Tencent poaches OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu with reported $14M deal amid AI talent war

The global race for artificial intelligence talent just got a lot more dramatic. Tencent Holdings has reportedly hired Yao Shunyu, a 27-year-old researcher from OpenAI known for pushing the boundaries of AI agents, according to Bloomberg. If confirmed, the move would rank among the most high-profile defections of U.S.-trained talent to China—and it comes with a price tag that’s hard to ignore.

“Tencent Holdings Ltd. has recruited a prominent artificial intelligence researcher from OpenAI in one of the most high-profile defections from the US AI sector to China,” Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sources told Bloomberg that Yao’s deal could be worth up to 100 million yuan (about $14 million), though the exact structure hasn’t surfaced. Tencent, which controls WeChat and is one of the world’s largest gaming ecosystems, is said to be giving Yao the reins on embedding advanced AI across its consumer platforms. For Tencent, it’s a calculated bet to narrow the gap with U.S. giants like OpenAI and Google. For Yao, it’s a leap from research labs into products that touch hundreds of millions of people.

From OpenAI to Tencent: Yao Shunyu’s Blockbuster Defection Shakes AI Race

Yao’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. A graduate of Tsinghua University’s elite Yao Class and a PhD in computer science from Princeton, he has racked up over 15,000 academic citations. His work on the ReAct framework, which merges reasoning with action, has become foundational in the development of agent-based AI.

He joined OpenAI in 2024 and quickly became one of its youngest core researchers. His fingerprints are on several of OpenAI’s most ambitious projects, including the Operator tool for automating tasks and the Computer-Using Agent (CUA), which enables AI to move through software the way a human would. His personal site still lists him as an OpenAI researcher, but Bloomberg’s report suggests his career may be pivoting. Yao himself has hinted before that the future of AI lies less in training and more in evaluation—a view that puts him closer to product development than pure research.

Rumors, denials, and a sudden twist

The story didn’t come out of nowhere. Chinese media lit up just a day earlier with rumors that Tencent had lured Yao with a package north of 100 million yuan. Tencent shot down the claims, calling them false across its official channels. Yet hours later, Bloomberg’s report hit, citing people familiar with the matter. That whiplash has left the tech community buzzing, with speculation flying on social platforms from LinkedIn to X.

“The Shenzhen-based gaming and messaging company hired Yao Shunyu to work on integrating AI into its services, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t yet public. Yao had most recently worked at OpenAI in the US after stints at Google and Princeton University, according to his LinkedIn account.”

Yann LeCun of Meta called the chatter a sign of mounting pressure in China’s efforts to bring in top-tier talent. Investors and analysts are treating it as another flashpoint in what’s become a full-scale AI hiring arms race.

Why Tencent wants him now

Tencent has already poured billions into its own large language models, including Hunyuan, but lags behind ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba’s Qwen. Yao’s expertise with agentic AI could give Tencent a sharper edge, especially as it looks to weave generative AI into apps that already dominate daily life in China.

The timing is no accident. Beijing has rolled out incentives to pull overseas talent back home, while U.S. firms are offering their own sky-high packages to keep researchers in Silicon Valley. OpenAI and Meta have both dangled offers said to approach nine figures in stock and compensation. It’s less a bidding war than a full-blown scramble, with global tech giants trying to corner the market on the minds that will define AI’s future.

What’s next?

Neither Yao, OpenAI, nor Tencent has confirmed the deal outright, leaving the story suspended in a fog of denials and anonymous sources. But if Bloomberg’s reporting holds, Yao’s move could mark a tipping point in the eastward flow of AI expertise.

It’s a reminder that the fight over artificial intelligence isn’t just about algorithms or chips. It’s about people. And in this case, one researcher’s career move could ripple across the industry.