Silicon Valley will remain “pro-immigrant” in the middle of American skepticism

The Trump administration tightens visa policies, causing delays for those who try to enter the United States and move as the White House campaign against major universities could discourage international students from continuing education in the United States

While the Silicon Valley itself “will always remain very pro-immigrant”, the broader political changes in the United States could create opportunities for other regions, said Hans Tung, managing manner of the venture capital company based in the United States, a venture capital company, during the fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference in Park City, Utah last week.

“When I look at Europe, this is the perfect time to be much more open, to include many more stem students around the world to go to Europe, to innovate on AI in Europe,” said Tung. “Wherever is more open, still has a chance to win the next cycle.”

Wendy Tan White, CEO of intrinsic, a robotics company belonging to Alphabet, stressed that a lack of local talents forced the American ambitions to revive national manufacturing. “It must be replaced in one way or another,” she said. “I think the only way to do it now is by intelligent automation, especially if you want to bring this manufacturing reshoring to the United States,” said White.

Manufacturing talents have been highlighted in recent weeks after immigration and customs application have descended in an LG-Hyundai factory in Georgia earlier this month, holding several hundred Korean workers. The RAID has aroused indignation through the South Korean political spectrum, some Korean companies would have taken a break in response to their American investment projects.

Trump said on Sunday that he did not want to “scare” investors and admitted that the United States needed foreign experts to build industries like fleas.

Can the United States keep its lead?

The United States has long dominated the global technological sector, combining the largest technological companies in the world, the deep capital markets and major universities. This force has led to a slightly sarcastic maxim: “The United States innovates, China iterate, Europe regulates.”

However, recent innovations elsewhere for non-Americans, and in particular Chinese technological companies, dispute this story. Asian companies had already taken the lead in advanced manufacturing, in particular in goods such as semiconductors and industrial robotics. More recently, Chinese technological companies such as Deepseek and Alibaba also repel the borders on the development of AI, releasing open-source models that have pushed developers like Openai and Xai to respond in kind.

“It has changed. With the opening of things like Deepseek, China is starting to drive part of this innovation and is open to driving,” said White, pointing to robotics as an example.

Maeve Reiss for fortune

China focuses on what experts call “embodied AI” or real world’s applications of AI models. China produces almost half of the world’s industrial robots, giving the country a possible synergy between hardware and software.

“There is an enormous knowledge of manufacturing and expertise in China, as there are in Germany. And so we have teams trying to learn,” said White. And she saw the opportunity to combine industrial force on markets like Germany and China “with software engineering and IA expertise that we have valley,” she suggested.

White noted that investors “cannot ignore the United States”, adding that “the development of current AI always exceeds what is happening in the world”. However, with regard to specific applications, “there will not be a pure winner,” she said.

“This is where the competition will come.”

Go to the world

Brainstorm Tech speakers have stressed that there are opportunities beyond the United States and China. Some small countries, such as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, also try to become AI leaders, taking advantage of their global connections, their attractiveness with global talents and deep pockets.

“Regarding software, there is no doubt that Silicon Valley still directs innovation in several ways,” said Tung. “But Silicon Valley is not the only game in town, and you see that different countries are good in different things.”

The founders outside the United States are “naturally more in line with what is necessary beyond the United States, and therefore think of the construction of applications and solutions that are aimed at the non-English-speaking population,” he added.

Maeve Reiss for fortune

“Any business, small or large, must really think of globalizing the first day, finding ways to take advantage of the capacities where it can find them and access them, and that’s it, talent to be in a friendly environment,” Chan IH-Ming, executive vice-president of Singapore Economic Development Board last week. (EDB is a fortune partner Brainstorm Tech).

“It’s a world world. The important thing is to look further, right? ” He added later. “We are already quite interconnected. Move too far in the opposite direction would be a problem.”