Ex-Baidu AI Scientist Becomes A Billionaire After Shares Of His Self-Driving Tech Startup Jumps 16%

Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to LinkedinYu Kai, an AI scientist who started an autonomous driving project at Baidu, has joined the billionaire ranks after shares of his startup, Horizon Robotics, jumped almost 16% to a record high on Wednesday.

Yu, chairman and CEO of Horizon Robotics, is the company’s largest shareholder with a 13% stake through his family trust and a wholly-owned investment vehicle. Based on his stake, Forbes estimates his net worth to be just over $1 billion.

The 47-year-old entered the three-comma club less than a week after Beijing-based Horizon Robotics went public in Hong Kong. Last Thursday, the company debuted on the Hong Kong bourse after raising HK$5.4 billion ($695 million) in the city’s largest initial public offering so far this year.

Yu cofounded Horizon Robotics in 2015 with ex-Baidu chief R&D architect Huang Chang and associate director Tao Feiwen. The company develops both the software and hardware for assisted and autonomous driving systems. Its most advanced system is called Horizon SuperDrive, which as per the company is designed to achieve human-like autonomous driving in urban, highway and parking scenarios. Launched in April, the system “theoretically supports” Level 4 automation, one level below full automation and is capable of making decisions in specific conditions without human input, according to its prospectus.

Horizon Robotics’ other systems offer features such as automatic emergency braking and parking assist. The company also licenses its proprietary algorithm and software to its clients so that they can develop their own customized products. The customer roster consists of 27 carmakers, including Volkswagen, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, and China’s BYD, Geely, Li Auto and NIO, according to its prospectus.
Yu Kai, chairman and CEO of Horizon Robotics, attends the company’s listing ceremony at Hong Kong’s stock exchange on October 24, 2024.Shanshan Kao/Forbes Asia
Before it went public, Horizon Robotics attracted a slew of big-name investors. Those include investment firms like Zhang Lei’s Hillhouse Investment Management, Neil Shen’s HongShan (formerly Sequoia China) and Jean Salata’s EQT Private Capital Asia. It is also backed by strategic investors including Robin Zeng’s electric vehicle battery maker CATL, Wang Chuanfu’s Chinese EV carmaker BYD, as well as German auto giant Volkswagen, which in 2023 spent more than $2 billion and took a 60% in a joint venture with Horizon Robotics to develop self-driving technologies for Volkswagen’s vehicles sold in China.
Yu had already made a name for himself in academia for his works in machine learning before he turned entrepreneur. The son of an automotive engineer, he grew up in the Chinese transportation hub of Nanchang and studied electronics engineering before moving to Germany, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in computer science at the University of Munich. He later became head of media analytics at NEC Laboratories America, developing technologies on computer vision and machine learning.
Yu returned to China in 2012 and joined Baidu, where he established the Institute of Deep Learning, focusing on AI technologies. During his three-year tenure at Baidu, Yu was named the deputy head of Baidu Research. There, he initiated an autonomous driving project, setting the groundwork for the Chinese tech giant’s Apollo Go robotaxi business.
When Yu ventured out on his own in 2015, he experienced a bumpy ride at first. Yu disclosed to Chinese tech media GeekPark in a 2023 interview that, while he aspired to develop AI chips that could act as brains for everything from cars to home appliances so that they could have human-like capabilities, he had trouble pinning down the killer applications. Success eluded him until 2019, when Horizon Robotics launched its first assisted driving system equipped with its proprietary chip. That turned out to be good timing, as a year later China outlined a blueprint to achieve mass production of high-level autonomous cars by 2025.
Horizon Robotics is among the autonomous driving tech companies that went public. Chinese robotaxi startup WeRide last Friday debuted on the Nasdaq after raising $440.5 million in its IPO and private placement. Meanwhile, Black Sesame, a Chinese startup that designs chips for self-driving systems, started trading in Hong Kong in August after raising about $130 million.
MORE FROM FORBES

1st image of our Milky Way’s black hole may be inaccurate, scientists say

What does the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy look like?It’s a deceptively simple question. Although our local cosmic abyss, named Sgr A* (short for Sagittarius A*), resides just 26,000 light-years from Earth, it has proven to be a very difficult object to image. This is thanks in part to material whipping around it at near light-speeds. However, after years of trying, scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project succeeded in 2022.The black hole’s silhouette emerged from the shadows, appearing like a fuzzy orange doughnut.Yet now, an independent analysis of the EHT data suggests part of the image’s doughnut-like appearance may be an artifact due to the way it was put together. This discovery owes itself to  a trio of scientists at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).The ring-like structure, which really represents intense radio waves blasted from the brilliant disk of gas, known as the “accretion disk,” that’s swirling around the black hole, may in fact be more elongated than appears, the researchers argue.

You may like

Related: New view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way hints at an exciting hidden feature (image)”No telescope can capture an astronomical image perfectly,” Makoto Miyoshi of NAOJ, who led the latest analysis of EHT data, said in a recent statement. “We hypothesize that the ring image resulted from errors during EHT’s imaging analysis and that part of it was an artifact, rather than the actual astronomical structure.”The EHT consortium has so far made no official statements about the topic.Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!More than 400 researchers from 13 institutions, including the NAOJ, constitute the EHT’s international consortium, which operates a growing network of telescopes around the world to form one virtual, Earth-sized telescope using a technique called Very Long Baseline interferometry. Two EHT scientists note in a 2022 interview that gaps in data were expected due to EHT operating just eight telescopes in six locations around the world. Katie Bouman, an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, likened the limited information being gathered to “listening to a song from a piano where many of the keys are missing.”The EHT project made history in 2019 when it unveiled the first-ever image of a black hole, marking a technological breakthrough that brought to light the silhouette of the elusive cosmic beast residing at the heart of the M87 galaxy.The project was simultaneously scrutinizing Sgr A*, which proved tough to image because it is 1,600 times lighter than the M87 behemoth, which means material that takes weeks to travel around M87* zipped around Sgr A* within minutes. “Sgr A* is like a toddler who can’t stay standing still while we are taking its photo over the course of a night,” Bouman said in the 2022 news release, which sought to outline scientists’ effort to image the two black holes.The task was made tougher by thick clouds of dust and gas hovering between Earth and the Galactic Center that distorted and blurred radio signals coming from Sgr A*, she added. So, the EHT collaboration used special computer algorithms that could fill in gaps in data caused by the widely separated telescopes. From there, the team reconstructed the image prior to the chaos caused by the turbulent gas.”Each algorithm has its own method for determining which image is most likely,” said Bouman. “It is a bit like hiring Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and Jules Maigret simultaneously to see what they commonly conclude and what they don’t.”Based on thousands of images that captured how the black hole’s appearance changed across multiple observing nights, the vast majority of the computer simulations depicted a bright ring of light as big as the orbit of Mercury, in agreement with predictions from Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.In the new study, Miyoshi and colleagues specifically argue this ring-like structure is an artifact caused by the bumpy point-spread function (PSF), which refers to the way an imaging system measures the amount of blurring caused by gaps in data.The researchers applied what they termed “widely-used traditional” analysis methods to the EHT data that are different from the EHT’s own original analysis method. The results showed the accretion disk to be slightly elongated in the east-west direction, the team wrote in their paper. published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.(Image credit: Miyoshi et al.)Related Stories: The new image also shows the disk’s eastern half to be brighter than the western half, which the researchers interpret as a Doppler boost, meaning the east side is moving toward us. “We think this appearance means the accretion disk surrounding the black hole is rotating at about 60% of the speed of light,” said Miyoshi. For now, either view of the disk’s real shape could be correct. Astronomers say forthcoming technological upgrades to telescopes will allow them to gather more detailed images and better constrain the area around Sgr A* and other black holes.The paper about these results was published this year in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Couple’s travelling hack saves them £50k on holidays from Thailand to Iceland

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreA couple who traded family holidays for home swaps have said the travelling hack has saved them up to £50,000 across 35 countries.Retired teachers Tim Moynihan, 67, and his wife Elizabeth, 66, joined HomeExchange in 2008 – a platform which allows users to exchange their homes over dates of mutual choosing, or if a member wishes to lend their home without reciprocity, their guest can offer GuestPoints to thank them for their hospitality.In search of more affordable ways to holiday with their now grown-up children – Matthew, 38, Hannah, 36, Helen, 34, and Rory, 31 – Tim said home swapping has allowed the family to travel the world and stay in properties with “all the home comforts”.Tim and his wife have since visited 35 countries over the past 16 years, including Iceland, Sweden and New Zealand, completing 84 home swaps in total – and they believe they have saved up to £50,000 by doing so.Tim in Krabi, ThailandThe arrangement has also seen more than 40 guests, including couples and families, stay in their four-bedroom semi-detached home in Hadleigh, Essex, which is beside the country park and has views across the local estuary – and they have never had a bad experience.The annual HomeExchange subscription is £180 and allows members unlimited exchanges, and the couple have stayed in properties including a seafront apartment in South Africa, where they spotted whales just yards away, Hot Springs in Arkansas, where Bill Clinton grew up, and a “James Bond-style villa” in Thailand.Tim described this Ko Samui property as a ‘James Bond-style villa’“What we’ve discovered is that you’ve basically got a home away from home,” Tim told PA Real Life.“The benefits of it are that you get a place that you want to go to, you’ve got all the home comforts, you’ve got people that know the area and, very often, people will leave a house book with tips on what to see and do and to help with managing the house during the exchange.“Those sorts of things prove invaluable, really, so you get a fuller picture of what life is like in those countries when travelling abroad.“You get a flavour of other people’s lives because you’re in their home and their personal possessions are there – their family photos, for example – and you can gauge their lifestyle.“If you stay in a hotel, you don’t really get to experience that, which makes home swapping more special.”Tim with his wife Elizabeth in Dalkey near DublinTim and his wife Elizabeth first joined the website in 2008 in search for more affordable ways to go on holiday as a family of six.“The thing was, having four children, hotel holidays were a non-starter for us … and being teachers, we had the six-week holiday, so you’re tied to the peak times,” Tim said.“So I was just looking for other options that would allow us to travel abroad.”For Tim and Elizabeth’s first home swap, they travelled to Colmar in France, but they have since visited places such as San Francisco, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Thailand, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, creating long-lasting memories.Tim’s wife Elizabeth enjoying a meal at the Biltmore Hotel MiamWhile in Oakland in San Francisco, Tim recalled staying in a shared living community, meeting a sex therapist who was living next door and waking up to an earthquake one morning.One of their most memorable home swaps was a lavish “James Bond-style villa” in Ko Samui, Thailand, which had a swimming pool, and on another occasion, they stayed in an unusual property in Selfoss in Iceland.Recalling the trip to Iceland, Tim said: “We arrived in the middle of the night.“You’re driving through these lava fields, and there are little plumes of smoke, wisps of smoke, coming up.“There are no lights, of course, it was such a bizarre experience … and the house was very interesting – there were dolls everywhere and African artworks and a gym in the main living area.“It was just so different to our own home.”Tim in Cape Town, South AfricaThe couple also stayed in various locations in South Africa and were able to see whales just yards from their seafront property in Hermanus.“We drove along the coast to Hermanus from Cape Town in South Africa, and we had the most amazing apartment, which was right on the seafront,” he said.“The next morning we looked out, and there were whales near the shore just 100 yards, 200 yards from where we were – a whale and its calf just literally in the bay outside our apartment.”Tim said he believes he and Elizabeth have saved up to £50,000 by using HomeExchange – and it has allowed them to stay in places that they never dreamed they would visit. For more information, visit HomeExchange’s website homeexchange.com.A property in Arkansas that Tim and his wife stayed inThis includes Hot Springs in Arkansas, the largest gated community in North America, where US president Bill Clinton grew up, which Tim described as “fascinating”.Tim and Elizabeth had use of a new 4×4, two Vespas, a Volkswagen Beetle Convertible and their own pontoon boat on the dock by the lake below the house, making it a very memorable trip.The couple said that being able to use families’ cars and other vehicles has enabled them to save even more money when doing some reciprocal home swaps.“The places are often spectacular,” Tim said.“You don’t always end up in the places that you would want to go to for a holiday … but if you go with a spirit of adventure, you can have a lot of fun.”Tim said one of the best things about home swapping is immersing yourself in new places and cultures and living like a local.He said he would encourage anyone to give it a try – and although people may have reservations about strangers coming into their home, Tim said thorough checks take place and they have never had a bad experience.Speaking about his advice to others, he added: “I would say, just do it. I mean, what have you got to lose?”

Scientists develop novel ink to curb document duplication

New Delhi: A team of scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has developed a novel ink with enhanced security features to stop counterfeiting in currency, certificates, branded goods and medicines, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Wednesday. Even as counterfeiting has been growing around the world, researchers are trying to find unique ways to prevent it.
 They focussed on rare earth ions with luminescent properties and were long known to possess the characteristic emissions of bismuth (a chemical element). Using the property of rare earth materials, the team synthesised a first-of-its-kind security ink based on luminescent nanomaterials with rare earth doping. This enables excitation-dependent luminescence (under both ultraviolet and near-infrared light it gives visible emission). The ink can overcome the limitations of current covert tags, which are security features usually visible only under UV light and can be easily duplicated. “The new ink offers enhanced security features through its ability to display different colours under various light wavelengths. Specifically, the ink appears vibrant blue under 365 nm light, pink under 395 nm light, and orange-red under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light and remains effective under a range of light, temperature, and humidity conditions,” the ministry said.
Using a simple co-precipitation method, the scientists synthesised the luminescent nanomaterial at 120 degrees Celsius, after which the nanomaterials were dispersed into commercially available PVC ink. The mixture was then used to create patterns and letters through a screen-printing technique. When the printed patterns are exposed to different wavelengths of light, it shows the desired colour changes, proving the effectiveness of the ink. Further, the team also was able to enhance the encryption and decryption capabilities of the ink, by combining rare earth ions with well-known luminescent properties and bismuth with characteristic emissions.
This improved its security potential. Besides helping combat counterfeiting, the luminescent ink made from these nanomaterials can also be applied to fake-proof various items, including currency, certificates, medicines, and branded products. This allows both consumers and manufacturers to easily verify the authenticity of their items, providing a simple yet powerful tool to detect counterfeits, the scientists said.
(IANS)

Scientists develop novel ink to curb document duplication

New Delhi: A team of scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has developed a novel ink with enhanced security features to stop counterfeiting in currency, certificates, branded goods and medicines, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Wednesday. Even as counterfeiting has been growing around the world, researchers are trying to find unique ways to prevent it.
 They focussed on rare earth ions with luminescent properties and were long known to possess the characteristic emissions of bismuth (a chemical element). Using the property of rare earth materials, the team synthesised a first-of-its-kind security ink based on luminescent nanomaterials with rare earth doping. This enables excitation-dependent luminescence (under both ultraviolet and near-infrared light it gives visible emission). The ink can overcome the limitations of current covert tags, which are security features usually visible only under UV light and can be easily duplicated. “The new ink offers enhanced security features through its ability to display different colours under various light wavelengths. Specifically, the ink appears vibrant blue under 365 nm light, pink under 395 nm light, and orange-red under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) light and remains effective under a range of light, temperature, and humidity conditions,” the ministry said.
Using a simple co-precipitation method, the scientists synthesised the luminescent nanomaterial at 120 degrees Celsius, after which the nanomaterials were dispersed into commercially available PVC ink. The mixture was then used to create patterns and letters through a screen-printing technique. When the printed patterns are exposed to different wavelengths of light, it shows the desired colour changes, proving the effectiveness of the ink. Further, the team also was able to enhance the encryption and decryption capabilities of the ink, by combining rare earth ions with well-known luminescent properties and bismuth with characteristic emissions.
This improved its security potential. Besides helping combat counterfeiting, the luminescent ink made from these nanomaterials can also be applied to fake-proof various items, including currency, certificates, medicines, and branded products. This allows both consumers and manufacturers to easily verify the authenticity of their items, providing a simple yet powerful tool to detect counterfeits, the scientists said.
(IANS)

Armenia to Significantly Increase Scientists’ Salaries in 2025

Armenia plans a substantial salary increase for workers in the scientific sector, Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan announced during a speech at the National Assembly on October 29.According to the minister, salaries will rise by up to 300%. “For instance, if a lead researcher currently earns around $356 (138,000 drams), as of January 1, 2025, their salary will be approximately $1,423 (552,000 drams),” Andreasyan stated.The minister emphasized that this increase only applies to basic funding. Researchers participating in thematic and grant-funded projects will be eligible for additional bonuses and rewards under those programs.Andreasyan noted a positive trend already underway, with specialists beginning to return to the scientific field from the private sector.

Armenia to Significantly Increase Scientists’ Salaries in 2025

Armenia plans a substantial salary increase for workers in the scientific sector, Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan announced during a speech at the National Assembly on October 29.According to the minister, salaries will rise by up to 300%. “For instance, if a lead researcher currently earns around $356 (138,000 drams), as of January 1, 2025, their salary will be approximately $1,423 (552,000 drams),” Andreasyan stated.The minister emphasized that this increase only applies to basic funding. Researchers participating in thematic and grant-funded projects will be eligible for additional bonuses and rewards under those programs.Andreasyan noted a positive trend already underway, with specialists beginning to return to the scientific field from the private sector.