Credit: CFP

BEIJING, January 25, 2024 (TMTPOST)—Xu Lingjie, the Co-founder and President of BIRENTECH, China's leading Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chip enterprise, has resigned from the company. Xu might start up his own company in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing sector, a source familiar with the matter told TMTPost on Thursday.

His departure marks another co-founder quitting the company. Jiao Guofang, the Co-founder and General Manager of GPU product line and responsible for CPU/GPU technology research and development, left BIRENTECH in March 2023. Jiao had previously worked 11 years at Qualcomm, leading the in-house development of Qualcomm's Adreno mobile GPU architecture. He had also served as Huawei's Chief Scientist for GPU Technology, responsible for Huawei's HarmonyOS graphics image processing and UI system framework.

Public information shows that Xu obtained a Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Xu previously served as the Director of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, leading a team focused on the collaborative development of AI architecture and applications. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive positions at semiconductor companies such as NVIDIA, AMD, and Samsung.

BIRENTECH, founded in 2019, specializes in GPU, Data Streaming Accelerators (DSA), and AI computing technologies, aiming to create an independent, high-performance GPU software and hardware ecosystem and build China's intelligent computing industry. The company’s founder and CEO Zhang Wen, who formerly served as the president of AI giant SenseTime, holds a PhD degree of Juridical Science from Harvard University.

As of the end of 2021, BIRENTECH had raised over five billion yuan (US$ 700 million) from big-name investors including Hillhouse Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, IDG Capital, Walden International, Gree Ventures, Green Pine Capital, and V Fund. The company’s current valuation has exceeded 15 billion yuan (US$ 2.1 billion), making it a unicorn in China's GPU chip industry.

In August 2022, BIRENTECH launched its first cloud-based AI training and inference GPU chip, the BR100 series, manufactured using a 7nm process. The product boasts 16-bit floating-point computing power exceeding 1000 teraflops, 8-bit fixed-point computing power exceeding 2000 teraflops, and a single-chip peak computing power reaching PFLOPS levels.

Zhang said, "The chip industry, especially the general-purpose intelligent chip industry, is a typical capital and talent-intensive sector. Coupled with large-scale application scenarios, these constitute the three key elements for success."

In October 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added BIRENTECH and 13 other Chinese semiconductor companies to its Entity List. In response, BIRENTECH released a statement opposing the decision. They expressed their intention to appeal to the court, urging a reconsideration of the move. The company is assessing the potential impact and engaging in communication with various stakeholders.

According to new regulations from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Chinese companies listed on the Entity List are banned from using semiconductor foundries such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, for manufacturing 7nm chips. Currently, BIRENTECH is considering seeking support from the "domestic chip industry chain," which may affect the chip performance.

BIRENTECH has reportedly completed a new round of financing and raised two billion yuan (about $280 million). It is planning for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, but the company declined to respond on this matter. Tianyancha, a business data platform, shows that in September last year, Shanghai BIRENTECH Co., Ltd. invested in the entity named Guangzhou BIRENTECH Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. Up to now, Zhang holds a 12.4849% stake of Shanghai BIRENTECH.

In the goodbye email, Xu said that in 2022, BIRENTECH not only achieved the goals for that year, but also effectively executed the plan as scheduled, delivering “stellar performance” on the global stage. Throughout the enduring challenges within the chip industry, each team member played a pivotal role. Additionally, Xu expressed appreciation for Zhang, recognizing him as the helmsman of BIRENTECH and the most supportive person for him over the past four years.

While marking the end of his journey in chip-making, Xu expressed a continued commitment to the broader field of intelligent computing. "I firmly believe that AI will inspire and create new productivity, and the glimmer of light may illuminate the entire universe in the future," noted Xu in the letter. He expressed anticipation for continued mutual support with friends from BIRENTECH in the upcoming new journey. "AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is calling! Let’s meet again over the course of time,” he said in the letter.