Documentary on China's Silicone Valley of hardware

WIRED made a cool documentary in 2016 (10 years ago!) titled "Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware" (link, free to watch). It was really interesting to watch, especially given all the geopolitical changes that have happened since then and how, at the moment, Schenzhen is absolutely crushing it with intelligent robotics.

It features expat entrepreneurs from around the world that relocated to Schenzhen to start their hardware startups, because it really was the best place in the world to do a hardware startup. In addition to the network effects that made Silicone Valley the best place in the world to have a software startup, the physical nature of manufacturing makes colocation even more important. So it would be a lot harder to replicate a Schenzhen than it would be to replicate a Silicone Valley.

One thing that stuck me is how the total lack of intellectual property law unlocks an extremely fast iteration velocity and healthy ecosystem. In comparison, the USA works at a glacial pace and innovators are constantly being harassed by IP patent trolls.