# Max Liu

> Max Liu (刘奇) is co-founder and CEO of PingCAP, the company behind TiDB - an open-source distributed SQL database designed for hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP). He co-founded PingCAP in 2015 after stints at JD.com and Wandou Labs, solving the database scaling crisis at hyperscale. Under his leadership, PingCAP raised $341.6M in total funding including a $270M Series D, and TiDB now serves customers including Pinterest, Plaid, Bolt, and Atlassian. In 2025, Liu was named one of The Top 50 Software CEOs of 2024 by The Software Report.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at PingCAP
- **Organizations:** PingCAP, TiDB, TiKV (CNCF project)
- **Nationality:** Chinese
- **Known for:** Co-authored TiDB, one of the most starred open-source databases on GitHub with 38,000+ stars, Co-authored TiKV, now a CNCF graduated project, Co-authored Codis, widely adopted open-source Redis cluster solution

## Career timeline

- **Pre-2015** — Infrastructure engineer at JD.com (China's largest B2C online retailer), gaining deep expertise in distributed systems at hyperscale
- **Pre-2015** — Worked at Wandou Labs (Wandoujia) in the Distributed Systems Team on large-scale infrastructure projects
- **Pre-2015** — Co-authored Codis, an open-source Redis cluster solution that became widely adopted
- **2015** — Co-founded PingCAP in April with Huang Dongxu (CTO/Edward Huang) and Cui Qiu to build TiDB
- **2015** — Began development of TiDB (distributed SQL database) and TiKV (underlying key-value store)
- **2018** — TiDB became a graduated CNCF project; TiKV accepted into CNCF
- **2020** — Led PingCAP's $270M Series D round (November 2020), the largest funding in distributed database space
- **2022** — Launched TiDB Cloud (fully managed DBaaS) for global enterprises; appeared on Techstrong TV and YouTube interviews
- **2024** — Keynote speaker at HTAP Summit 2024: 'What's Next for SQL @ Scale'
- **2025** — Named to The Software Report's Top 50 Software CEOs of 2024

## Achievements

- Co-authored TiDB, one of the most starred open-source databases on GitHub with 38,000+ stars
- Co-authored TiKV, now a CNCF graduated project
- Co-authored Codis, widely adopted open-source Redis cluster solution
- Led PingCAP to raise $341.6M total funding including $270M Series D (2020)
- Grew TiDB to serve customers including Pinterest, Plaid, Bolt, Atlassian, and Manus
- Named Top 50 Software CEO of 2024 by The Software Report (January 2025)
- Recognized in Forbes China '2019 40 Under 40'
- Built PingCAP to 600+ employees across multiple continents
- TiDB won 2026 Gold Stevie Award in Big Data Category
- Established PingCAP as a leading open-source infrastructure company globally

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Named to The Software Report's Top 50 Software CEOs of 2024
- **2025-01** — TiDB won 2026 Gold Stevie Award in Big Data Category
- **2024-06** — Keynote speaker at HTAP Summit 2024: 'What's Next for SQL @ Scale'
- **2024-01** — PingCAP reported $13.1M annual revenue with 430-person team
- **2022-10** — Featured in YouTube interview with Murong Yang discussing the vision for PingCAP
- **2022-08** — Appeared on Techstrong TV discussing TiDB Cloud and PingCAP's innovation roadmap

## Links

- Website: https://pingcap.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/max-liu-0b2390147
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ngaut1

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/max-liu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-25