Tencent hires former OpenAI researchers to develop AGI in China, challenging the United States.

Tencent has appointed a former OpenAI researcher as its chief AI scientist, announcing its goal to boost AGI development in China and challenge the United States.

On June 5, 2026, at 2:52 PM, CNBC reported that Yao Shunyu, a former OpenAI researcher and current chief AI scientist at Tencent, revealed his goal is to push China to create a long-term research organization for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) to develop AI with capabilities equal to or exceeding humans in the future.

This move reflects a significant shift in the technological competition between the United States and China, at a time when China is rapidly attracting world-class AI talent back to the country.

AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, is a long-term goal of leading AI companies in the US, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, which aim to develop AI capable of thinking, analyzing, and solving problems nearly as well as or exceeding human capabilities in a wide range of areas.

In the past, Chinese technology companies have tended to focus more on the commercial application of AI, whether in manufacturing, electronics, or consumer services, especially during periods when they faced limitations in accessing advanced chips due to US export controls.

Previously, Li Yanhong, CEO of Baidu, estimated that AGI might not happen until at least 2577, which differs from Elon Musk's view that AGI could occur as early as 2569.

However, that concept is changing as Chinese tech companies are increasingly recruiting top-tier researchers from Silicon Valley.

During Tencent's Cloud and AI Conference in Beijing, Yao Shunyu stated, "My personal goal is to build a long-term AGI enterprise in China," adding that achieving this requires foundational knowledge, product development, and cutting-edge research that pushes the boundaries of the technology.

Yao Shunyu also believes that OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude won't be the only super apps in the future, and that there are still enormous unexplored business opportunities, potentially worth trillions of dollars.

He stated that the most important factor for AI is performance, followed by cost, and that he believes China's AI development path will focus on small-scale, high-performance models capable of consistently performing basic tasks.

Tencent's positive outlook contrasts with the atmosphere in the United States, where concerns about AI advancements are growing.

Previously, Anthropic warned that the latest AI models are approaching a point where they can self-repair with minimal human oversight, and urged the industry to temporarily halt the development of new models to prevent potential societal impacts.

Anthropic has also previously urged the U.S. government to maintain its advantage over China in AI, while the company has been criticized by some competitors who argue that its security warnings may be an attempt to stifle competition.

Another factor changing the competitive AI landscape is the uncertainty surrounding U.S. immigration policy, which is leading a number of Chinese researchers to seek opportunities to return to work in their home country, even if the compensation may be lower.

At the same time, China is increasing investment in basic research and measures to attract highly skilled personnel to support its goal of scientific and technological innovation over the next five years.

The competition for AI talent between Chinese and US technology companies is intensifying.

Recent reports indicate that Alibaba has recruited Zhou Hao, a researcher from Google DeepMind, to join the development of the Qwen series of AI models. Meanwhile, Wu Yonghui, former vice president of research at Google DeepMind, has moved from the US to take up the position of head of research at ByteDance Seed in 20568.

Moonshot AI, the startup that developed the Kimi AI model, was founded by Yang Zhilin, a former researcher at Meta AI and Google Brain.

This trend reflects that the AI ​​competition between China and the United States is no longer just a battle of chips or investment, but is becoming a global war for talent, which could be the decisive factor in future technological advantage.

Reference: www.cnbc.com

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