Lao Luo is going to develop AIOS and has recruited a former top 50 employee from Xiaomi | Exclusive from Intelligence Emergence

Luo Yonghao

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Intelligence Emergence has exclusively learned that after trying his hand in areas such as live - streaming e - commerce, AR, and AI assistants in sequence, Luo Yonghao, also known as "Lao Luo", has his latest entrepreneurial idea centered around the AIOS field (AI system). For this purpose, Lao Luo has poached Wang Wenjun, a former top 50 employee of Xiaomi and a veteran in the operating system field.

This time when entering the AIOS field, Luo Yonghao didn't establish a new company for it. Instead, he relies on The Red Line, the company he previously engaged in AR products, to continue expanding his business.

Regarding the above information, Intelligence Emergence has sought verification from Luo Yonghao's side. As of press time, there has been no response.

Wang Wenjun was an early employee of Xiaomi, joining the company in the year it was founded. He was deeply involved in the research and development of Xiaomi's first mobile phone.

Luo Yonghao's interest in AIOS is actually traceable. In mid - January, Luo Yonghao revealed his views on AIOS on Weibo. He quoted the words of computer pioneer Alan Kay, "People who really care about software will make their own hardware." His words revealed that the real purpose of doing AIOS is to return to the hardware track.

Luo's Weibo

An industry insider analyzed to Intelligence Emergence that if Luo Yonghao wants to develop AIOS, it is inevitable to combine it with AI hardware. Because if only the software is developed without hardware, it will be difficult to open up the market. A person close to Luo Yonghao told us that in Lao Luo's plan, developing AIOS first and then AI mobile phones is a relatively reasonable path.

Relying on his own influence, Lao Luo will not start his business alone. Wang Wenjun, who is joining him in the AIOS field this time, worked at Xiaomi for 11 years. He long served as the chief architect of Xiaomi's MIUI, was deeply involved in the birth and development of the MIUI system, and is also the author of the open - source C compiler project ucc.

△ The above picture shows the debugging scene of Xiaomi's first engineering prototype. On the tenth anniversary of Xiaomi's establishment, Lei Jun posted this picture. Lei Jun publicly said that Xiaomi's first engineering prototype couldn't be picked up or moved and could only be used on the table. So Lei Jun carefully leaned over sideways to make a call for debugging. The person wearing glasses next to Lei Jun is Wang Wenjun.   Image source: Internet

After leaving Xiaomi in 2019, Wang Wenjun has been moving around in the mobile phone industry. He has served as the assistant to the president of OPPO and the vice - president of Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd., a mobile - phone - making company under the Geely Group, which acquired Meizu to enter the mobile phone market.

A person familiar with the matter told us that although the person in charge of AIOS has taken his position, the team still focuses all its R & D efforts on the beta version of the AI assistant, J1 Assistant, which was launched in early January. Wang Wenjun will also be involved in this product.

In 2022, Luo Yonghao founded a new company, Thin Red Line, to develop AR products. He raised about $50 million in the angel round, which is equivalent to the "admission ticket" for large - model entrepreneurship in 2023. Its investors are all well - known institutions, including Meituan Longzhu, DJI, Matrix Partners, etc., as well as personal investments from Wu Yongming, the current CEO of Alibaba, and Li Wanqiang, a co - founder of Xiaomi.

However, after the official announcement of his entrepreneurial news, Luo Yonghao's AR glasses have never been launched. Instead, in early 2025, he launched an AI assistant, J1 Assistant, with a UI interface full of the "Smartisan style", which also confirmed Luo Yonghao's shift from AR entrepreneurship to the AI field.

An investor revealed that Luo Yonghao was eager to launch this product, hoping that the product integrating the current new concept of "AI Agent" could help with subsequent financing. However, the launched beta version received an average response, didn't cause much of a stir in the industry, and wasn't even launched on the app market.

According to the official website, J1 Assistant is an integrated AI assistant that combines voice interaction, task management, and intelligent search. Users can submit their questions and work assignments to Jarvis in the form of voice or text, and let it help execute the next or even multiple steps of operations. In the future, when developing AIOS, it is very likely that J1 Assistant will be used as a system capability and deeply integrated with the operating system.

As learned by Intelligence Emergence, J1 Assistant was developed under the leadership of Zhu Yongsheng, the CTO of the company. Zhu Yongsheng was the former senior director of NIO's cockpit and the former head of Alibaba's AliOS intelligent transportation.

Luo Yonghao has always been dissatisfied with this AI product and has had it redone several times internally. An industry insider analyzed that the operating system belongs to the underlying system engineering, which far exceeds the capabilities of dozens of teams. It requires huge R & D investment and the support of a professional technical team.

Luo Yonghao hopes that the release of the AI assistant product can help with the second - round financing. So, for Luo Yonghao, the next month is a critical window period. If he can successfully complete a new round of financing during this period to keep the company alive, the R & D of AIOS and the long - term plan for AI mobile phones are expected to proceed smoothly.

Cover source | Internet