Yin Qi's Breakthrough in Middle Age
Before StepStar announced a financing of 5 billion yuan, Yin Qi had been away from the center of the stage for a long time.
You can also understand this more straightforwardly as: He's out of the limelight.
Of course, this is in comparison with his former self. A genius teenager, a member of Tsinghua's Yao Class, an entrepreneur at 23, and the founder of a star unicorn company... With a series of labels attached to him, Yin Qi and the Megvii he founded were at the peak of their popularity in the era of the "Four AI Dragons".
However, in the past two years, the protagonists in the AI world have long since changed. What the media and investors repeatedly mention are either the new generation of post - 90s entrepreneurs or the giants and the older generation who have re - entered the arena. For a long time, the name Yin Qi seemed to be placed in a niche of China's AI narrative, looking a bit frustrated.
This is actually the situation of a certain type of entrepreneurs. They have in common an early start and had their glorious moments in the previous AI 1.0 cycle, but they failed to keep up with the new round of AI revolution. In an industry that quickly creates new names and also quickly forgets old ones, such a position is rather awkward - They are not young enough to enjoy the narrative dividends of the new generation of entrepreneurs, nor are they old enough to assume the stance of industry evangelists.
This is simply the mid - life crisis of entrepreneurs.
However, the reason for writing about Yin Qi today is not to focus on his setbacks, but on how he chose to face the crisis head - on and stand back on the table as an entrepreneur. Of course, he may not win this time, but perhaps Yin Qi himself cares more about regaining a sense of participation in the core battlefield than the result.
When the genius is "beaten up"
What's the difference between Yin Qi now and ten years ago?
"Ten years ago, I hadn't been tempered by the real world." In a recent interview, Yin Qi didn't shy away from his former idealistic self. He frankly said, "If you haven't really experienced something, you'll still make wrong judgments about the difficulty of many things. After you've experienced some, you'll have a better sense of the whole picture of the thing, so you'll be more prudent."
In the previous decade, Yin Qi's name was almost always associated with genius, and Megvii was regarded as a model for Chinese AI companies. However, subsequent obstacles in IPO, limitations in commercialization, and changes in the external environment have led this once - glorious company into a digestion period, and also made Yin Qi more calmly examine himself.
Yin Qi, Source: Qianli Technology
In 1988, Yin Qi was born in Wuhu, Anhui, with his ancestral home in Jiangsu. In 2006, he was admitted to the Department of Automation at Tsinghua University through the university's independent enrollment program.
In his sophomore year, Yin Qi signed up for the entrance exam of the Yao Class. That year, only forty students were selected for the class. Since the exam mainly covered mathematics and algorithms, the students who took the exam were mainly from the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Automation, the Department of Electronic Engineering, and the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Most of the students who passed the exam were from the Department of Computer Science, and Yin Qi was one of the few students from other departments who was admitted to the Yao Class.
In 2011, at the age of 22, Yin Qi co - founded Megvii Technology with his Tsinghua classmates Tang Wenbin and Yang Mu, and launched the once - famous Face++ facial recognition platform. Megvii was once the "darling" of the capital market. In 2016, it received a $100 million Series C financing from Foxconn, CCB International, etc., and was valued at $2 billion. It was also the highest - valued startup in the domestic artificial intelligence industry that year, and was known as one of the "Four AI Dragons" in the AI 1.0 era, along with SenseTime, CloudWalk, and Yitu.
At his most high - flying moment, in 2018, Yin Qi proposed at an internal meeting to achieve an annual revenue target of 2 billion yuan, which was equivalent to delivering projects worth about 5.5 million yuan per day on average.
This was not an empty boast. In 2019, Megvii submitted a prospectus for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and was one of the earliest AI companies to rush for an IPO. According to the prospectus, its revenue in the first half of 2019 alone reached 949 million yuan.
So far, it seems like a script for a popular male - lead novel, but the subsequent plot took a turn. Like a protagonist whose luck had been stolen, every step seemed to lead in the opposite direction of fate.
Megvii planned to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019, with an original plan to start the offering on October 20. However, on October 7, the US added it to the Entity List, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange also required Megvii to defend its case. Eventually, Megvii decided to abandon the listing and turned to the STAR Market in 2021.
Megvii's listing application on the STAR Market was approved in less than six months. However, when it was about to complete the registration process, a regulatory incident involving Ant, a major shareholder of Megvii, broke out, and Megvii was also affected.
Not only was the listing process full of twists and turns, but the company also missed out on more promising business tracks. Originally, Megvii had a first - mover advantage in the four industries of finance, transportation, mobile phones, and security. However, on the eve of the planned listing, Megvii decided to abandon the automotive business and shift its focus from mobile phones to security, as the security market was still regarded as a market worth hundreds of billions at that time.
With the failure of the listing, misalignment in competition, a significant blow to morale, and a tight capital chain, this once - promising AI startup in China missed the first wave of the AI large - model explosion in 2023 and thus fell behind.
As of now, Yin Qi no longer holds any position at Megvii Technology. However, Megvii taught Yin Qi the most important lesson in life: Technology can change the world, but it can't change a company. The top - priority consideration for a company is always a closed - loop business model.
"When you've experienced having to watch every penny you spend, your thinking will be different. Without a good business model, it's impossible to support the team's belief in technology," Yin Qi reflected in an interview. "Because no one will keep investing in you forever."
Multiple entrepreneurial ventures
In 2026, one of the most significant news in the AI industry was that StepStar completed a Series B+ financing of over 5 billion yuan, breaking the record for the highest single - round financing in China's large - model track in the past 12 months. And Yin Qi officially became the chairman of StepStar.
Yin Qi has a deep connection with StepStar. As early as the company's establishment in 2023, he was deeply involved in its strategic planning, and most of its core algorithm team came from the Megvii system. Now, Yin Qi is in charge of two companies at the same time. One is Qianli Technology, which focuses on "AI + automotive", and the other is StepStar.
In 2024, Megvii Technology had been stuck in the listing process on the STAR Market for over three years, and Yin Qi went through a very difficult period. He was once a highly - anticipated genius in the AI 1.0 era, but he was absent when AI truly exploded, which made people sigh when they mentioned him.
The first change occurred in 2024. In November of that year, Yin Qi joined Qianli Technology as its chairman. Qianli Technology's predecessor was Lifan Technology, which was the first private passenger - car enterprise listed on the A - share market in China and had a solid manufacturing foundation. After Yin Qi took over, Qianli Technology started to transform, with a new goal of focusing on "AI + automotive".
In February 2025, Qianli Technology, Geely Automobile Group, and StepStar announced a joint R & D and business cooperation in the field of full - domain automotive intelligence. In August of the same year, Geely merged its ZEEKR intelligent driving team, the intelligent driving team of Geely Research Institute, and Megvii's intelligent driving brand "Maichi Zhixing" into Qianli Zhijia, an intelligent driving company under Qianli Technology. By the end of December of the same year, Qianli Technology announced that it had completed the strategic integration of the core business and technology system of Qianli Zhijia.
Yin Qi was interviewed by the media at the Shanghai Auto Show. Source: Qianli Technology
In just one year, Qianli Technology completed its business layout in multiple fields such as intelligent assisted driving, intelligent cockpits, and Robotaxi.
If Qianli Technology is Yin Qi's attempt to continue the unfulfilled closed - loop business model of Megvii and embed AI deeper into the industry out of his unwillingness to fade into obscurity, then StepStar is a more obvious return, a return to the model, to the basic capabilities, and to the most core and crowded battlefield of this era.
Since its establishment in 2023, StepStar has been regarded as an important player in China's AGI track. The company has gathered top talents such as Jiang Daxin, the former global vice - president of Microsoft, Zhang Xiangyu, the author of ResNet, and Zhu Yibo, an AI infrastructure expert. Its Step series of large models have performed outstandingly in multiple international evaluations. Due to its insistence on native multi - modality and rapid construction of a full - modality matrix, StepStar is known as the "king of multi - modality competition" in the industry.
In Yin Qi's view, StepStar and Qianli Technology are two complementary roles. Qianli essentially focuses on the combination of AI and the automotive industry, and the automotive industry is actually the largest terminal and track in the field of AI. The core business scenarios of Qianli (intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, and future Robotaxi) all require a very powerful brain and model for support, and that brain is StepStar.
Qianli constructs an AI - intelligent application scenario and track centered around the automotive industry. StepStar is the underlying basic model brain and AI capabilities that support it. The technological products of the two companies are very coherent, which is equivalent to starting from the R & D of a basic model, then moving on to productization combined with hardware and software, and finally bringing the products to the market.
In short, most large - model companies are often limited by scenarios and data, while terminal manufacturers lack the ability to train large models. However, StepStar and Qianli Technology have extremely strong complementarity from basic large - model technology to system solutions.
And in the large - model implementation battle that kicked off in 2026, it's this systematic ability that will be crucial.
AGI mission
In his 15 - year entrepreneurial career, Yin Qi has led enterprises three times and has been continuously involved in entrepreneurship in both the AI 1.0 and AI 2.0 eras. What exactly is the end - goal he's pursuing?
"I just want to do things related to AI in my life," Yin Qi concluded.
In a recent interview, Yin Qi revealed why he decided to enter the arena at this time. "Because the battlefield of large models is very cruel. I was deeply involved in the establishment of StepStar in the very early stage. From my perspective at that time, large models met my ultimate pursuit of AI, which is the so - called AGI mission. Secondly, technological changes need a good platform to be implemented. At the same time, all AI industries are centered around models, so I hope that StepStar can have a good combination with existing related industries such as Qianli."
Source: StepStar
The melee of large - model competition in the past two years has come to an end, and differences have gradually emerged. The era of "Physical AI" is starting. In July 2025, Huang Renxun first clearly stated that the next wave of artificial intelligence is "Physical AI". At the latest CES 2026 exhibition, he delivered a 90 - minute speech to announce that the "ChatGPT moment" of Physical AI is coming.
Yin Qi, who has returned after experiencing setbacks, no longer emphasizes the belief in technology as he did in the era of deep learning. Instead, he hopes to build a company with a closed - loop business model. Now, he more frequently talks about terminals, scenarios, and self - sufficiency.
The technological system, business resources, and strategic vision that Yin Qi has accumulated at Megvii and Qianli may help StepStar build barriers that single - model companies or terminal manufacturers cannot achieve.
For Yin Qi himself, he may not necessarily become a winner in the AI 2.0 era, but he obviously doesn't want to be just a bystander. This entrepreneurial venture is the opportunity he's striving for himself after facing the "mid - life crisis" to be judged by the market again.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Jiedian Finance" (ID: jiedian2018), written by Jiedian Finance, and republished by 36Kr with authorization.