ByteDance Seed Core Leader Zhou Chang Reportedly Leaves to Found Physical AI Startup
Zhou Chang, a core technical leader of ByteDance's Seed team and a multimodal AI expert, has reportedly left the company to start a new venture focused on Physical AI with backing from top-tier US dollar funds. This departure highlights the ongoing brain drain and entrepreneurial wave in China's AI sector as top researchers pivot from big tech labs to foundational AI and robotics startups. It signals increasing industry momentum toward Physical AI, which bridges virtual intelligence with the real world. Before joining ByteDance in August 2024 as the head of visual multimodal generation for the Doubao model, Zhou served as the technical lead for Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen large language models. While specific funding amounts and valuations remain undisclosed, his new venture has already secured prominent venture capital backing.
## BACKGROUND
Physical AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that integrate software algorithms with physical hardware like robots and sensors to enable autonomous interaction with the real world. World models are AI architectures designed to simulate and understand the physical dynamics of the environment, often serving as a core component for advanced embodied intelligence and robotics.