Rising talent in micron-precision 3D printing, Xu Zhenpeng, announced on social media his move from a California startup to an academic position in Shanghai, China. Previously, he led a team developing 3D printing techniques to make chip production faster and cheaper than conventional multimillion-dollar machines.
Xu Zhenpeng, a chipmaking expert, recently revealed on social media his departure from Atomic Semi, a California-based startup funded by OpenAI, to take an academic position at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The company focuses on micron-precision 3D printing to revolutionize chip production.
Before joining Atomic Semi, Xu co-founded a company in 2016 while pursuing his master's degree in Florida. That venture built and sold compact, high-resolution 3D printers using liquid plastic, aiming to replace bulky, multimillion-dollar conventional machines for faster and cheaper chip manufacturing.
Xu's research at UCLA included printing tiny robots that respond to their surroundings without external controls, using metamaterials engineered to convert mechanical motion into electrical signals. His work has been supported by the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, with connections to figures like Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam.
This move aligns with a broader trend of Chinese scientists returning from the US to China, though specific reasons are not detailed in the sources. Xu's GitHub profile highlights contributions to projects related to ChatGPT, underscoring his expertise at the intersection of AI and manufacturing.