant portion coming from China and West Asian countries. The current disruptions have sparked fears of rising input costs ahead of the upcoming sowing season, especially in eastern and central India where DAP use is widespread for kharif crops such as paddy, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, among others. Goyal also said that India's agriculture and fisheries exports, which currently stand at ₹ 4.5 trillion, have the potential to grow to ₹ 20 trillion with a sharper focus on food processing, better branding, and improved packaging standards. The minister urged stakeholders to work towards making drip irrigation a mass movement to enhance farm productivity and strengthen climate resilience. 'India's agricultural exports can quadruple if we modernise processing and ensure global quality standards in packaging and branding,' he added. This is not the first time that China has blocked key ingredients for fertiliser production. In 2014, as reported by Mint on 4 December, Chinese supply curbs and broader global disruptions dragged down both production and imports of essential fertilisers, raising concerns over India's crop yields and farm incomes. China has increasingly diverted fertilisers and raw materials to meet its own domestic demand, posing a recurring challenge for Indian fertiliser manufacturers. 'With agriculture being India's largest employment sector, insufficient soil nutrients due to disrupted fertiliser supplies could impact crop yields, hit rural incomes, and weigh on the broader economy,' said Abhash Kumar, a trade economist.

Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
After Missiles, China To Send J-10C Fighter Jets To Iran? Beijing 'Open To Arming' Allies
/ Jul 10, 2025, 12:25AM IST China responds to reports of J-10 fighter jet deliveries to Iran, saying it is ready to share achievements of equipment development with friendly countries. This after Beijing dispatched missiles to Iran, according to a report. The chinese comments came from Jiang Bin, the minister of defence, according to RT. Watch.


Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
India looks to US for urgent weapons after Operation Sindoor strikes
New Delhi: India's defence conversation with the United States has reached a turning point following Operation Sindoor , particularly in the light of high-end Chinese weaponry at Pakistan's disposal - an inventory which is only going to grow rapidly after the four-day conflict. India has moved fast with its suppliers, of which the US appears to be the most critical, to maintain not just an edge over Pakistan but to develop an effective counter to Chinese military systems. So, nods are awaited from the US on key emergency procurements amid growing urgency to replenish and add new weaponry. The recent conflict with Pakistan, it now emerges, has underlined the criticality of the US as a key future supplier. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Simple Morning Habit for a Flatter Belly After 50! Lulutox Undo Of the nine terror targets engaged on the first day of Operation Sindoor, seven were hit by Excalibur precision-guided munitions fired from M777 155 mm light howitzers. India urgently wants more of these GPS-guided munitions, which can hit targets 40 km away with up to 15-20 metre accuracy. India has also made a case for an emergency off-the-shelf purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles . This is over and above the larger Javelin deal that has been in negotiations for a while and was also mentioned in the Indo-US joint statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in February. Live Events While much of the attention has been on negotiations around the Indo-US trade deal, hectic diplomacy is underway on the defence front, particularly to shore up supplies in the current security context. India has got positive assurances from Pentagon to the extent that the US will consider providing immediate supplies from its own military inventory. In this backdrop, India may need to be flexible on the purchase of six P8I Maritime Patrolling Aircraft. The US has increased its price by about 50% from its original 2021 offer, citing rise in supply chain costs. With Washington unwilling to relent, New Delhi may either have to cough up extra or consider buying just five. This call could get linked to the alacrity with which the US moves on India's emergency procurement requests. On the broader plane, India would be keen to accelerate some of the important policy shift conversations agreed in February. These relate to aligning arms transfer regulations, especially amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations working on a Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement. Progress on these will put India in a different category, ease the approval process and provide deeper access to the US technology, besides building trust to set up maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of the US-provided defence systems. What's becoming increasingly clear is that while Russian equipment like S400s continue to perform well, Moscow's dependency on Beijing and, in turn, access to Russian defence industry will require India to build more reliability and depth into the supply chain with the US. The standoff with China on the northern borders revealed utility of the US-made High-Altitude Long Endurance MQ9B Predator drones . The naval versions were on lease with the Navy and the US allowed India to deploy them urgently to carry out surveillance on the China front. This later fast-tracked a long-pending proposal to purchase these UAVs, with India deciding to buy 31 MQ9B Predator drones. Similarly, Operation Sindoor has underlined importance of M777s, Excalibur munitions and other equipment - all pointing to convert trust into reliability. The challenge will be to do so without getting affected by the uncertainty that has come to surround conversations with the Trump administration.