Indevin sells ex-Villa Maria buildings to BlackRock; wee problem blights rich-lister's boatshed; garage-dwelling landlord
Multitrillion-dollar American fund swoops on Māngere vineyard buildings; bladders blight rich-lister's boatshed; garage-dwelling landlord seeks justice; Fletcher Living on next cladding steps: all in today's Property Insider column.
An entity associated with multitrillion-dollar United States-headquartered BlackRock has bought Auckland's ex-Villa Maria Estate buildings, previously owned by Marlborough wine business Indevin.
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Techday NZ
an hour ago
- Techday NZ
US-China chip export debate highlights risks for AI leadership
DeepSeek. TikTok. Taiwan. And a White House shake-up on AI rules. The spiralling US-China technology rivalry landed at the heart of Johns Hopkins University last week, as a panel of top experts and policymakers took to the stage to debate whether restricting exports of advanced semiconductors to China can help the US maintain its edge in the race for artificial intelligence. The discussion, hosted by Open to Debate in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute, comes at a critical time. In Washington, the Trump administration has announced plans to roll back the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule and introduce new chip export controls targeting China – a move seen by many as a signal that the technology contest between the two superpowers is only intensifying. On one side of the Johns Hopkins debate were Lindsay Gorman, managing director at the German Marshall Fund's Technology Program, and former CIA officer and congressman Will Hurd. They argued the answer is yes: semiconductor controls can give the US a real advantage in the AI race. Gorman pointed to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI model whose CEO has publicly lamented the impact of advanced chip bans. "Money has never been the problem for us. Bans on shipments of advanced chips are the problem. And they have to consume twice the power to achieve the same results," she quoted, highlighting how China's AI advances still depend heavily on imported hardware. "The United States has significant hard computing power advantages – the ability to produce high-end chips, designed specifically for training AI models," Gorman told the audience. She argued that, together with its allies, the US controls a "strategic choke point" on computing power. "Properly implemented controls can have an effect and also have an increasing and compounding effect over time in retarding China's AI advantages and giving the United States a head start," she explained. Will Hurd, who also served on OpenAI's board before running for US president, compared the AI contest to the nuclear arms race. "Artificial intelligence is the equivalent of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission controlled gives you nuclear power… uncontrolled, nuclear weapons can kill everybody," he said. Hurd emphasised the importance of first-mover advantage, warning that the US cannot afford to lose its technological lead. He also highlighted a lack of reciprocity in the tech relationship between the two countries. "Chinese companies like Baidu, DJI, and TikTok operate freely in the US, but American companies are not allowed to operate in China," Hurd pointed out. "If there was a level of reciprocity between our two countries, we wouldn't be here having this debate about chip controls." Yet, on the opposing side, former senior US diplomat Susan Thornton and technology strategist Paul Triolo insisted the US could not outpace China in AI simply by tightening export controls. Triolo argued that the controls are "not working and will not lead to US dominance in AI", describing them as a blunt instrument that creates confusion for industry and disrupts global supply chains. "Most experts believe that Chinese companies are only three months behind US leaders in developing advanced AI models," Triolo said, suggesting any technological gap is vanishingly slim. Thornton, who spent decades at the heart of US-China diplomacy, warned of unintended consequences. "The main thing we should be asking ourselves about this question… is what is the cost benefit of US policy actions?" she said. "We have to face the reality that China is already building AI… a third of the world's top AI scientists are Chinese. China is one third of the entire global technology market. So it's clearly a player." She cautioned that blocking China from critical technology could backfire, hurting US companies, alienating allies and raising the risks around Taiwan, the global centre of advanced chip manufacturing. "Certainly, the one thing we need to do is avoid going to war," Thornton warned. "Taiwan, the most sensitive issue in US-China relations, has now been dragged right into the middle of this AI issue because they're the place that produces all the cutting-edge chips that we're trying to control." Audience members pressed the panel on whether international collaboration on AI safety was possible, and whether the US could ever match China's data advantage, given the size of the Chinese population and its permissive data environment. Hurd conceded that "the US will always have less data because we have a little thing called civil liberties," but argued that superior algorithms and privacy-protective machine learning could level the playing field. For Triolo, the dynamic nature of the technology means that attempts to wall off China are self-defeating. "There are many ways to get to different ends. The controls have forced Chinese companies to work together, develop innovations, and become more competitive both domestically and globally," he said. Gorman, in closing, rejected what she called "a defeatism that says America can't out-compete China or slow its progress". "Our companies are doing well. There isn't an issue here with demand, it's with supply. Doing better means that we have to throw what we can at this problem now with a smart application of tools," she argued. But Thornton had the last word, urging caution. "Making the AI competition with China a zero-sum game, not only will not work, it is dangerous," she said. "We should focus on the things that are going to matter to our children and their children, which is the long-term AI competition, which if not constrained and bounded by international agreements and by cooperation among countries… it'll be a very dangerous world."
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
The Inevitable Souring: Elon Musk Falls Out With Donald Trump
Trumps response to Musks latest gobbet of accusation proved almost melancholic. I dont mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. He went on to praise one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. Sandpit politics is rarely edifying and grown toddlers taking their fists to each other is unlikely to interest. But when they feature US President Donald Trump and the world's wealthiest man, the picture alters. Disputes are bound to be on scale, rippling in their consequences. No crystal ball was required regarding the eventual sundering of the relationship between Trump and Elon Musk. Here were noisy, brash egos who had formed a rancid union in American politics, with Musk lending his resources and public machinery to The Donald knowing he could also have sway in the Trump administration as a 'special government employee'. That sway took the form of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), a crude attempt to right the wrongs of misspending in government while politicising the public service. Awaking from a narcotised daze, Musk decided to focus on his floundering companies, notably Tesla, and step back from the inferno. In doing so, he expected 'to remain a friend and adviser, and if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at this service.' Gazing at the raging inferno that is Trumpian policy, that convivial attitude has all but evaporated. For one thing, Trump's proposed tax breaks and increases in defence spending, espoused in his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, seemed to undermine the very premise of DOGE and its zealous mission of reducing government spending. The legislation promises to slash $1.5 trillion in government spending but increase the debt limit by $4 trillion. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly,' Musk said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning last month. Such a plan merely inflated, not reduced, the budget deficit. 'I think a bill can be big or beautiful. I don't know if it can be both.' This month, Musk got even tetchier. His temper had frayed. 'I'm sorry, I just can't stand it anymore,' he barked on his X platform on June 3. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.' He continued to heap shame on members of Congress 'who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' On June 5, Trump expressed his disappointment 'because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill', leaving open the possibility that the billionaire might be suffering from 'Trump derangement syndrome.' Musk had 'only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the [electric vehicle] mandate.' A blow was in the offing, coming in the form of a post on Truth Social: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!' Musk's embittered retort: 'Such an obvious lie. So sad.' He also proposed, in light of the President's announcement, the decommissioning of Space X's Dragon spacecraft, vehicles used by NASA to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The ripples were finally getting violent. Musk then decided to do what he called dropping 'the really big bomb'. Trump, he revealed, 'is in the Epstein files. This is the real reason they have not been made public.' Given Musk's estranged relationship with reality and its facets, this can only be taken at face value. It's a matter of record that Trump, along with a fat who's who of power, knew the late Jeffrey Epstein, financier and convicted sex offender, for many years. The trove of government documents known as The Epstein Files has offered the easily titillated some manna but, thus far, few bombs. On February 27, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi released what were described as the 'first phase' of files relating to the financier and 'his exploitation of over 250 underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.' In an interview with Fox News on February 21, Bondi revealed that Epstein's client list lay 'on my desk right now.' Trump's response to Musk's latest gobbet of accusation proved almost melancholic. 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.' He went on to praise 'one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.' In characteristically bratty fashion, Musk went on to share a post agreeing with the proposition that Trump be impeached and replaced by the Vice President, J.D. Vance, advocate 'a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle' (a touching billionaire's wish), and predict 'a recession in the second half of this year' caused by Trump's global tariff regime. In the scheme of things, Trump has survived impeachments, prosecutions, litigation, crowned by a divided US electorate that gave him a majority in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Like a Teflon coated mafia don, he has made compromising people a minor art. Musk, compromised in his support and having second thoughts, can only go noisily into the confused night.
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
The Inevitable Souring: Elon Musk Falls Out With Donald Trump
Sandpit politics is rarely edifying and grown toddlers taking their fists to each other is unlikely to interest. But when they feature US President Donald Trump and the world's wealthiest man, the picture alters. Disputes are bound to be on scale, rippling in their consequences. No crystal ball was required regarding the eventual sundering of the relationship between Trump and Elon Musk. Here were noisy, brash egos who had formed a rancid union in American politics, with Musk lending his resources and public machinery to The Donald knowing he could also have sway in the Trump administration as a 'special government employee'. That sway took the form of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), a crude attempt to right the wrongs of misspending in government while politicising the public service. Awaking from a narcotised daze, Musk decided to focus on his floundering companies, notably Tesla, and step back from the inferno. In doing so, he expected 'to remain a friend and adviser, and if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at this service.' Gazing at the raging inferno that is Trumpian policy, that convivial attitude has all but evaporated. For one thing, Trump's proposed tax breaks and increases in defence spending, espoused in his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, seemed to undermine the very premise of DOGE and its zealous mission of reducing government spending. The legislation promises to slash $1.5 trillion in government spending but increase the debt limit by $4 trillion. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly,' Musk said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning last month. Such a plan merely inflated, not reduced, the budget deficit. 'I think a bill can be big or beautiful. I don't know if it can be both.' This month, Musk got even tetchier. His temper had frayed. 'I'm sorry, I just can't stand it anymore,' he barked on his X platform on June 3. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.' He continued to heap shame on members of Congress 'who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' On June 5, Trump expressed his disappointment 'because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill', leaving open the possibility that the billionaire might be suffering from 'Trump derangement syndrome.' Musk had 'only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the [electric vehicle] mandate.' A blow was in the offing, coming in the form of a post on Truth Social: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!' Musk's embittered retort: 'Such an obvious lie. So sad.' He also proposed, in light of the President's announcement, the decommissioning of Space X's Dragon spacecraft, vehicles used by NASA to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The ripples were finally getting violent. Musk then decided to do what he called dropping 'the really big bomb'. Trump, he revealed, 'is in the Epstein files. This is the real reason they have not been made public.' Given Musk's estranged relationship with reality and its facets, this can only be taken at face value. It's a matter of record that Trump, along with a fat who's who of power, knew the late Jeffrey Epstein, financier and convicted sex offender, for many years. The trove of government documents known as The Epstein Files has offered the easily titillated some manna but, thus far, few bombs. On February 27, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi released what were described as the 'first phase' of files relating to the financier and 'his exploitation of over 250 underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.' In an interview with Fox News on February 21, Bondi revealed that Epstein's client list lay 'on my desk right now.' Trump's response to Musk's latest gobbet of accusation proved almost melancholic. 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.' He went on to praise 'one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.' In characteristically bratty fashion, Musk went on to share a post agreeing with the proposition that Trump be impeached and replaced by the Vice President, J.D. Vance, advocate 'a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle' (a touching billionaire's wish), and predict 'a recession in the second half of this year' caused by Trump's global tariff regime. In the scheme of things, Trump has survived impeachments, prosecutions, litigation, crowned by a divided US electorate that gave him a majority in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Like a Teflon coated mafia don, he has made compromising people a minor art. Musk, compromised in his support and having second thoughts, can only go noisily into the confused night.
