ðŸ‡ðŸ‡° English, 16 October 2026, talent war
17-year-old AI researcher Nathan Chen leaves Moonshot AI for US
Nathan Chen, a 17-year-old AI researcher, has left Beijing-based start-up Moonshot AI for the US, sparking speculation about his next move.
Chen’s departure comes after a short stint at Moonshot, where he played an instrumental role in several core innovations.
The announcement caught many industry observers by surprise, given Chen’s brief tenure and the timing, coming just months ahead of Moonshot’s anticipated initial public offering in Hong Kong.
The move follows a string of successful releases by the start-up, including its latest flagship K3 model in July, which sparked concern in Washington that the capability gap between US and Chinese frontier AI models had narrowed to its closest point yet.