Yan Junjie
Yan Junjie | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 闫俊杰 | |||||||||||
| Born | 1989 (age 36–37) | ||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||
| Known for | Co-founder of MiniMax Group | ||||||||||
| Scientific career | |||||||||||
| Fields | Computer vision | ||||||||||
Academic advisors |
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 闫俊杰 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 閆俊傑 | ||||||||||
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Yan Junjie (Chinese: 闫俊杰; pinyin: Yán Jùnjié; born 1989) is a Chinese businessman and the co-founder and chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence (AI) company MiniMax Group.
Early life and education
Yan was born in 1989 in Henan province. He taught himself advanced calculus in high school.[1][2]
He attended Southeast University graduating in 2006 with a degree in mathematics. He obtained a PhD from the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015.[1][2] During his time as a doctoral student, Yan told friends his ambition was to become a Java developer at IBM targeting an annual salary of about CN¥280,000 (US$40,000).[2]
Yan then became a postdoctoral researcher at Tsinghua University Computer Science Department with a focus on deep learning and computer vision.[1]
Career
Yan joined SenseTime as an intern in 2015 and later became vice president.[1][2][3]
In 2021, Yan left his job to found MiniMax Group. The name came from the Minimax algorithm.[3]
In January 2026, Yan attended a symposium hosted by Premier Li Qiang. The South China Morning Post described Yan as the second founder of a foundation-model developer to join such a meeting, after Liang Wenfeng.[4]
Personal life
Yan is an enthusiast of the video game Dota 2. He goes by the alias "IO", a pun on technical Input/output and a nod to the Dota wisp hero.[2]
Yan knows Cai Haoyu, the co-founder and CEO of miHoYo, through a shared interest in gaming. miHoYo was one of the early backers of Minimax Group.[2]
In 2019 he started tracking OpenAI after seeing its bots defeat the world's best players in the game. Yan has cited this as a factor in his move from computer vision to natural language processing.[2][3]
MiniMax Group listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in January 2026. Bloomberg estimated Yan's net worth to be $3.5 billion at the time of the listing.[2]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 "李强座谈会上37岁闫俊杰参会发言 其公司几乎全员"95后" 市值一度突破900亿港元 - 国际 - 即时国际". 星洲网 Sin Chew Daily Malaysia Latest News and Headlines (in Chinese (China)). 20 January 2026. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Devoted Gamer's Fortune Soars to $3.5 Billion on MiniMax IPO". Bloomberg News. 9 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 "MiniMax Founder Was Once Dismissed as a Fraud by Big Tech: Q&A". Bloomberg News. 9 January 2026.
- ↑ Chow, Vincent (20 January 2026). "China signals global AI push as MiniMax CEO joins meeting with Premier Li Qiang". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
- Living people
- 1989 births
- Southeast University alumni
- University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences alumni
- Artificial intelligence people
- 21st-century Chinese businesspeople
- Chinese computer programmers
- Businesspeople from Henan
- Businesspeople in information technology
- People from Shangqiu
- Artificial intelligence industry in China