Yu Chen

Yu Chen is a managing partner at Yunqi Capital, one of four VCs elsewhere counted among 2026's newly promoted GPs — the promotion was announced by Yunqi in early January 2026 and noted in elsewhere's March 2026 promotion roundup . Before investing he was a Google engineer and a startup technical lead; over more than a decade at Yunqi he has worked open-source software, big data, robotics, autonomous driving, AI, and embodied intelligence, with a portfolio that includes MiniMax, DeepRoute.ai, Neolix, PingCAP, Keenon Robotics, and Independent Variable Robotics . On MiniMax specifically, he was among the earliest investors to meet founder Yan Junjie back in 2021, telling 晚点 in November 2025 that Yan "was obviously brilliant" and convinced him foundation models could solve more general problems . He has been a visible voice on AI investing — appearing on 暗涌Waves' June 2025 investor roundtable alongside ZhenFund's Dai Yusen and Gaorong's Hu Shuo, and in an August 2026 podcast conversation about embodied intelligence hype versus long-term value .