Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

On Monday, Yan Junjie, born in 1989, walked into a conference room in Beijing. At 37, he was likely the youngest entrepreneur at a symposium chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to solicit opinions on the draft government work report and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). 

Who is this young man, and why does his voice matter to China's economic strategy? Yan is the founder and CEO of MiniMax, an AI startup that became China's second "AI tiger" to go public on January 9. The company achieved in four years what takes most tech giants decades - from founding to IPO. Its products include Talkie, an AI companion app with 27.9 million downloads globally.

What's remarkable isn't just the company's success but its demographics. MiniMax employs just 385 people, with an average age of 29. The board averages 32 years old. Over 73 percent are R&D personnel, and about a third hold overseas degrees. This is China's "AI-native generation" - engineers who grew up with deep learning tools and understand artificial intelligence not from textbooks but through hands-on experience.

Yan himself epitomizes this cohort. He earned his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at 26, worked as deputy director at SenseTime's research institute, and founded MiniMax at 33. A decade ago, someone with his credentials would almost certainly have headed to Silicon Valley. That he stayed - and thrived - in China tells a larger story about shifting global talent flows.

A report by MacroPolo, a think tank at the Paulson Institute in Chicago, tracked the educational paths of the world's top AI researchers. The findings were striking: Chinese universities now produce nearly 50 percent of the world's elite AI talent, up from just 29 percent in 2019. More significantly, these talents are increasingly staying home. 

The report notes that "China has expanded its domestic AI talent pool over the last few years to meet the demands of its own growing AI industry," with more Chinese researchers working domestically rather than emigrating.

This reverses a longstanding brain drain. What changed?

First, China's AI industry exploded. The sector exceeded 900 billion yuan ($128.87 billion) in 2024 and is projected to surpass 1.2 trillion yuan in 2025. This growth created high-paying jobs - Huawei recruited AI large model technical talents in Shanghai last year with an annual salary as high as 1.04 million yuan, which is competitive.

More crucially, China offers something unique: a market of over 1.4 billion people providing unparalleled data and iteration opportunities. What might take a decade to test in the US could happen in two to three years in China.

Second, the entrepreneurial ecosystem matured. Venture capital became sophisticated, government support became tangible and infrastructure - from computing power to supply chains - became world-class. MiniMax reached IPO with less than $500 million in spending, which is less than 1 percent of OpenAI's spending during the same period. This efficiency reflects systemic advantages in China's innovation environment.

Third, push factors emerged abroad. In May 2025, the US announced it would "actively revoke" visas for Chinese students in critical fields, including AI, aerospace and semiconductors. Many students faced visa cancellations or delays, creating uncertainty. Faced with a hostile academic environment abroad versus booming opportunities at home, for many, the choice became obvious.

This largely explains why entrepreneurs like Yan were invited to China's economic strategy discussions. They represent not just China's AI present, but its future. When a nation retains the talent it cultivates, and that talent builds world-class companies domestically, it signals genuine economic vitality.

Global talent flows are shifting. MacroPolo found that only 42 percent of top AI researchers worked abroad in 2022, down 13 percentage points from 2019. As countries compete to retain homegrown talent, China stands out with clear advantages.

Yan and his 29-year-old team stand at this historical inflection point. Their story illustrates a simple truth: When opportunities are vast, environments supportive and dreams achievable, young people vote with their feet. These choices are reshaping the global technology landscape and writing new chapters in China's economic development. 

The author is a senior editor with the People's Daily and currently a senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn. Follow him on X @dinggangchina