South Asia Investor Review

DreamBig, a fabless semiconductor company founded by NED University alumnus Sohail Syed, has been acquired by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) for $265 million. The Silicon Valley-based startup is developing networking chips for data centers, with hardware specifically designed to run AI applications. The startup  does not manufacture its own chips but instead licenses its designs to other semiconductor companies. It has had a partnership with Samsung’s foundry division to bring its hardware to market.  Sohail Syed, Founder and CEO of DreamBig Semiconductors Here's how DreamBig Semiconductor describes itself on its  website : "DreamBig Semiconductor is a chiplet-based networking company dedicated to providing comprehensive, high throughput solutions for the AI, Datacenter, edge compute and Automotive markets. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, USA, we have over 200 employees globally and partnerships with the largest semiconductor companies in the world.  Founded by RDMA exp...

"Ana minkum wa alaikum" declared Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City in his victory speech on November 4, 2025. The phrase translates to "I am from you and  and I am with you".  "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant", he added. Mamdani is the first Muslim and first immigrant of South Asian descent elected  New York City Mayor. At 34, he is not only the youngest but also the first mayor of the Big Apple who was born in Africa.  Zohran Mamdani Speaking Outside the Bronx Islamic Center With his landslide victory in the mayoral race, Mandani will join London Mayor Sadiq Khan to become the second Muslim mayor of a major western city.  Mamdani became the first New York mayoral candidate to win over a million votes since the 1960s — more than Rudy Giuliani or Mike Bloomberg ever received. Mamdani has received 50.4% of the votes counted so far. Cuomo is at...

Hamtramck, part of the greater Detroit area, has elected its first Muslim mayor and an all-Muslim city council this month. The newly elected council members will begin their term in January,2022, according to The  Detroit Free Press .  The city's population is dominated by immigrants, including 19.7% Bangladeshi, 11% Pakistani, 10.9% Polish and 10% Arab. The rising Islamophobia in America has served as a wake-up call for all Muslim Americans to become more involved in political and civic affairs of the United States. They are now voting in large numbers and starting to win elections across the country.  L to R: Nayeem Choudhury, Amanda Jaczkowski, Mohammad Hassan,  Mohammad Alsomiri, Khalil Refai and Adam Albarmaki Nayeem Choudhury is the chairman of the Hamtramck city council while Amanda Jaczkowski, Mohammed Hassan, Mohammed Alsomiri, Khalil Refai and Adam Albarmaki  are city council members. Three of them are of Yemeni descent, two of Bangladeshi descent and ...

Here's CNN analyst Van Jones talking about the ill-effects of Islamophobia in America: "Honestly, if a Muslim family moved next door to you, you would be the happiest person in the world. First of all, the chances of your kids getting into trouble just went way down. OK, went way down. Because (American) Muslim community has the lowest crime rate, the highest entrepreneurship , the highest educational attainment for women in the country (US). They are the model American community. And so, when you have people who are now afraid to come here--that's starting to happen--you have geniuses from Pakistan , who are from Indonesia, who now (think to themselves) "I'm not safe here". That becomes an economic problem for America long term. So that we're starting to do stuff here that doesn't make good sense for what has made us great so far." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr5cLv8Dj2I Related Links: Haq's Musings Hindus and Mus...

Pakistani-Americans are the largest foreign-born Muslim group in San Francisco Bay Area that includes Silicon Valley, according to a 2013 study. The study was commissioned by the One Nation Bay Area Project, a civic engagement program supported by Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.  Overall, US-born Muslims make up the largest percentage at 34% of all Muslims in the Bay Area, followed by 14% born in Pakistan, 11% in Afghanistan, 10% in India, 3% in Egypt and 2% each in Iran, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen. Silicon Valley Pakistani-American by the Numbers: Bay Area Muslims by Country of Birth  There are 35,000 Pakistani-born Muslims in San Francisco Bay Area,  or 14% of the 250,000 Muslims who call the Bay Area home, according to  the study . Bay Area Muslim community constitutes 3.5 percent of the area’s total population and is one of the highest c...

Lahore-based Groopic and Islamabad-based Tunacode have been accepted to be part of this summer’s Blackbox Connect program in Silicon Valley. Founded by Pakistanis, both companies are start-ups with innovative products whose founding teams are looking to live, learn and network for two weeks at an Atherton mansion this summer from July 15 to 26, 2013.  These young entrepreneurs are a reflection of Pakistan's growing human capital . This year's summer program of Blackbox Connect is supported by Google. Groopic is an application that helps put the photographer back into photos with his or her buddies. Eyedeus, the company behind Groopic, emerged from the first batch of companies at Plan9 , the Punjab government’s incubator which is named after an operating system project at the Bell Labs in the 1980s. Tunacode specializes in optimizing complex software to graphic processing units (GPUs). The two Pakistani companies are among eight non-US start-ups selected to partic...