Zhang Yutong Assumes Presidency of The Dark Side of the Moon

New journey

Recently, Zhang Yutong unexpectedly appeared at an exchange event at Tsinghua University. Different from the past, this time she made an appearance with a new title - President of Kimi, the Dark Side of the Moon. "It can be regarded as her first public appearance in this position." Investment circles learned from people close to Kimi that Zhang Yutong has assumed the position of President of the Dark Side of the Moon. "She is responsible for the company's overall strategy and commercialization, including financing, and will also participate in the development of some new products." Looking back on the past year, the dispute between Zhang Yutong and her former employer, GSR Ventures, was once a hot topic. Now, giving up the aura of an investor, she has officially plunged into this unprecedented AI entrepreneurship wave. Perhaps the starting point of all this is exactly as she said, "Push the boundaries of what is possible." < h2 > Zhang Yutong Gets a New Identity < / h2 > Zhang Yutong has made indispensable contributions to the growth of the Dark Side of the Moon. Born in the 1980s, she and Yang Zhilin, the 90s founder of the Dark Side of the Moon, are both alumni of Tsinghua University. As a senior sister, Zhang Yutong led the investment in Circulate AI, co - founded by Yang Zhilin, during her time at GSR Ventures. The turning point was at the end of 2022 when AGI technology reached a historic inflection point. Sensing the impending explosion of large models, Yang Zhilin believed that this was the only thing worth doing in the next 10 years or even in his lifetime. So he bid farewell to Circulate AI and founded the Dark Side of the Moon. Business registration information shows that the Dark Side of the Moon was officially registered in April 2023. However, starting a business in the field of large models is destined to be an ultimate test of comprehensive capabilities in technology, business, and capital. To make up for his lack of experience, Yang Zhilin advocated supplementing the team. After looking through his circle of friends, he thought Zhang Yutong was the most suitable person - "She has a profound insight into business and strategy, and also has rich investment and financing experience. More importantly, she is willing to step out of her comfort zone, choose to take risks, and choose to believe in and support me." Just like this, Yang Zhilin invited Zhang Yutong to join the Dark Side of the Moon as a co - founder. According to his previous statement, Zhang Yutong's shares will be vested over several years, and the vesting condition is to continuously provide services and achieve performance for the company for many years. Since then, the venture capital circle has witnessed the financing speed of the Dark Side of the Moon. It has gathered well - known funds such as Sequoia China, ZhenFund, LSI Capital, and Capital Today, as well as large companies like Alibaba, Meituan, and Xiaohongshu. Its valuation has also been rising spirally and has long exceeded the $3 billion mark. Zhang Yutong has played an indispensable role in this process. Especially in the Alibaba financing case of the Dark Side of the Moon, she is considered the most important driving force behind it. Yang Zhilin also mentioned in a previous statement that (Zhang Yutong) has made important contributions to the company in business, strategy, and multiple financing campaigns. < h2 > From GSR Ventures to the Dark Side of the Moon < / h2 > The venture capital circle is no stranger to Zhang Yutong. Born in the 1980s, she holds a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University and a master's degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University. In 2011, Zhang Yutong officially joined GSR Ventures, focusing on early - stage investments in fields such as technology. At GSR Ventures, Zhang Yutong has a unique vision and has invested in many classic projects. In 2020, she was promoted to Managing Partner of GSR Ventures, becoming the fourth management partner of this institution. However, in April 2024, just when the Dark Side of the Moon had just completed a new round of financing of $1 billion, Zhang Yutong left GSR Ventures. What happened afterwards is well - known to us all, and the dispute between her and GSR Ventures became a hot topic. Until this time, Zhang Yutong appeared at a public event as the "President of the Dark Side of the Moon". At this sharing event, she mainly talked about the promotion and recruitment of Kimi. One detail is that in the introduction of the event guests, Zhang Yutong's investment cases were also listed, "She has made angel investments in technology companies such as Xiaohongshu, Unasked Core Dome, Xinghai Map, and LibLib." Among them, Xinghai Map is one of the two humanoid robot companies that Zhu Xiaohu mentioned at the beginning of the year as having "actively withdrawn" from. Looking back on Zhang Yutong's investment career, Xiaohongshu cannot be ignored. Around 2013, she and Lin Renjun, the Managing Partner of GSR Ventures, launched the first Stanford entrepreneurship competition hosted by a Chinese fund. Among the 20 Chinese teams, they only invested in Mao Wenchao, the founder of Xiaohongshu. Ten years have passed in a flash, and the valuation of Xiaohongshu has exceeded $31 billion (over 220 billion RMB). Zhu Xiaohu previously revealed that Xiaohongshu is currently the most profitable project of GSR Ventures. < h2 > The Final Elimination Round < / h2 > At this moment, the domestic large - model arena has quietly entered the "mid - game" stage. Just last month, the Dark Side of the Moon released Kimi K2 Thinking - the most powerful open - source thinking model of Kimi so far. It has surpassed top models such as GPT - 5, Grok 4, and Sonnet 4.5 in benchmark tests such as HLE and BrowseComp, refreshing the SOTA. According to the latest news, The Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the latest round of financing of the Dark Side of the Moon is in its final stage, and its valuation is expected to rise to about $4 billion. At the same time, it has set a goal to launch an IPO in the second half of next year. Before this, Zhipu had taken the lead in aiming for an IPO. In April this year, Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. filed for guidance with the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau. This means that Zhipu has become the first domestic large - model company to officially start the IPO process. Immediately afterwards, MiniMax was also reported to be considering an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As far as the eye can see, everyone is starting to seize the opportunity during the IPO window period to be the first to "cross the finish line". This may be the most cruel and decisive chapter in the industrialization process of Chinese large models. Looking at the current situation, an undeniable phenomenon is that the "Six Little Tigers" of large models that were actively discussed in the industry at the beginning of the year have gradually diverged. What is impressive is Baichuan Intelligence. In April this year, on the occasion of the company's second anniversary, its founder Wang Xiaochuan rarely reflected, pointing out that the company had undergone a strategic shift from the initial general - purpose basic model to a medical - enhanced reasoning model, and then to applications such as Baixiaoying and AI doctors. The front line was stretched too long and lacked focus, resulting in fluctuations and deviations in the team's work goals. He emphasized again that Baichuan Intelligence will focus on the medical field. Zero One Everything, one of the "Six Little Tigers" of large models, has also changed its course and clearly stated that it will no longer develop models with over - trillion parameters, but will focus on the To B field. Meanwhile, another force in Chinese large models is rising rapidly. From the popular DeepSeek to ByteDance's Doubao, Tencent's Yuanbao, and Alibaba's Qianwen, these large models represented by giant companies are accelerating the segmentation of the market, and the industry competition is intensifying. In such a scenario, the Chinese large - model industry has formed a multi - level competitive landscape, and the ultimate test of commercialization landing is in front of every player. An AI investor warned that the next year will be a critical period for the reshuffle, integration, and practical implementation of domestic large models. "Ultimately, the ability to make money is the line between life and death." At this point, there is not much time left for everyone. This article is from the WeChat public account < a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5ODk1NjY1MA==&mid=2247705983&idx=1&sn=d1749097f985b518d426ed29abe856ce&chksm=ed9c78f6716a33e02897199294bd3d75682951438f67104ce9404bc20b897fef4ae671be3b67&scene=0&xtrack=1#rd"> "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012) < / a >, written by Zhou Jiali and Wu Qiong, and published by 36Kr with permission.

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Zhang Yutong assumes the position of President of The Dark Side of the Moon.