Tencent just handed the keys to its artificial intelligence future to a former OpenAI researcher who is barely old enough to rent a car in some US states. Yao Shunyu, appointed as Tencent’s Chief AI Scientist in December 2025, has publicly declared his ambition to build a long-term organization in China focused on artificial general intelligence.
From Princeton to OpenAI to Tencent
Yao holds a PhD from Princeton University, previously worked at Google, and then moved to OpenAI. He’s approximately 27-28 years old and an alumnus of Tsinghua University. He joined Tencent in the summer of 2025. The company formally announced his appointment as Chief AI Scientist internally on December 17, 2025. His expertise centers on language agents and practical digital automation.
On June 5, 2026, Yao articulated his goal for China to build a long-term organization dedicated to AGI, with models that prioritize reliability over merely achieving high benchmarks.
Tencent is putting serious money behind this
