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BG2 · 2 min instead of 1 h 7 m · Aug 28, 2025
The subsidy and theft story about China doesn't explain its success
Brad GerstnerHost · Founder & CEO, Altimeter Capital
Started Altimeter with under $3M in 2008; an early backer of Snowflake.
Bill GurleyHost · General partner, Benchmark
Backed and sat on the boards of Uber, Zillow, OpenTable and Stitch Fix.
About this segment
Gurley asked BYD's Stella Lee about subsidies and she said she gets nothing. He notes the US subsidizes too, and Ford and GM would not catch up even with free Tesla patents plus subsidies.
From “China, China, China. Breaking Down China’s Tech Surge | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner”, Aug 28, 2025. Watch the full episode
Takeaways
- BYD says it receives no meaningful government subsidy
- The US gives subsidies too, including EV credits and Intel funding
- Free IP plus subsidies still wouldn't make Ford or GM competitive
In this episode
Full episode- 13:51Xiaomi built a car factory in three years with 2,000 workers7:03
42:27The subsidy and theft story about China doesn't explain its success2:10
- 55:24Why Western venture investment in China has dried up2:59Up next
Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 42:39
And I think we need to be careful with the rhetoric we throw around. So I'll give an example. So if you read what comes out of the biggest talks, they say, well, everyone in China just steals things and the government subsidizes everything. So I brought that up with, I brought up the subsidization with Stella Lee at BYD. And she said, she said, if I'm getting all this government subsidy money, can you please find it and show it to me? We're, we're a public company. Come show me the money I'm getting from the government.
- 43:09
She said, I'm getting nothing. And, and, and then, you know, you look at the U S like we give companies subsidies all the time to build factories we've had ev credits for the past 10 years both at a state and a federal level um intel's getting money from the u.s government like i don't understand where we're saying like like it's very unclear to me like what we're pointing at and accusing and why it doesn't it isn't the same thing here and then lastly you know elon's published all the Tesla patents. Okay. So there's free IP for Ford and GM. And I would ask you with that free IP, if we gave Ford and GM subsidies, do you think they'd immediately be competitive with China?
- 43:55
No, sir. Okay. And if I ask a hundred smart investors that What would they say? I think they'd agree with me. Yeah. So the thing we're accusing them of being the reason they're succeeding, if you flipped and gave that to the U.S. companies, none of us have confidence that would work. So that's what I'm saying. You just got to try and get as much information as you can, learn as much as you can. I just want people to have a pragmatic view and an accurate view as they make decisions.