Baidu Veteran Shen Pengfei Joins Lee Kai-Fu at 01.AI as Co-Founder
- ByStartupStory | November 3, 2025
Baidu Veteran Shen Pengfei Joins Lee Kai-Fu at 01.AI as Co-Founder
Shen Pengfei, a former vice president at Baidu AI Cloud who led China operations, has joined 01.AI as a co-founder, marking a significant development amid a major executive reshuffle at the AI startup. Shen, who brings over 26 years of experience in IT and artificial intelligence, now oversees business development and sales for 01.AI’s B2B and B2G segments.
Prior to joining 01.AI, Shen spearheaded key business units at Baidu focused on serving enterprise and government clients, managing teams of several hundred employees and delivering large-scale projects worth over RMB 6 billion (approximately USD 840 million). He also founded Yescai.com, which secured investment from Plum Ventures and Future Capital, and previously served as COO and rotating CEO at Anquanbao, a company co-founded by Ma Jie.
Shen’s arrival coincides with the promotion of other senior leaders within 01.AI: Zhao Binqiang, formerly a senior algorithm expert at Alibaba, has been elevated to vice president and now leads R&D for the company’s model algorithms and productivity tools targeting global professional users. Meanwhile, Ning Ning, who holds a PhD from the National University of Singapore, has been promoted to vice president and leads international market development and consulting for enterprise- and national-level AI transformation projects.
The leadership team’s expansions reflect 01.AI’s strategic pivot earlier this year to focus more intensively on B2B opportunities, pursuing rapid growth both domestically in China and internationally. CEO Lee Kai-Fu has emphasized the critical role of senior executives, especially CEOs, in driving AI adoption by designing strategies, identifying impactful use cases, and embedding AI into core business workflows for transformative value creation.
In August 2025, 01.AI partnered with the Kazakhstan government to launch AlemLLM, a Kazakh-language AI large language model. During a recent meeting with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Lee Kai-Fu discussed further collaborations on national AI language model development, embodying the company’s commitment to international cooperative growth.
To bolster its competitive edge globally, 01.AI is actively recruiting top-tier AI consultants and delivery experts focused on strengthening its international market presence.
Shen’s joining 01.AI marks another key milestone in the company’s scaling efforts and strengthens its leadership bench, positioning the startup to accelerate innovation and expand its influence in the competitive AI landscape both in China and abroad.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
