america inventing solar cells & lithium-ion batteries but failing to scale production or deployment is our own version of the ming burning zheng he’s fleet. china will race ahead while america remains behind. genuinely insane lack of industrial policy or foresight on display.

yelling "slave labor" is insane cope and why we're losing. BYD/Xiaomi have "lights out", fully autonomous factories, and chinese solar firms w/ factories in the USA control half the "domestic" market. what does Made in America 2030 look like?

reality is that this is far beyond anything VC could do alone. in particular, batteries are strategically critical, but are one of the worst businesses of all time. billions in capex to barely break even at the cell level — only makes money if you wrap it in a car or ESS!