In China's AI large model startup circle, a pattern of "Tsinghua in the North, Jiaotong in the South" has formed. Alumni from Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have shown outstanding performance in AI entrepreneurship, becoming two major talent hubs.
The Tsinghua group occupies half of the AI startup circle, with over 40 founders having a Tsinghua background. Among the more active ones are:
- Professor Tang Jie of ZhipuAI
- Yang Zhilin of Moonshot AI (Tang Jie's student)
- Wang Xiaochuan of Baichuan Intelligence
- Professor Zhu Jun of RealAI
- Liu Zhiyuan of ModelBest
Tsinghua University's 30-year accumulation of basic research in AI has provided students with a good entrepreneurial ecosystem. Academician Zhang Bo and others laid the foundation for Tsinghua's AI research, cultivating a group of outstanding talents.
In the computing power field, Iluvatar CoreX, incubated from Professor Wang Yu's lab in Tsinghua's Department of Electronic Engineering, is dedicated to creating the "Android system of the AI computing world."
Meanwhile, Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni have also emerged in the AI startup circle, forming the "Jiaotong gang":
- Xu Li, co-founder of SenseTime
- Dai Wenyuan, founder of 4Paradigm
- Lin Chenxi, co-founder of Yitu Technology
- Chen Shikai, founder of SLAMTEC
- Chen Ning, co-founder of Cloudwalk
- Zhou Jian, CEO of LanCraft Technology
Beijing and Shanghai are gradually forming two AI highlands. Beijing focuses on the model layer with intense competition; Shanghai flourishes in the application layer. More and more AI companies choose to set up offices in both cities to balance development in model and application layers.
Universities like Tsinghua and Jiao Tong emphasize industry-academia-research transformation, providing a good environment for entrepreneurs from 0 to 1. However, startups still face survival challenges and need to work on technology, management, marketing, and other aspects.