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This is such a fascinating interview. The transcript is comedy to read. I'm really surprised this Alan Yeung guy agreed to do the interview, but I guess any pro

This is such a fascinating interview. The transcript is comedy to read. I'm really surprised this Alan Yeung guy agreed to do the interview, but I guess any promotion is better than no promotion when pushing a new book? > NP: We don’t even have any questions about tax credit. I am just trying to get to the heart of why you signed up to build a Gen 10.5 factory in Wisconsin, which is a famous cocktail-napkin contract with Scott Walker. All of this other stuff seems like a distraction from that project. Now you are saying you do not think there is a talent base in Wisconsin alone, and you have to bring engineers into short-term housing from all these cities around Wisconsin to help grow a talent base. This entire book is about wining and dining with politicians, getting the deal together, and whether Scott Walker arrives in China and goes straight on the factory tour or stops at the hotel first. Nowhere in this book is there an economic defense of this investment that says, “This is a good idea that we think will return a profit to us.” > AY: Let me come back to you with a couple things. There were no napkins, okay? The one thing that you published, based on an open record request, is actually what I wrote about in the book. There is a piece of stationery that both Chairman Gou and Governor Walker signed, to make a commitment to reshore manufacturing — that is a fact — but there is no napkin and all that. > NP: I will concede that there is not a napkin.

Arrath 4y ago
It's almost as if the front fell off of the deal, and the interview is just a continuation of the skit. Wow.
CameronNemo 4y ago
It was the dome discussion that did it for me. > JD: The dome in Mount Pleasant, the glass orb that Foxconn built, what is inside of it? > AY: I think there are data center capabilities, including equipment and servers. > NP: In the dome? > AY: Oh, you’ve never been there? There are a lot of people who have actually gone through the tour. > NP: Okay, but what is in the actual glass dome? > AY: I cannot tell you what it is now, but to the best of my knowledge from back then, it is their data center capabilities. Everything that Foxconn did there on campus inside the dome is pioneering work. As our chairman Young Liu said, we did all this based on business, not politics. If the scale for the data center equipment and some of the work that they would do is pioneering, they probably would not tell you. A lot of that is actually in partnership with some of the biggest names within the data center world and they may not carry the Foxconn label when it becomes commercialized. I can assure you that the dome is needed. > NP: The dome is needed to do pioneering data center work? > AY: The dome should have been better and bigger. Okay? > NP: I agree. If anyone says to me that a dome should be bigger, I always agree with them. That is true.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
> The transcript is comedy to read. You really were not kidding. The first question related to the book: > NP: Josh and I covered this project extensively at The Verge the whole time, and we have both read the book. If you just read this book cover to cover, you would end fully believing that there is a Generation 10.5 LCD factory in southeastern Wisconsin. There is not a factory. What happened? That almost seems like it would take practice to say with a straight face. Cue question two: > There is no factory. Why not address that in the book? Because he immediately tried to change the subject. The argument given as an answer to the first question seems to try to suggest that the story told in the book was only intended to go through 2017, which seems like nonsense for a non-fiction book that was published years later than that (written in the last year and a half, no less!) - in particular when there are relevant updates to be given, like that the deal never actually happened.

Arrath 4y ago

It's almost as if the front fell off of the deal, and the interview is just a continuation of the skit. Wow.

CameronNemo 4y ago

It was the dome discussion that did it for me. > JD: The dome in Mount Pleasant, the glass orb that Foxconn built, what is inside of it? > AY: I think there are data center capabilities, including equipment and servers. > NP: In the dome? > AY: Oh, you’ve never been there? There are a lot of people who have actually gone through the tour. > NP: Okay, but what is in the actual glass dome? > AY: I cannot tell you what it is now, but to the best of my knowledge from back then, it is their data center capabilities. Everything that Foxconn did there on campus inside the dome is pioneering work. As our chairman Young Liu said, we did all this based on business, not politics. If the scale for the data center equipment and some of the work that they would do is pioneering, they probably would not tell you. A lot of that is actually in partnership with some of the biggest names within the data center world and they may not carry the Foxconn label when it becomes commercialized. I can assure you that the dome is needed. > NP: The dome is needed to do pioneering data center work? > AY: The dome should have been better and bigger. Okay? > NP: I agree. If anyone says to me that a dome should be bigger, I always agree with them. That is true.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago

> The transcript is comedy to read. You really were not kidding. The first question related to the book: > NP: Josh and I covered this project extensively at The Verge the whole time, and we have both read the book. If you just read this book cover to cover, you would end fully believing that there is a Generation 10.5 LCD factory in southeastern Wisconsin. There is not a factory. What happened? That almost seems like it would take practice to say with a straight face. Cue question two: > There is no factory. Why not address that in the book? Because he immediately tried to change the subject. The argument given as an answer to the first question seems to try to suggest that the story told in the book was only intended to go through 2017, which seems like nonsense for a non-fiction book that was published years later than that (written in the last year and a half, no less!) - in particular when there are relevant updates to be given, like that the deal never actually happened.