Alex Wu (吳明韋)

Coach Natalie gonna make valks do layups drills on the flight home

How do you convince Silicon Valley talent to move to a rice paddy in 1980s Taiwan? We talk a lot about TSMC’s journey, but one piece of “human infrastructure” rarely gets mentioned—yet it played a critical role in building Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. It’s my high school: National Experimental High School Bilingual Department (aka International Bilingual School at Hsinchu Science Park), the modern global chip supply chain’s best-kept secret. Headlines now celebrate Taiwan officially surpassing Japan and South Korea in GDP per capita. The economic engine is clear: an AI boom powered by TSMC and the “Silicon Shield.” But when I see those charts, I don’t just see industrial policy. I see my classmates in bright pink uniforms at flag ceremony, cleaning hallways every afternoon, and getting into normal teenage trouble. I’m a proud alum of National Experimental High School (NEHS) in Hsinchu. To outsiders, it’s just a small public school with fewer than 40 students per grade. To those of us who grew up there, it was the hidden heart of Hsinchu Science Park and the global chip supply chain. In the 1980s, the Taiwanese government faced a challenge money alone couldn’t solve. They needed top engineering talent to return from the U.S.—not just to work, but to build a nation. These were families with established lives abroad, yet drawn home by a sense of purpose. Patriotism, however, doesn’t erase parenthood. They wouldn’t uproot their children unless the kids could thrive in the new system. So the government created NEHS—a bilingual, U.S.-curriculum “safe harbor” right next to the fabs. It was the bridge that let them say yes. Today Taiwan’s economy is breaking records. But before they could build the fabs, they had to build the community. You can import machinery, but you have to home the talent. On a personal note, I owe an apology to my wonderful AP Calculus teacher, Ms. Christine Huang, for dragging down our class average back then. She later became Principal of NEHS and today is Chairwoman of Leantec, the robotics arm of newly listed billion-dollar smart manufacturing giant Syntec. That’s the level of talent we were surrounded by—from the blackboard to the boardroom. To my NEHS family: tag a fellow alum below ❤️ (And if you see Ms. Huang, tell her I’m slightly better at math now 😂)

Last Q4, we underestimated ourselves—big time. Our first 5,000 @nexmotiongames Playgrounds sold out in less than two months. At the start of this year, we said if we crushed it, we’d sell 50,000. Well, this past weekend, we crossed 100,000 units for 2024. We’re racing to restock as much as we can before Christmas because demand has blown past even our wildest goals. When I saw the sales numbers early morning last Friday, I teared up. My wife asked why. I said, “PMF.” 😭 She stared at me blankly and then replied, “If Cassian doesn’t get his pants on, you’re going to be late to daycare.”🤣 Startups, man. What a ride. After 7 years grinding, numerous buzzer beaters, still feels like Day One. #PMF #blessed #1%finished

And another one! 🔥💪😎

Meet @laniegrant2025 , the youngest player in NCAA basketball today—and the reason we owe a huge moment in @nexmotiongames’s history to a 11-year-old. A few years back, while pulling data for a WSJ story, one user stood out: someone who logged an unreal number of shots on our @HomeCourtai . Turns out, it was Lanie, a young sharpshooter from Richmond, VA, who lived on the court. Thousands of shots, day in and day out. We connected her with the WSJ, and the story not only put her talent on display—it also put us on the map. Fast forward to 2024: Lanie’s a FIBA U16 world champ, Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year, a member of the USA U16 team, and now a true freshman at UNC. From a kid with a dream to making history. Keep shooting, Lanie! #belikelanie

Asians winning Olympic medals in shooting, archery, fencing, judo, taekwondo, etc. makes me think we need an assassin event similar to the triathlon 😂#ParisOlympicGames2024

Semi-hot take: what if this was positioned as an “interactive encolypedic companion for kids” and targeted towards parents who want fun, semi-educational tech that isn’t a smartphone. Love the ambition but feels like more focused use case would have been helpful at this stage.

Let’s goooo

foo fighters concert on @MetaQuestVR was legit.