# Ethan (Yuanming) Hu

> Ethan (Yuanming) Hu is the founder and CEO of Meshy AI, a Sunnyvale company that turns text and images into usable 3D models. A Tsinghua graduate and MIT computer-science Ph.D., Hu created the open-source Taichi programming language before starting Taichi Graphics in 2021 and eventually pivoting the company to Meshy. His path joins physics simulation, graphics research, two unsuccessful product pivots and a consumer-friendly ambition: making 3D creation as accessible as writing a prompt.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Meshy AI
- **Organizations:** Meshy AI, Taichi Graphics, MIT CSAIL, Tsinghua University, Microsoft Research Asia
- **Education:** B.Eng. in Computer Science, Tsinghua University, Yao Class, M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CSAIL
- **Known for:** Created the open-source Taichi programming language for high-performance visual computing., Received the 2022 MIT EECS George M. Sprowls Thesis Award., Received an honorable mention in the 2022 SIGGRAPH Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Won a gold medal, ranking first in the China district of the Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad, as listed on his LinkedIn profile.
- **2013-2017** — Studied computer science in Tsinghua University's Yao Class; graduated with honor.
- **2017** — Joined MIT's Computational Design and Fabrication Group as a Ph.D. student and arrived with an early version of the open-source Taichi graphics project.
- **2018** — Completed an MIT master's thesis on the ChainQueen differentiable physics engine; his Tsinghua undergraduate work on photo post-processing appeared at SIGGRAPH 2018.
- **2019-2021** — Developed Taichi and related differentiable and quantized simulation research at MIT CSAIL, advised by Frédo Durand and William T. Freeman.
- **2021** — Completed his MIT Ph.D. and co-founded Taichi Graphics.
- **2022** — His Taichi dissertation received the MIT EECS George M. Sprowls Thesis Award and an honorable mention for the SIGGRAPH Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.
- **2023** — Launched Meshy as the company's third product after two unsuccessful pivots.
- **2026** — Meshy announced nearly $400 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, with more than 12 million registered users and over 100 million models created.

## Achievements

- Created the open-source Taichi programming language for high-performance visual computing.
- Received the 2022 MIT EECS George M. Sprowls Thesis Award.
- Received an honorable mention in the 2022 SIGGRAPH Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.
- Co-authored research spanning differentiable physics, sparse computing, quantized simulation, computer vision and 3D printing.
- Built Meshy into a platform reporting more than 12 million registered users and over 100 million generated models by July 2026.
- Led Meshy's nearly $400 million Series B financing announced in July 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Meshy presented its 3D Agent and AI-native game work at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne.
- **2026-07** — Meshy announced nearly $400 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation; it reported 12 million-plus registered users and more than 100 million models created.
- **2026-07** — Hu published a talk on operating as an AI-native founder, including his use of multiple coding agents and his views on hiring, culture and organizational design.
- **2026-03** — Hu spoke at GDC 2026 about AI-assisted game production and AI-native gameplay.

## Links

- Website: https://yuanming.taichi.graphics/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-yuanming-hu
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/YuanmingH
- GitHub: https://github.com/yuanming-hu

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ethan-hu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28