Chinese labs run on ~1/10 US compute; ByteDance pays 2-4x to hoover up SEA supply
robleclerc · x · 2026-10-16
Citing Lou Bohan's industry reporting, Rob Leclerc highlights the compute haves and have-nots: Chinese labs operate at roughly 1/10th US lab capacity, with ByteDance buying up Southeast Asian supply at 2-4x American prices. Chinese researchers believe 1/3 of US capacity would sustain capability parity but can't get there — while some US researchers have 30K GPUs at their disposal and are bottlenecked on ideas. Leclerc adds that scarcity closes the idea gap, driving all advantage to compute.
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