ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming plays critical role in firm's AI push despite low profile
Zhang Yiming, the billionaire founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, has become more involved in the company's artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, according to local media reports and sources familiar with the situation.
While Zhang has stayed out of the public limelight since handing over the chairman and CEO roles to co-founder and former college dorm roommate Liang Rubo in 2021, the 42-year-old Chinese entrepreneur still plays a critical role behind the scenes of ByteDance's AI research, according to one source, who declined to be identified.
The source said that Zhang regularly travels from Singapore, where he is based, to Beijing, where some of ByteDance's core AI researchers are located, to stay on top of the company's research activities. Zhang, who Bloomberg ranks as China's richest man with a net worth of US$57.5 billion, has regularly attended meetings with members of the firm's core AI team since the second half of 2024, according to the source.
According to the Shanghai-based China Business News, Zhang's involvement in AI research was similar to the role Sergey Brin played at Google. Brin co-founded Google with Larry Page in 1998, but he stepped down as president of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in 2019.
The logo of ByteDance is seen on a mobile phone, on February 14, 2025. Photo: AFP
The Paper, a Chinese news website backed by Shanghai United Media Group, reported on Friday that Zhang had increased his involvement in AI-related research at ByteDance. He has repeatedly emphasised his target of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of AI that reaches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities, according to The Paper.
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