"China can do it because the labor is cheap. That's not true anymore. They are incredible at automating things and automating them in a way that makes them cost competitive." —Davide Asnaghi
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Davide Asnaghi is the co-founder and CEO of Diode, a Brooklyn-based startup using AI to design and manufacture circuit boards in the United States.
Before Diode, Davide worked on Apple’s Special Projects Group and spent time in Hong Kong and Shenzhen studying Asia’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem. That experience convinced him that PCB design, despite powering everything from smartphones and satellites to medical devices and autonomous systems, remained one of the most overlooked layers of the tech stack.
Since its founding just two years ago, Diode has landed Physical Intelligence and Saronic as customers and partnered with Anthropic to help Claude become a better electrical engineer. The company’s ultimate ambition: to make hardware as nimble as software.
In our conversation, we explore:
Why the West outsourced PCB manufacturing to Asia in the 2000s and why bringing it back matters for American competitiveness
What Shenzhen’s manufacturing culture does better than Silicon Valley (and what the U.S. can learn from it)
How Diode’s models can one-shot much of schematic design and compress hardware timelines from months to weeks
The three-week YC pivot that transformed Diode from a design validation tool into a full-stack manufacturer
Why circuit boards are the “forgotten middle child” between silicon and software
How Diode partners with Anthropic to make LLMs better electrical engineers
What it takes to build a hardware company in 2025—and why the talent bar must stay incredibly high
How Italian, American, and Chinese cultures shaped Davide’s approach to entrepreneurship and manufacturing
Thank you to the partners who make this possible
.tech domains: An identity for builders at their core.
Guru: The AI source of truth for work.
Brex: The intelligent finance platform.
Explore the episode
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(04:15) Why Davide calls himself a copper merchant
(05:53) Diode’s mission to rebuild PCB manufacturing in the U.S.
(07:58) What success looks like
(09:00) Growing up in northern Italy and spending a year in Minnesota
(13:14) Why Italy produces fewer venture-backed founders
(15:30) Why Hong Kong accelerated Davide’s learning
(19:09) Silicon Valley vs. Shenzhen
(22:05) What Davide learned in Apple’s Special Projects Team
(24:11) Why Davide left Apple after two years
(26:54) Meeting his co-founder, Lenny
(29:32) How Davide uncovered the need for better PCB design and manufacturing
(33:23) PCB manufacturing in Asia, and Diode’s approach
(41:29) The YC pivot that changed Diode’s business
(44:39) Inside Diode’s customer journey
(48:10) Where the value is in electronics manufacturing, and Davide’s AGI thesis
(51:30) What separates a working board from a great one
(55:32) Where Diode fits in the electronics stack
(59:55) Diode’s early near-death moment and long-term vision
(1:02:30) Diode’s exceptionally high bar for hiring
(1:04:48) Where Davide gets his best ideas
(1:07:00) Final meditations
Follow Davide Asnaghi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-asnaghi
X: https://x.com/davideasnaghi
GitHub: https://hexdae.github.io
Resources and episode mentions
Books
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future: https://www.amazon.com/Breakneck-Chinas-Quest-Engineer-Future/dp/1324106034
Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology: https://www.amazon.com/Chip-War-Worlds-Critical-Technology/dp/1982172002
People
Alex Wong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-wong-6b8930205
Lenny Khazan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennykhazan
Brendan Eich’s website: https://brendaneich.com
Other resources
Diode: https://www.diode.computer
Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc
Bending Spoons: https://www.bendingspoons.com
Fortell (formerly Chromatic): https://www.fortell.com
Butterfly Network: https://www.butterflynetwork.com
Foxconn: https://www.foxconn.com
JLCPCB: https://jlcpcb.com
Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com
Quilter: https://www.quilter.ai
KiCad: https://www.kicad.org
Cadence: https://www.cadence.com
Stripe: https://stripe.com
Dogpatch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch,_San_Francisco
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