Former Alibaba Qwen Lead Lin Junyang Raises Hundreds of Millions in Funding, Post-Money Valuation ~$2B

According to The Information on June 15, 2026, the AI lab founded by Junyang Lin, former head of Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) large model team, has completed its first round of funding with a post-money valuation of approximately $2 billion (about 13.5 billion RMB). The round was co-led by Sequoia China and Gaorong Capital, each investing $100 million, with Tencent as a strategic investor contributing $20 million, totaling several hundred million dollars.

Founder Background and Entrepreneurial Journey

Lin joined Alibaba in 2019 and became part of the Qwen team in April 2023, leading the development and open-sourcing of the Qwen series of large models as a P10-level technical lead, the highest rank at Alibaba. On March 4, 2026, he announced his departure on X with the post "bye_my_beloved_qwen," followed by several core Qwen members. Within two months of leaving, between May and June 2026, he intensively registered or took control of multiple companies:

• 100% ownership of "Yuyong (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd."
• 99% stake in "Shanghai Bulage Technology Co., Ltd."
• Through Bulage Technology as GP, control of "Shanghai Gewu Zhiyong Management Consulting Partnership"

The company names "Yuyong" and "Bulage" derive from the linguistic term "pragmatics," echoing his background in Peking University's foreign languages department.

Technical Direction and Team

The new lab focuses on two cutting-edge directions: World Model and Embodied Brain. In a long post on March 26, 2026, titled "From Reasoning Thinking to Agentic Thinking," Lin argued that the industry should shift from "reasoning thinking" to "agentic thinking," where world models provide a trial-and-error environment for agents, and embodied intelligence extends capabilities to the physical world.

The core team has been initially assembled, with members from ByteDance, Tencent, and top overseas research institutions.

Funding Details and Valuation Comparison

• First Round: Sequoia China and Gaorong Capital each invested $100 million, Tencent invested $20 million, post-money valuation $2 billion.
• Subsequent Round: According to industry sources, the new company has launched a new funding round targeting a $5 billion valuation. If achieved, it would take only about four months from departure to a $5 billion valuation.

Comparison of time from founding to $2 billion valuation for other Chinese large model companies:

• Moonshot AI: 10 months (April 2023 - February 2024)
• MiniMax: ~1.5 years (end of 2021 - 2023)
• Zhipu AI: over 3 years (2019 - 2022)
• Stepfun: 14 months (April 2023 - June 2024)
• DeepSeek: nearly 3 years (July 2023 - May 2026)

Lin achieved a $2 billion valuation in just two months with zero products and zero revenue, unprecedented in Chinese AI seed rounds.

Market Signals and Industry Impact

1. Capital's pursuit of top AI talent: Valuation is entirely based on the founder's technical reputation and team capability, reflecting the narrative logic of "people as companies."
2. Cross-camp investment by tech giants: While developing its own Hunyuan large model, Tencent strategically invested in a startup founded by ex-Alibaba talent, showing internet giants diversifying self-research risks through multi-faceted investments.
3. Secondary market transmission: After Zhipu AI and MiniMax listed in Hong Kong, their market caps soared (Zhipu once exceeded HKD 500 billion), stimulating valuation expectations for unlisted large model companies in the primary market.
4. Technical route shift: The shift from general language models to world models and embodied intelligence has become the next-generation AI direction backed by capital.

Lin's new company has not yet officially released products but has already initiated a new funding round. The market is watching whether it can deliver on its technical promises within 18 months and drive the commercialization of world models and embodied intelligence.