Q&A: Gaming Tycoon Chen Tianqiao on His $1 Billion Bet to Build ‘Living’ AI

Chen Tianqiao, formerly the richest man in China and a trailblazer in the digital economy, now devotes much of his time to conversations with artificial intelligence (AI), which he finds to be the most intellectually stimulating companion outside of his wife. His friends, though brilliant, lack the time for such deep, sustained exchanges, so Chen's engagement with AI marks his latest personal and professional frontier [para. 1][para. 2]. Once the founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a gaming powerhouse listed on Nasdaq in 2004 that catapulted him to China's richest individual by age 32, Chen sold off his company from 2011-2016. He then turned his fortune toward neuroscience and, more recently, has become a significant, sometimes contrarian, voice in the AI revolution. In 2023, he committed himself fully to AI, calling it "Year Zero," a moment he likens to the dawn of a new era, and subsequently pledged $1 billion in computing power to global AI research. He and his wife’s institute, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, also launched the Spiking Intelligence Lab to develop brain-like AI models [para. 3][para. 4].

Chen's view diverges sharply from the mainstream of today’s AI development. He contends that current AI technologies are fundamentally limited, adept only at repackaging what is already known rather than engendering true, living intelligence capable of discovery. Chen aims to create sentient AI, drawing on inspiration from the human brain to overcome these shortcomings. He envisions this as a profound transformation with enormous implications for work, society, and the broader human purpose [para. 5].

Living a reclusive life in California, Chen rarely gives interviews but recently shared his insights on AI’s trajectory. He is curious about how society will adapt to AI, recognizing limitations in both human evolution—what he calls "the limits of carbon-based life"—and current machine intelligence. Chen argues that while AI can make certain human skills obsolete, humanity as a whole retains unique value and purpose [para. 6][para. 7][para. 8][para. 9][para. 10][para. 11].

Chen's scientific journey began with questioning free will and self-identity during his gaming days, which led to deep interest in brain science and neuroscience philanthropy. He believes humans, while flawed due to evolutionary happenstance, can now evolve with AI’s help. However, rather than focusing solely on human replacement, he advocates for a symbiotic advancement [para. 12][para. 13][para. 14][para. 15].

Chen’s critique of Transformer-based AI architectures centers around their inefficiency and inability to maintain continuous, "alive" thought without prompts. He highlights five core requirements for advanced AI: neural dynamics, long-term memory, causal reasoning, adaptable world models, and metacognition—qualities he believes are critical for creating a sentient and continuously learning system. To this end, his team is working on solutions like EverMemOS for expanding AI memory and exploring spiking neural networks, which mimic the natural function of the human brain more closely [para. 16][para. 17][para. 18][para. 19][para. 20][para. 21][para. 22][para. 23][para. 24].

He foresees great inequality arising from AI augmentation and rapid obsolescence of human skills but remains resistant to doomsday scenarios. For Chen, discovery-driven AI—not mere generative or optimization-based models—should be the goal, to expand knowledge rather than simply reshuffling the known [para. 25][para. 26][para. 27].

In investment, he indicates, talent and computing power have overtaken capital alone as the key drivers. The AI field, still young in Chen’s estimation, hasn't reached bubble status and is already reshaping user behavior fundamentally. His projects are set for milestones by early 2026, particularly with spiking neural network models and advanced causal reasoning engines like MiroMind outperforming global peers [para. 28][para. 29][para. 30][para. 31][para. 32][para. 33][para. 34][para. 35][para. 36].

Ultimately, Chen envisions a global race not for labor replacement, but for scientific discovery. He believes AI’s highest purpose lies in facilitating breakthroughs in domains such as nuclear fusion or space exploration, serving as humanity’s next leap forward [para. 37][para. 38][para. 39].