Zhang Yiming

2025.01.23

09:15

ByteDance launches Seed Edge to increase investment in AGI research

In the second half of 2024, there were rumors in the market that ByteDance was planning to build a "Big Model Research Institute". Subsequently, ByteDance responded: "There is a long-term plan to strengthen research related to big models, but it has not decided to establish an independent organization." We learned that recently, ByteDance's AGI research team finally surfaced: In late January, ByteDance officially established a research project code-named "Seed Edge". The core goal is to do AGI frontier research that is longer-term and more basic than pre-training and big model iteration. Seed Edge has formulated five major research directions. AI is the technology and business direction that ByteDance currently values most. People close to ByteDance told us that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming attaches great importance to and emphasizes strengthening investment in AI research. He will read papers and key technical details himself, chat and communicate with first-class AI researchers, and encourage ByteDance AI research teams to explore and study basic topics. It is understood that ByteDance has been planning to establish a research organization for a long time. But after forming a feasible plan, it took only one week for internal communication and solicitation of opinions. People close to ByteDance said that in the face of AI changes: "ByteDance is the most daring of large Chinese companies to adjust, and it moves very quickly."

2025.01.21

14:46

ByteDance founder reportedly met with Musk last year

Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok's parent company ByteDance, met with Elon Musk, a U.S. billionaire and close confidant of President Donald Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.

2025.01.20

21:39

According to the Wall Street Journal: ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming met with Tesla CEO Musk in 2024.

2024.12.19

20:16

Zhang Yiming enters private equity, insiders say his focus shifts to big models and AI

According to The Paper, an informed source said that although he has stepped down as CEO, Zhang Yiming has shifted his focus to the strategy and research of large models and AI (artificial intelligence). It is understood that Zhang Yiming is not only personally responsible for recruiting Chinese AI talents from competing companies, but also repeatedly emphasized the goal of pursuing "general artificial intelligence" internally. ByteDance insiders said that Zhang Yiming is extremely focused on achieving general artificial intelligence (AGI).

2024.12.18

14:01

ByteDance founder ventures into private equity industry

ByteDance's billionaire founder and former CEO Zhang Yiming has entered the private equity industry, with his Hong Kong-based investment fund picking up a license to operate.

Email Subscription

Newsletters and emails are now available! Delivered on time, every weekday, to keep you up to date with North American business news.

Weekly Highlights

                                    Southwest Airlines CEO: Although Boeing still has a lot of work to do, they seem to be moving in a good direction and we are more optimistic.
                            2025-01-31

                                    White House Press Secretary Levitt: Details about the Nvidia meeting are still unclear.
                            2025-02-01

                                    Apple (AAPL.O) said the Apple Pay outage has been resolved.
                            2025-01-29

                                    Jefferies: Raised Meta Platforms (META.O) price target from $715 to $810.
                            2025-01-30

                                    Sam Altman, founder and CEO of OpenAI: OpenAI will develop specialized hardware for AI.
                            2025-02-03