Glasses that subtitle your world

Plus: TSMC doubles down on Arizona; China pushes stablecoins

Author

Joey Padgett
July 07, 2025

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Hey people!

Welcome back to Forests Over Trees, your tech strategy newsletter. It’s time to zoom-out, connect dots, and (try to) predict the future.

A quick thank you to this week’s partners:

  • Flippa — the easiest way to buy or sell an online business

  • Reclaimai — an AI calendar that protects your time

  • Softr — create no-code apps on top of your data

Glasses that subtitle your world

Plus: TSMC doubles down on Arizona; China pushes stablecoins

⚡ Tech News Takes ⚡
(3 stories)

  • What’s up: TSMC is delaying construction of its 2nd chip plant in Japan to prioritize a 3rd plant in Arizona — part of a pledged $165B US investment.

    • They are reportedly trying to avoid Trump’s tariffs by ramping up US production.

    • Construction on the 2nd Japan plant was planned to start in 2025, but is now delayed indefinitely.

  • So what: I’m surprised by this, because 1/ Japan has given huge incentives to support TSMC’s expansion (which we’ve covered before) and 2/ basing your plan on Trump’s plan seems like shaky ground. Perhaps they’ll pivot again when the tariff noise quiets down.

  • What’s up: TranscribeGlass launched lightweight smart glasses for $377 that show live subtitles from conversations, aimed at people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    • They use an app and your phone’s mic to project text into your field of view with up to 8 hours of battery life.

    • They’re also testing emotional tone detection like [Awkwardness] or [Amused].

  • So what: It’s a narrow use case — but a powerful one. And it helps that Meta’s Ray Bans were successful, starting to reverse the Google Glass curse for the AR glasses space.

  • What’s up: JD.com and Ant Group are lobbying Chinese regulators to launch yuan-backed stablecoins to reduce reliance on USD-pegged tokens.

    • They aim to launch in Hong Kong first, citing urgency to internationalize the yuan. Yuan’s global payment share is 2.89% vs. 48% for USD.

    • JD plans to apply for stablecoin licenses worldwide and has gotten positive feedback from Chinese regulators.

  • So what: For JD and Ant, this is smart, because issuing stablecoins could earn them money. But for China, it’s a strategic move. If USD-backed coins dominate, the US keeps its grip on global payments — even in crypto. A yuan stablecoin is Beijing’s attempt to break that pattern.

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🌲 F/T Shoutouts 🌲

  • Carrying your weight! — Love this graphic. It’s impressive to see Lyft > Uber and OnlyFans > everybody. That said, this doesn’t show trends over time (some of these firms are investing extra people in growth) or the total revenue.

  • Path to AGI — (warning: nerdy/technical!) Pretty fascinating talk from Y Combinator. Francois Chollet unpacks the technical reasons why AI made such a big leap in the last few years, and predicts what the next leaps will come from.