Artificial intelligence
My current focus: how the global AI industry is reshaping itself across Silicon Valley, Beijing and Europe.
Stories
Features, analysis, pieces
Four thematic focus areas of my work over the last 15 years – from Beijing, from Silicon Valley, today from Düsseldorf. Most pieces below are in German; English translations are added gradually.
China
Four years as Handelsblatt correspondent in Beijing. Tech companies, state direction, the rise to tech superpower status – documented in feature stories from across the country.
Silicon Valley
Correspondent in San Francisco from 2022 to 2024. From Apple Park to Nvidia's labs: how the West Coast tech giants are remaking the global economy.
Telecoms
My current Düsseldorf focus: 5G rollout, fibre, satellite internet, the Huawei question, European digital sovereignty – where tech policy and infrastructure reality meet.
English archive
130 pieces translated to English so far, in chronological order.
2026
- Elon Musk, Starlink, and the Assault on Mobile Networks
- Inside the documents that could break Big Tech's teen-safety defence
- Nokia CEO Justin Hotard: 'Communication networks are critical infrastructure'
- Every board should be testing Open Claw – or risk flying blind
- How OpenClaw changed my workday
- Germany's forced fibre switch is the wrong move
- When smart products go dumb: what the Bose case reveals about digital ownership
2025
- Germany's fibre rollout has hit a tipping point
- The cables of power: Europe's digital future is being decided on the seabed
- Why you should know Moore Threads – China's challenger to Nvidia
- Höttges' biggest bet: Deutsche Telekom moves into the AI data-centre business
- Looks like a Porsche, costs €26,000 – Xiaomi's pivot from smartphones to cars
- Starlink's potential in Germany – bigger than expected
- Five fault lines that will decide OpenAI's future
- National pride and high expectations: how Huawei became the spearhead of China's tech strategy
- Google's AI is shifting the balance of power on the web – these are the biggest losers
- AMD makes energy efficiency its weapon against Nvidia
- T-Mobile US: Sievert eyes the exit – who runs the world's most valuable mobile carrier next?
- Why data protection is Europe's competitive edge
- New Telefónica CEO Marc Murtra: lean the company, invest in Europe, accelerate in Germany
- So long, Mad Men: Google and Meta are replacing ad agencies
- Deutsche Telekom's record results have two weak spots
- New Work Valley: back to the office
- Aravind Srinivas: from a windowless coworking space to taking on Apple
- Xiaomi plans its own stores in Germany – and electric cars
- Vodafone Germany: from challenger to turnaround case
- How Srini Gopalan became Deutsche Telekom's top earner – by moving to T-Mobile US
- Reconstructing a trillion-dollar crash: how a small Chinese start-up shook finance, business and politics
2024
- Every copy of Silicon Valley will fail – good
- AMD's Lisa Su challenges Nvidia: 'My goal is to lead the AI revolution'
- Microsoft's dark side: market power draws growing scrutiny
- How Microsoft's culture shifted from Bill Gates to Satya Nadella
- Apple bows to Chinese censorship – again
- San Francisco: AI capital of the world – and its darkest hour
- Ten years at the top: how Satya Nadella made Microsoft fit for the future
2023
- Why programming with AI is fun again
- Aidan Gomez: the quiet architect behind ChatGPT
- Bill McDermott (ServiceNow): 'AI can double the productivity of every company'
- California shuts down Cruise: what the robotaxi industry must learn
- AI is revolutionising Hollywood – and the web
- Clara Shih (Salesforce): 'The opportunity is enormous'
- Richard Socher (You.com): AI is revolutionising search
- Two weeks in a driverless taxi: the robo-car works – but it breaks the traffic rules
- Sam Altman wants to scan the irises of eight billion people
- Worldcoin – Sam Altman's second company
- Share price multiplied in nine years: Microsoft's remarkable transformation
- San Francisco, the new AI capital
- ChatGPT as a weapon for hackers
- The Frankenstein moment: if we don't control AI, it will control us
- Sam Altman: regulate AI like nuclear weapons
- Qualcomm courts German carmakers
- No cell reception: Why do we often have such a poor network in Germany?
- Which start-ups from the USA are currently shaking up the automotive industry?
- How Starlink is revolutionizing mobile communications worldwide
- A visit to Google's secret lab in Santa Barbara | Google Quantum AI
- Sam Altman's Worldcoin: scanning the iris of humanity
- GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke: AI is changing the way we code
- Adrian Daub (Stanford): Silicon Valley has lost its myth
- Creativity from the machine – the man who will change your life
- Sridhar Ramaswamy (Neeva): taking on Google with AI and no ads
- Amy Webb: 'AI will be as transformative as the steam engine'
- The new iPhone moment
- A day in Redmond: Microsoft reinvents search
- Is the ChatGPT hype justified?
- How Starlink is reshaping mobile communications
- Inside Valley – What Joby's flying taxis have over the European competition
- Quieter than before, but as innovative as ever: Microsoft reinvents itself
2022
- Watching a Falcon 9 launch at Cape Canaveral
- Two satellites take on Starlink: how SES is challenging Musk's space network
- Sonos CEO Patrick Spence: Google didn't take us seriously
- Why Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is dangerous
- Nvidia: how the chip company became German industry's elite partner
- Inside Valley – How accelerators turn start-ups into companies
- Inside Valley – Smart contracts are changing the art market
- Inside Valley – Apple's design headquarters
- Inside Valley – Nvidia makes cars smart
- Inside Valley – Google's new mega-campus
- Inside Valley – How VR headsets could transform in-car entertainment
- Inside Valley – What the batteries of the future will look like
- Inside Valley – Better sensors and smarter algorithms bring high-tech medicine home
- Inside Valley – Lucid Motors brings its Tesla rival to Europe
- Niklas Steenfatt: how Meta monitors its employees
- Inside Valley – Inside Meta's first retail store
- Inside Valley – The metaverse you can touch
- Ali Ghodsi (Databricks): every company will be an AI company
- Inside Valley – How tech giants are ending remote work
- Cloudflare CFO Thomas Seifert on Russia, Ukraine and cloud business
- Inside Valley – What Apple does with old iPhones
- Inside Valley – New trends from Silicon Valley
- Neal Stephenson & Marc Petit: the origins and future of the metaverse
- Billion-dollar market or graveyard? What the metaverse can really do
2021
2020
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro review: 1,200 euros for the smartphone without apps
- Isabell Peters: what Germany can learn from China's e-government
- The Huawei connection: how Deutsche Telekom became dependent on China
- Deutsche Telekom's costly bet on the future
- One year after the billion-euro 5G auction: where Germany stands
- Germany's 5G push from Vodafone and Telekom meets political resistance
- World Economic Forum Davos 2020
2019
2018
2017
- A grand power move: China's president Xi Jinping at the top
- China – the new space nation?
- Cashless in the Far East – how mobile payment works in China
- How China plans to become the world's leading robot nation
- Visiting the world's largest floating solar plant
- Riding China's high-speed trains
- A journey along China's Great Wall
- The tricks of China's online retailers
- Baidu's self-driving cars – the early days of China's autonomous-driving push
- Visiting China's solar ruins
- China's recipe for turbocharged growth
- From factory floor to global leader – China's ambitious Made in China 2025 plan
- Gigantic network – Beijing's driverless metro lines as an export hit
- Belt and Road Summit: "European help yes – European standards no"
- An aeroplane from household waste? A start-up makes it possible
- Asia's e-scooters push into Europe
- How China's carmakers are pushing to the top of the world
- China's start-up boom: a new company every seven minutes
- Tianjin megaport: the gateway to China
- Visiting Ordos – China's ghost city in the desert
- How Donald Trump brought China and Germany closer together
- How bike-sharing conquered China
- Inside China's secret Bitcoin mine