Since the paper on ‘ LK-99 ‘ , a material claimed by domestic researchers to be a superconductor at room temperature and pressure, was published on the 22nd of last month, the scientific world around the world is in a frenzy. In the midst of this, there is a place that is paying great attention to superconductors besides scientists. Silicon Valley is a high-tech industrial complex in California, USA.
The Washington Post ( WP ) reported on the 11th (local time) that not only scientists but also Big Tech workers in Silicon Valley are excited about the appearance of LK-99 . Analysts say that the controversy over normal-temperature and normal-pressure superconductors is giving new vitality to Silicon Valley companies, regardless of their authenticity.
Silicon Valley is a high-tech industrial complex that began in the early and mid-1990s with small and medium-sized ventures in computer and semiconductors that emerged here one by one. After the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the smartphone revolution in the 2010s, giant tech companies such as IBM , Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta (formerly Facebook) are now gathered here.
It is clear that Silicon Valley is the most successful industrial complex in the world, but recently, the WP evaluated that it is losing its technological innovation. After the smartphone revolution, they only grew in size by making money through platform businesses using the Internet network, but they are not leading the change by introducing innovative technologies that have never been before.
In this situationThe superconductor controversy sparked by LK-99 is giving considerable vitality to Silicon Valley just by its appearance. Brian Opert, a venture capitalist at Index Ventures, an American venture capital firm, said in an interview with WP , “The market attitude (towards superconductors)메이저놀이터 is ‘shoot first , think later ’ . ” Even if the judgment is wrong, it will be quickly forgotten, but if it was a correct judgment, you will be able to gain a lot as a reward for looking ahead.”
Prior to the superconductor controversy, it was artificial intelligence ( AI ) that played the role of the most ‘hot potato’ in Silicon Valley. Chat GPT , a generative AI , played the biggest role. The problem is that Silicon Valley’s AI craze is showing signs of fading any time soon. According to similarweb , a traffic statistics site, worldwide desktop and mobile traffic to Chat GPT websites fell by 9.7% in the month of June compared to the previous month . The number of unique visitors decreased by 5.7%, and the time users spent on the website decreased by 8.5% from May.
Although research institutes around the world, including the US and China, are putting out verification results that LK-99 is not a superconductor. However, the WP reported that the situation in which interest and investment are focused on ‘material engineering’, the scientific field that is the basis of the superconductor controversy, will be a great energy for Silicon Valley in the long run. In this trend, if the field of material engineering develops significantly, as a result, technological growth can be achieved not only in semiconductors but also in advanced industrial basic materials such as secondary batteries and optical fiber cables.
Inna Bishek, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Davis, said in an interview with the WP , “What I learned while working in the field of materials research is that innovations in this field have an invisible impact on human life as a whole.”
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