Chen Tianqiao shut China team at MiroMind after export worries

In short: Chinese billionaire Chen Tianqiao says rising US-China tensions forced him to stop running one AI team across multiple countries.

What's going on

Chen Tianqiao, who once built the gaming company Shanda, started a California AI company called MiroMind last year. He used teams in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai to build an “AI agent,” which is software that can carry out multi step tasks on its own (like a digital assistant that can plan and do research, not just answer one question).

That cross border setup began to break down in January. Chinese regulators opened a review linked to Meta’s planned purchase of Manus, a Chinese founded AI start up that had moved to Singapore. The concern was whether work done by a China linked team could still be covered by China’s export controls, which are rules that limit sharing certain technology abroad.

After that, Chen shut down MiroMind’s Beijing and Shanghai operations on January 16. He said he wanted a “firewall,” meaning a strict separation that cut China based researchers off from the company’s overseas code and data (like locking a shared filing cabinet and splitting the keys). He later rebuilt the company’s research work in the US and Singapore.

The company also faced a split with a key hire, AI scientist Dai Jifeng. Chen said Dai did not relocate and instead started a new company in China, while Dai accused Chen of trying to move technology and people to the US. Dai declined to comment to the Financial Times.

What to watch

This episode shows how hard it is becoming for AI start ups to combine China based engineering with US funding and customers. Watch for more companies to separate teams by country, or to avoid sharing code and data across borders to reduce legal risk.

Source: Financial Times