# Kai-Fu Lee

> Kai-Fu Lee is a Beijing-based computer scientist, entrepreneur, investor and author. After work in speech recognition at Carnegie Mellon and leadership roles at Apple, Microsoft and Google China, he founded Sinovation Ventures in 2009 and 01.AI in 2023. He now argues for AI that changes how organizations work and make decisions.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO of 01.AI; Chairman of Sinovation Ventures
- **Organizations:** 01.AI, Sinovation Ventures, Google China, Microsoft Research China / Microsoft Research Asia, Apple, Silicon Graphics
- **From:** Taipei, Taiwan
- **Nationality:** Taiwanese
- **Education:** BS in Computer Science, Columbia University, PhD in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Known for:** Developed the Sphinx speech recognition system for his doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon., Founded Microsoft Research China, later Microsoft Research Asia., Led Google China from 2005 to 2009.

## Career timeline

- **1988** — Completed a Carnegie Mellon PhD on large-vocabulary, speaker-independent continuous speech recognition.
- **1990-1996** — Worked at Apple on speech and other computing projects.
- **1998** — Became founding director of Microsoft Research China, later Microsoft Research Asia.
- **2005-2009** — Led Google China as president.
- **2009** — Founded Innovation Works, later Sinovation Ventures.
- **2018** — Published AI Superpowers.
- **2021** — Co-authored AI 2041 with science fiction writer Chen Qiufan.
- **2023** — Founded 01.AI in Beijing; the company released the Yi open model family.
- **2025** — 01.AI released its WorldWise enterprise platform.
- **2026** — 01.AI released TrueNorth; Lee outlined his enterprise AI ideas in AI Native.

## Achievements

- Developed the Sphinx speech recognition system for his doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon.
- Founded Microsoft Research China, later Microsoft Research Asia.
- Led Google China from 2005 to 2009.
- Founded Sinovation Ventures in 2009 and 01.AI in 2023.
- Named to TIME’s 2013 list of 100 influential people and its 2023 TIME100 AI list.
- Authored AI Superpowers and co-authored AI 2041.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Discussed frontier model development and enterprise adoption in a Bloomberg interview.
- **2026-07** — 01.AI released TrueNorth; Lee discussed a potential 2027 Hong Kong IPO plan.
- **2026-07** — Introduced his forthcoming book AI Native: The Mandate to Transform Your Company.

## Links

- Website: https://www.aisuperpowers.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaifulee/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/kaifulee

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kai-fu-lee
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29