Biotech in China is Booming. Big Pharma is Paying Attention.
WSJ Tech News Briefing
The Wall Street Journal
4.3 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, April 10th. I'm Bell Lynn for The Wall Street Journal. |
| 0:10.5 | You may have heard of hacker houses in Silicon Valley, young founders living and working together |
| 0:15.9 | to build the next big tech company. Now, there's a new generation of houses for AI founders, often college |
| 0:23.3 | dropouts who feel like they don't have time to waste in chasing their AI dreams. |
| 0:29.2 | Then, in a different area of technology, China is surging forward. The country's biotech sector |
| 0:34.5 | has become one of the world's hottest sources of new drug ideas, |
| 0:39.0 | and U.S. drug makers are keenly aware of where to find the latest innovations. |
| 0:46.6 | Up first, starting a company might just be easier than ever, thanks to AI. |
| 0:51.9 | And some young founders are making the case that finishing college isn't worth it, |
| 0:56.2 | while they get a head start on their startup dreams. WSGA reporter Kate Clark joins us now to |
| 1:02.6 | discuss this latest generation of young AI founders and why VCs are stepping in to pay their bills. |
| 1:09.8 | So Kate, why is it so attractive for young people to drop out of college and work on AI |
| 1:15.4 | startups these days? Why don't they just wait until they graduate? |
| 1:19.3 | I think that they feel like there's maybe one year, maybe two years if you're being generous, |
| 1:24.3 | where there really is an opportunity to build something entirely new. |
| 1:28.2 | And if you don't jump in right now, then you miss the opportunity entirely. |
| 1:33.4 | And I mean, that's amongst investors. |
| 1:35.6 | There's this growing sense that you're not really AI natives unless you are a really young person. |
| 1:41.3 | So there is a little bit of ages that I think happening. |
| 1:45.6 | And you're seeing investors really, like, recruit some of these 18, 19, 20, 21-year-olds and handing them five, six, |
| 1:52.2 | seven million dollars. And that is becoming much more common than you would have seen several |
| 1:55.9 | years ago. And what I'm mostly seeing, which is, like, people who are not yet even drinking |
... |
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