Kai-fu Lee
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Kai-fu Lee

Kai-fu Lee
Kai-fu Lee
Kai-fu Lee is a Chinese venture capitalist and popular microblogger best known for his role as founding president of Google China. He has also held high-technology executive positions at Apple, SGI and Microsoft. Born on December 3, 1961, Lee went on to create the world's first speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system as his Ph.D. thesis at Carnegie Mellon. In 2009 he co-founded Innovation Works, a venture capital fund for Chinese internet start-ups.
Born
3 Dec 1961
Industry
Technology, Business
Job Title
Businessman
The Qwen logo is seen in this illustration taken, January 29, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Meta sees role reversal as it adopts Alibaba’s Qwen to train AI models

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Chinese firms keen to catch up with the US used Meta’s Llama to help them build their own models.

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Banking & finance

UBS says managed assets in Asia-Pacific region recently surpassed US$1 trillion

Artificial intelligence

AI agents to replace humans as basic units of a company, Kai-Fu Lee says

DeepSeek

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng ‘takes no short cuts’, Li Auto CEO says

That assessment reflects how Liang, an ‘extremely self-disciplined person’, led DeepSeek to become a true innovator in AI.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, in the background, follows an open-source approach in AI development. Photo: Shutterstock
DeepSeek

DeepSeek on recruitment drive as start-up remains tight-lipped on new AI model

This marks the first time DeepSeek has published product-related job openings, as it has largely focused on fundamental AI model research.

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China technology

My Take | DeepSeek has changed China’s AI model landscape – what’s next?

The start-up has emerged as the unlikely winner of a dizzying domestic competition. Can it reshape the global market as well?

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Artificial intelligence

Exclusive | Why Lee Kai-fu is betting his AI start-up’s future on DeepSeek

In an interview with the Post, Lee discusses China’s ‘ChatGPT moment’ and 01.AI’s transition from a model developer to a solutions provider.

Lee Kai-fu, founder of start-up 01.AI. Photo: Handout
DeepSeek

China’s AI start-ups scramble to respond to DeepSeek amid shift to open source

Hangzhou-based DeepSeek has dominated the spotlight in China’s AI arena at the expense of local peers such as Moonshot and MiniMax.

Artificial intelligence

Chinese start-up 01.AI founder Lee Kai-fu denies asset sale to Alibaba Cloud

01.AI denounced as ‘vicious slander’ talks that it was looking to sell its pre-training team and other assets owing to business difficulty.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba ties up with Lee Kai-fu’s unicorn as AI sector consolidates

Alibaba Cloud signs a deal with start-up 01.AI to develop AI model solutions for business clients.

Alibaba Cloud is collaborating with 01.AI to build business-focused large models. Photo: Handout
ByteDance

TikTok owner ByteDance hires prominent talent from AI start-ups

The new hires come as the company pursues long-term plans to enhance GenAI research, as early efforts begin to pay off.

ByteDance is pursuing a long-term strategy on LLM research. Photo: Reuters
Alibaba

Alibaba taps China’s top AI start-ups to boost enterprise offerings

The tech giants is partnering with MiniMax, Moonshot AI, Orionstar, Baichuan, Zhipu AI and 01.AI to develop new functions on its popular office app.

Artificial intelligence

New AI, old tricks: price war engulfs Chinese tech firms large and small

The price of AI services in China plummeted in May after ByteDance kicked off a price war by pricing access to its LLMs at 99.8 per cent below GPT-4.

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Artificial intelligence

Tech unicorn 01.AI admits ‘oversight’ in naming AI model built on Meta’s Llama

The start-up has decided to change the so-called tensor name of its AI model Yi-34B, following an inquiry that later revealed it was developed using the architecture of Meta Platforms’ Llama system.

An inquiry has found that Beijing-based start-up 01.AI’s artificial intelligence large language model, Yi-34B, was built on the architecture of Meta Platforms’ Llama system. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Venture veteran Lee Kai-fu jumps into China’s AI race with new start-up

China can only gain a competitive edge in the field of AI by creating its own LLMs rather than relying on foreign technology, the former head of Google China said.

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Lee Kai-Fu, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, has launched a start-up focused on developing its own large language model. Photo: Edmond So
Artificial intelligence

ChatGPT sparks investment frenzy and soul searching in China

While China had declared AI strategically important as early as 2018, ChatGPT has shattered illusions about the country’s technological prowess.

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US-China tech war

Venture capitalist Lee Kai-fu says Hong Kong needs to retain top tech talent

The city has seen a brain drain in recent years and this is a huge challenge, according to Lee.

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Drones

Agricultural drone maker XAG gets US$182 million in new funding

XAG gets an influx of new cash from Baidu, SoftBank and others as competition in the agricultural drone market remains heated thanks to competition from DJI.

An XAG drone plants rice seeds. Photo: Handout
US-China trade war: All stories

Top China venture capitalist ‘will pull out of US if trade war escalates’

Founded in 2009, Sinovation Ventures was one of the first Chinese VC firms with a presence in the US.

Update | Ex-Google China chief Lee Kai-fu dismisses rumours of his demise

Party publication sets sights on ex-Google China chief Lee Kai-fu

Lee Kai-Fu. Photo: Simon Song

I hope to win battle against cancer soon, says ex-Google China chief Lee Kai-fu

The 51-year-old former president of Google China was in stable condition after being diagnosed with lymphoma, said Wang Zhaohui, co-founder of Innovation Works, a Beijing-based business incubator and venture capital fund for internet start-ups. Lee had about 20 tumours, mainly in his abdomen area, Wang said.

Lee Kai-Fu is receiving cancer treatment. Photo: Simon Song

Ex-Google China chief Kai-fu Lee thanks online supporters after cancer diagnosis

Apple

Opinion | 'Boss, it's April Fool's Day': Reactions as Apple apologises

Weibo

Opinion | Critique lands Kai-Fu Lee in trouble

This latest brouhaha highlights the risk that people who do business in China face when they speak too candidly in public forums about major official organisations like the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party

Outspoken Internet icon and former Google China executive Kai-Fu Lee. Photo: AP

Who said it?

Lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah
Tencent

Former Google China chief banned from microblogging sites

Former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee says he was temporarily banned from posting items on two of the mainland's most popular microblogging platforms. Without saying why he was banned, Lee posted a message on Twitter on Sunday saying: "I am silenced on Sina and Tencent [microblogs] for three days, so everyone can find me here."

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