Dr. Kai-Fu Lee

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is Founder & CEO of 01.AI and Chairman of Sinovation Ventures, a leading venture capital firm managing US$3 billion in dual-currency funds and building the next generation of deep-tech companies. Sinovation's distinctive "VC +AI" model powers venture-building across AI startups, with 01.AI, founded by Dr. Lee in 2023, as its flagship. At the cutting edge of the generative AI and AI agents revolution, 01.AI develops advanced solutions and builds global partnerships to accelerate enterprise and sovereign AI transformation. Before founding Sinovation Ventures, Dr. Lee served as President of Google China and held senior executive roles at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Columbia University, a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, and honorary doctorates from both Carnegie Mellon University and the City University of Hong Kong. He previously co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Council at the World Economic. Dr. Lee is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost voices on artificial intelligence, having been named to TIME100 AI's Top 25 AI Leaders, TIME 100 (2013), and WIRED 25 Icons of the Century. Across social media platforms, he is followed by more than 50 million people worldwide.

His contributions to the field of artificial intelligence span more than four decades. In 1988, he developed one of the first game-playing programs to defeat a world champion in Othello, and later built the world’s first large-vocabulary, speakerindependent continuous speech recognition system. At Apple, he led pioneering AI initiatives in speech and natural language processing that were featured on ABC’s Good Morning America and the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He also founded Microsoft Research Asia, originally called Microsoft Research China, which MIT Technology Review recognized as one of the world’s leading research labs. Dr. Lee authored more than 100 academic papers and holds 10 U.S. patents. His New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order (www.aisuperpowers.com), discusses US-China co-leadership in the age of AI, as well as the broader societal impacts of the AI technology revolution. His 2021 co-authored book, AI 2041 (www.ai2041.com), predicts how artificial intelligence will change our world over the next 20-year horizon. His new book, AI Native - The Mandate to Transform Your Company (www.ainativebook.com), is published in the fall of 2026 redefining how organizations operate, compete, and create value in the era of AI.