# Zhen Lu

> Zhen Lu is the co-founder and CEO of Runpod, an AI developer cloud that began with roughly $50,000 of Ethereum-mining hardware in two New Jersey basements. A former chemistry professor who taught himself to code, Lu spent six years building software and teams with co-founder Pardeep Singh at Comcast before the pair launched Runpod through a Reddit offer for free GPU time. By June 2026, the company said it served more than one million developers, had processed more than ten billion serverless requests, and had raised a $100 million Series A led by Summit Partners at a $1 billion valuation.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Runpod
- **Organizations:** Runpod, Comcast, University of Pittsburgh, Temple University
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, PhD in computational chemistry, Temple University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Runpod and grew it from self-funded basement GPU rigs into a global AI developer cloud., Reached $1 million in revenue within nine months of the product's early 2022 launch., Bootstrapped Runpod for almost two years and more than $24 million in revenue before its major seed financing.

## Career timeline

- **2009-2015** — Completed doctoral work in computational chemistry at Temple University, including research on the electronic structure of DNA base pairs.
- **2015-2017** — Worked as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
- **2017-2022** — Moved into software engineering at Comcast, later becoming a software engineering manager; worked with Pardeep Singh and helped grow their team from about eight people to nearly 100.
- **Late 2021** — Lu and Singh invested in Ethereum-mining rigs in their New Jersey basements, then began converting the hardware into AI servers as mining approached its end.
- **Early 2022** — Soft-launched Runpod by offering free GPU access through AI-focused Reddit communities in exchange for feedback.
- **2022** — Runpod reached $1 million in revenue within nine months; the founders left their jobs as the business outgrew nights and weekends.
- **2024** — Runpod raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital after reaching roughly 100,000 developers.
- **2026-01** — Runpod reported a $120 million annual revenue run rate, 500,000 developers, and operations across 31 regions.
- **2026-06** — Runpod announced a $100 million Series A led by Summit Partners at a $1 billion valuation and said the platform had crossed one million developers and ten billion serverless requests.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Runpod and grew it from self-funded basement GPU rigs into a global AI developer cloud.
- Reached $1 million in revenue within nine months of the product's early 2022 launch.
- Bootstrapped Runpod for almost two years and more than $24 million in revenue before its major seed financing.
- Raised a $20 million seed round in 2024, co-led by Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital.
- Raised a $100 million Series A led by Summit Partners in June 2026 at a reported $1 billion valuation.
- Built a platform that reported more than one million developers and over ten billion serverless requests by June 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Published reflections on Runpod passing $120 million in annual recurring revenue and serving more than one million developers, emphasizing the community that shaped the platform.
- **2026-08** — Published essays arguing that owning and tailoring model weights can improve control, customizability, and cost.
- **2026-06** — Announced Runpod's $100 million Series A led by Summit Partners, alongside the milestone of more than one million developers.
- **2026-05** — Hosted a live technical Q&A on GPU supply, cold starts, pod scaling, cost per token, and agentic workloads.
- **2026-04** — Appeared on the Stack Overflow Podcast to discuss community-funded growth, user feedback, and Runpod's move from basement servers to global infrastructure partnerships.

## Links

- Website: https://www.runpod.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeen
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/runpod_io
- GitHub: https://github.com/runpod
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RunPodIO
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/RunPod.io/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/zhen-lu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27