Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and the president of Sinovation Ventures’ Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation, which manages $1.7 billion in dual-currency investment funds, is a leading venture capital firm focused on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies.
Before founding Sinovation in 2009, Lee was the president of Google China. He previously held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Lee received his bachelor’s degree in computer science at Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Carnegie Mellon and the City University of Hong Kong and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Lee is the author of seven best-selling books in China.
In the field of artificial intelligence, Lee founded Microsoft Research China, which was named the “hottest computer lab” by MIT Technology Review. Later renamed Microsoft Research Asia, this institute trained the great majority of AI leaders in China, including CTOs or AI heads at Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo, Huawei, and Haier. While at Apple, Lee led AI projects in speech and natural language, which have been featured on Good Morning America and the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of ten U.S. patents and more than one hundred journal and conference papers. Altogether, Lee has been in artificial intelligence research, development, and investment for more than thirty years.