China's new crop of entrepreneurs, represented by the 'Fab Four' group of startup founders, are reshaping the global tech landscape.
Liang Wenfeng - founder of DeepSeek, Wang Xingxing - founder of Unitree Robotics, Zhang Yiming - founder of ByteDance and Wang Tao - founder of DJI are playing important roles in making China a technology powerhouse.
Liang and Wang were among the business leaders invited to a symposium hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.
Wang, the youngest person at the event, was just 35. In front of the country's leader, Wang spoke proudly about how the startup's humanoid robot development team was all born and raised in China.
Mr. Xi responded that national innovation needed contributions from the younger generation, according to the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.
Unlike the previous generation born into poverty, such as Alibaba's Jack Ma, Baidu's Robin Li Yanhong or Tencent's Pony Ma Huateng, this new crop of entrepreneurs were born after the reform and opening-up period under the leadership of the late President Deng Xiaoping.
Wang was born in 1990, Zhang in 1983, Liang in 1985 and Wang Tao in 1980. According to SCMP , they grew up in what is considered the most open and free period since the founding of the People's Republic of China, where traditional social barriers were removed and science, technology and mathematics education flourished nationwide.
At the same time, globalization was taking place rapidly, leaving a deep mark on China. Before founding DeepSeek in 2023, Liang ran the hedge fund High-Flyer Quant.
A key factor in the success of the four entrepreneurs was their experience in mobilizing resources and surviving in a competitive market.
According to Winston Ma, a visiting professor at New York University, Chinese founders are very good at testing and scaling existing technology – often invented in the West – for their home market, paying attention to details to improve user experience and optimize costs.
Many of them have become billionaires. ByteDance’s Zhang is one of China’s richest men. Their fortunes have grown even though none of their four companies have gone public. They built their empires from humble beginnings.
DeepSeek, originally Liang's side project, shocked both Silicon Valley and Wall Street in late January, after the release of its low-cost, high-performance large language models R1 and V3.
DJI, the world’s leading drone maker, started out of Wang Tao’s small rented room, while TikTok’s parent company ByteDance also started out of a Beijing apartment in 2012. Xingxing started Unitree in 2016, struggling to raise capital in its early days.
Guo Bai, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the China Europe International Business School, believes that the new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs represented by the “Super Four” can succeed globally thanks to their domestic focus.
He commented that China today is one of the most competitive markets in the world.
Travis Kalanick, founder and former CEO of Uber, said mainland tech companies copy them at breakneck speed. That strategy ultimately leads to innovation and the ability to beat American rivals.
On a podcast in January, he said the Chinese ride-hailing market from 2014 to 2016 was “all-out war.” As local companies became faster and better at imitating, they ran out of ideas to imitate and turned to inventing.
China’s “Fantastic Four” are showing off their creativity at a time when the US is increasingly using measures to block its technological advancement. TikTok is at the center of the storm, while AI is seen by both Beijing and Washington as a strategic area for technological dominance.
The success of the “Fantastic Four” has also thrust their founders into the spotlight. Liang was hailed as a “national hero” after DeepSeek showed that Chinese companies could develop new products despite US technology constraints, while the Unitree robot’s folk dance at the Spring Festival helped 1 billion Chinese people see how the startup had grown.
Unitree's humanoid robot team and artists perform folk dance skills on stage at the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival. (Source: CCTV)
The four founders are mentioned together in part because none were educated abroad. Wang studied at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Zhang at Nankai University, and Liang at Zhejiang University.
As for the founder of Unitree, his most famous "anecdote" is that he is "bad at English".
Although he was an excellent science student, his low English score prevented him from pursuing a master's degree at a top university and he could only attend Shanghai University.
Unlike their Silicon Valley contemporaries like Mark Zuckerberg or Sam Altman, the younger generation of Chinese entrepreneurs often stay behind the scenes, avoiding public appearances.
Zhang and Wang have not given interviews or attended events for years despite their powerful empires. Liang has also not commented on DeepSeek despite its global reputation.
They also do not flaunt their wealth, unlike other Chinese tycoons in the finance and real estate industries. Zhang is said to focus on reading AI reports and recruiting top talent, while Liang engages in research himself to find new breakthroughs.
Jeffrey Towson, founder of consulting firm TechMoat, commented that Chinese entrepreneurs can absolutely compete in markets like Latin America and Europe if they survive in the hyper-competitive Chinese environment.
“If business in America is like football, business in China is like rugby. They are used to playing a rougher sport,” he said.
(According to SCMP)
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/bo-tu-sieu-dang-moi-cua-cong-nghe-trung-quoc-2376686.html
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