- The former Alibaba AI executive raises an unusually large angel round to pursue world models and embodied AI
- Backed by prominent investors HongShan, Gaorong, Tencent and Shanghai’s future-industry fund, Pragmatik Labs targets agents that bridge digital and physical worlds
Lin Junyang (林俊旸), the former technology head of Alibaba’s Qwen large language model, has officially launched a new AI company in Shanghai, betting on a next generation of intelligent agents that can operate across both digital and physical environments.
Lin announced on August 12 that he had founded Pragmatik Labs (语用科技), focusing on digital agents, physical agents, frontier research and commercial products, with world models and embodied intelligence at the core of its technology strategy.
His comments confirmed a scoop by The Information around two months ago that the former Qwen chief had raised funds at a post-money valuation of $2 billion.
HongShan and Gaorong Capital jointly led the round, with Tencent and the government-backed Shanghai Engine Fund also participating. The financial terms remain undisclosed.
A new entrant into the MoSpace
Pragmatik Labs’ domestic operating entity is registered at MoSpace, Shanghai’s large-model innovation ecosystem.
The facility has attracted more than 300 generative AI companies and is described as China’s first and one of the world’s largest dedicated innovation communities for large-model startups.
Lin retains more than 87% of the company’s equity through direct and indirect holdings. External investors collectively hold about 12%, with HongShan owning 5% through three entities, Gaorong holding 4.25%, and Tencent and the Shanghai Engine Fund each holding 1%.
Lin’s departure from Alibaba in March attracted considerable attention. He marked the move with a social-media farewell to Qwen, writing, “me stepping down. bye my beloved qwen.”
Born in 1993, Lin studied English as an undergraduate at the University of International Relations before earning a master’s degree in linguistics from Peking University.
He joined Alibaba’s DAMO Academy in 2019 and rose four levels in six years to become the company’s youngest P10-level technical expert.
Under his leadership, the Qwen family of models became one of China’s leading open-source AI model platforms. Before his departure, Qwen-related models had accumulated more than 1 billion downloads globally, while more than 200,000 derivative models had been developed.
From large models to physical AI
Lin’s new venture represents a notable shift in direction as competition among major AI companies increasingly centers on increasingly capable foundation models and agentic systems.
Rather than continuing to compete directly in the increasingly crowded large-language-model market, Pragmatik Labs is targeting world models and embodied intelligence—areas that seek to extend AI beyond digital information processing into interaction with the physical world.
The company’s four-part focus—digital agents, physical agents, frontier research and real-world products—suggests an ambition to build AI systems that can perceive, reason and act across both virtual and physical environments.
For international observers of the AI startup landscape, the venture is notable not only for its $2 billion starting valuation, but also for the caliber of its backers and the pedigree of its founder.
Lin helped propel Qwen into the global open-source AI mainstream. His decision to leave Alibaba and pursue world models and embodied AI offers a closely watched test of whether the next major frontier in AI will emerge not from larger language models, but from systems capable of understanding and acting in the real world.
