It is reported that Liang Zhujin, co-founder and technical lead at SynapX, is set to leave the company in the near future.
SynapX was established only recently—at the beginning of this year—meaning that less than a year after its inception, the company is already seeing a departure among its technical co-founders, specifically the individual responsible for its algorithmic models.
Liang Zhujin holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Sun Yat-sen University and a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University. He was among the early researchers in China to focus on machine learning and computer vision algorithms. Previously, he served as co-founder and CTO of ImageDT (Tujiang Data), where he helped launch fingerprint recognition technology, and later worked as the head of AI and machine learning at the publicly traded company JOYY Inc. (Huanju Group).
Liang subsequently moved into the autonomous driving sector, serving as the head of facial recognition technology at Horizon Robotics. In 2023, he joined Nullmax (Jianzhi Robotics) as Vice President and Head of Perception. Another core co-founder of SynapX, Du Dalong, also served as a co-founder and CTO at Nullmax.
Following Nullmax’s acquisition by NavInfo (Siwei Tuxin), the two decided to pivot away from the autonomous driving industry toward the field of “embodied AI,” leading to the founding of SynapX. The company has seen smooth progress in both team building and fundraising.
The team has strong ties to Horizon Robotics, with several co-founders sharing a background at the company. In addition to Du Dalong and Liang Zhujin, co-founder Fan Qingyuan previously worked in chip sales at Horizon, while another co-founder, Pan Yangjiayi, served as Vice President of Capital Operations and Strategy there.
Given that the co-founders are seasoned entrepreneurs with extensive experience in autonomous driving—combined with the current investment boom in embodied AI—SynapX has attracted significant interest from the capital market. Within just three months, the company secured nearly 1 billion RMB in funding from investors including Horizon Robotics, Hillhouse Ventures, Xiaomi Strategic Investment, K3 Ventures, Linear Capital, Shunwei Capital, and Jinqiu Fund.
At the 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) this past August, SynapX unveiled a comprehensive suite of embodied AI hardware and software products, including world models, dexterous robotic hands, and data collection solutions for embodied AI. Developing both dexterous hands and world models within just over six months of a company’s founding is a rare feat in the industry. This approach—tackling both hardware and software simultaneously—bears a striking resemblance to the strategy once employed by JZ Robotics (Jianzhi Robot), which developed a binocular camera system, using the sensor hardware as a lever to drive differentiated innovation in algorithms.
While the field of embodied AI has seen a surge in funding this year, it has also encountered a notable industry challenge: high turnover among technical co-founders.
At least ten startups in the embodied AI space have seen their technical co-founders or CTOs depart, and this trend appears to be on the rise. Furthermore, the role of “head of models”—a position reporting directly to the CTO—has experienced even higher turnover rates than the CTO role itself.
The frequent departure of technical leaders in the embodied AI sector stems from a complex set of underlying reasons.
Because the field is still in its early stages of technical exploration, the entire industry is essentially “crossing the river by feeling the stones.” In this environment, the technical leader within an embodied AI startup inevitably shoulders the heaviest burden and faces the greatest pressure.
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