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Comp AI Raises $34M Series A for Agentic Security and Compliance PlatformU.S. Chip Manufacturing Faces 157,000-Worker Shortage as Samsung, TSMC Seek TalentKing Charles to Press AI Leaders on Safety as Nvidia and Google Seek Faster Grid LinksGraphics researcher Tong Xin joins Meshy as chief scientistOpenAI discloses six concerning AI model incidents in testingCity Walk Guide: Early Autumn in Weihai for Sea, Sand, and Seafood
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Ex-Tencent Hunyuan pretraining lead Yao Xingcheng joins Thinking Machines Lab

Yao Xingcheng, former pretraining lead for Tencent Hunyuan, has joined Thinking Machines Lab, the North American AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Leiphone reported. His Tencent annual package was reportedly in the tens of millions of yuan, and he had previously been linked to Meta.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-17 20:31

Leiphone reported that Yao left Tencent in July and had been responsible for pretraining work on Hunyuan, Tencent’s large language model. He was one of the young AI research talents Tencent had recruited with priority over the past year, the report said. Yao and Yao Shunyu, another researcher, both come from Tsinghua University’s Yao Class and are senior and junior fellow students.

Before joining Thinking Machines Lab, Yao had been rumored to join Meta. He ultimately chose the company founded by Murati, according to Leiphone.

People familiar with the matter told Leiphone that Thinking Machines Lab offered Yao a salary clearly higher than his income at Tencent. His annual package at Tencent was in the range of several tens of millions of yuan, the report said.

The report said top pretraining talent has become a scarce resource for major Chinese technology companies. Leiphone previously reported exclusively that major Chinese companies had poached pretraining talent from Gemini; the latest move involved Tencent talent going to an overseas laboratory.

Editor's Summary

Yao Xingcheng, former pretraining lead for Tencent Hunyuan, has joined Thinking Machines Lab, the startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, according to Leiphone. His move follows a reported Tencent compensation package in the tens of millions of yuan and earlier speculation that he would join Meta. It highlights the competition for top pretraining researchers, with Chinese tech talent now moving to overseas AI labs.