After Setback in Light Years Beyond, Wang Huiwen Returns to AI Entrepreneurship
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Wang Huiwen, former co-founder of Meituan who had been quiet for a while due to health reasons, has recently made a new move.
According to Tianyancha App, Beijing Guidong Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guidong Technology") recently added Wang Huiwen as a shareholder, increasing its registered capital from 1 million yuan to 1.05 million yuan. Public information shows that Guidong Technology was established in August 2023 and is a company engaged in software and information technology services. Prior to this shareholder change, Yuan Jinhui, founder of OneFlow (a leading AI company), held 100% of the company's shares. Currently, Yuan Jinhui holds 95% of the shares, while Wang Huiwen holds 5%.
After Setback in Light Years Beyond, Wang Huiwen Returns to AI Entrepreneurship
Wang Huiwen is a veteran of the internet industry and a serial entrepreneur, best known as the former co-founder of Meituan. In February of this year, amid the AI entrepreneurship wave triggered by ChatGPT, Wang Huiwen announced that he would personally invest $50 million to establish Beijing Light Years Beyond Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Light Years Beyond"), aiming to create a Chinese version of OpenAI. At the time, he also revealed that "top-tier VCs have subscribed to $230 million in the next round of financing," with the funds accounting for 25% of the equity. The remaining 75% would be used to recruit top-tier R&D talent.
Wang Huiwen's call for heroes not only attracted many top AI talents but also excited the AI investment community. After all, Wang Huiwen is not only highly capable but also possesses strong influence and appeal, with the full support of Meituan founder and his "old classmate" Wang Xing. Shortly after Wang Huiwen announced his entry into AI entrepreneurship, Wang Xing revealed that he would participate in Light Years Beyond's Series A financing in a personal capacity and would also serve as a director. At the time, Wang Xing wrote on his social media: "Lao Wang and I have been walking the entrepreneurial path together for nearly 20 years. Since he is determined to embrace this big wave, I must support him."
However, just four months into the venture, Wang Huiwen had to step down due to personal health issues. Insiders at Light Years Beyond revealed that Wang Huiwen had shown signs of health problems as early as May, with suspected symptoms of depression. On June 25, Meituan issued an announcement stating that Wang Huiwen had resigned as a director due to personal health reasons. On June 29, Meituan announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it had completed the acquisition of 100% equity in Light Years Beyond's domestic and overseas entities for 2.065 billion yuan. In August of this year, Wang Huiwen exited as a shareholder of Light Years Beyond, marking the end of his AI entrepreneurship journey.
Notably, Tianyancha App reveals that on April 17, Lightyear Beyond made an additional investment in a company named Beijing Yiliu Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Yiliu Technology"). Founded in 2017, Yiliu Technology primarily engages in software and information technology services, with Yuan Jinhui serving as its legal representative. Public records indicate that Yiliu Technology currently has three shareholders: Lightyear Beyond (holding 46.5%), Yuan Jinhui (34.6%), and Beijing Huihuang Innovation Technology Center (18.8%).
Yuan Jinhui holds a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science, mentored by Academician Zhang Bo, a pioneer in Chinese AI and director of Tsinghua's AI Research Institute. A former principal researcher at Microsoft Research Asia and recipient of the Microsoft Research Asia Director's Special Award, Yuan is a renowned expert in AI architecture. When founding Yiliu Technology in 2017, his vision was to develop OneFlow, a next-generation open-source deep learning framework and development platform.
In August this year, Yuan announced on social media that the OneFlow team would re-enter entrepreneurship, with their first product being a large model inference and deployment system aimed at addressing the high costs of AIGC (Generative AI) and LLM (Large Language Model) deployment. He stated, "We believe this is one of the best commercial opportunities in the era of large models. The OneFlow team's expertise in AI infrastructure speaks for itself, and Yiliu Technology has been one of the few projects to deliver returns to investors over the years. We welcome serious investment institutions to discuss collaboration."
That same month, Silicon Motion Technology was officially established, with Yuan as its legal representative. Now, Wang Huiwen has officially invested in Silicon Motion Technology, joining forces with Yuan to re-enter the AI startup arena. Although Silicon Motion has yet to release any projects or products, the partnership between these two figures has drawn significant attention, making Wang Huiwen's second AI venture particularly noteworthy.
Meituan Expands AI Large Model Strategy Through In-House Development and Investments
Following Wang Huiwen's medical leave earlier this year, investors in Lightyear Beyond faced potential losses. Meituan's timely acquisition served as a safety net orchestrated by Wang Xing, ensuring a smooth exit for these investors.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, Meituan has been continuously strengthening its presence in the AI field, adopting a dual strategy of in-house R&D and investments. According to market sources, Meituan's entry into large language models coincided with Wang Xing's investment in Wang Huiwen's Lightyear Beyond. During the Q1 earnings call, Wang Xing revealed that Meituan's internal team is dedicated to developing its own foundational models and related applications, stating, 'Meituan will focus on building its own AI capabilities and applying them to our users.'
Media reports indicate that Meituan has established an S-team as the highest decision-making body for large models, with Wang Xing reportedly checking in with the algorithm team leader every one or two weeks for updates. After acquiring Lightyear Beyond, Meituan publicly stated that it would support the Lightyear Beyond team in continuing its exploration and research in the large model domain.
Recently, Meituan launched an app called 'Wow,' its first AI interactive product. Wow is an AI companion startup project within Meituan, primarily aimed at creating an ideal AI partner for young people for virtual role-playing and emotional companionship. However, Wow focuses on social chatting and is not directly related to Meituan's core business.
Beyond in-house development, Meituan has also been active in investing in large model startups. In July, Tianyancha data showed that Zhipu AI, a Chinese cognitive large model platform, underwent a business change with Meituan's Tianjin Sankuai Technology Co., Ltd. becoming a new shareholder, holding a 10.42% stake. The registered capital increased from approximately 14.8069 million yuan to about 16.5286 million yuan.
Zhipu AI was founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Tsinghua University's Knowledge Engineering Laboratory, with its founder being Professor Tang Jie from Tsinghua's Computer Science Department. Zhipu AI is regarded as one of the most OpenAI-like and high-caliber AI companies in China and is a hot startup in the large model field. Its investors include prominent institutions like Legend Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Fortune Capital, Turing Ventures, and CASSTAR. It is reported that Zhipu AI has raised over 2.5 billion yuan this year, making it one of the highest-funded large model companies in China.
It's evident that Wang Xing, a Tsinghua alumnus, prefers investing in Tsinghua-affiliated startups when it comes to large models, whether it's Lightyear Beyond or Zhipu AI. In the future, whether Silicon Motion Technology, co-founded by Wang Huiwen and Yuan Jinhui, will also receive support from Meituan remains to be seen.