Zonghong Dai

Zonghong Dai is the founder and CEO of Basis Origin (基点起源 / AlignBase), an industrial AI startup building what he describes as an enterprise "AI operating system" centered on an "omni-factor large model." A veteran of China's AI infrastructure scene, he previously served as co-founder and AI Infra VP at 01.AI, AI CTO at Huawei Cloud, and AI Infra director at Alibaba's DAMO Academy.

Basis Origin has moved aggressively into B2B customization for China's manufacturing sector—Dai spends roughly 40% of his time on client visits—delivering digital-twin and workflow-automation solutions across metals, petrochemicals, electronics, textiles and other industries. The company closed an angel round exceeding RMB 100 million in 2025 and followed with three further rounds totaling hundreds of millions of yuan by mid-2026, with order values reportedly up an order of magnitude from six months prior. Dai's pitch to investors and clients alike emphasizes measurable ROI over "deploying a big model": he argues Chinese enterprises will pay generously for end-to-end solutions that demonstrate clear business value, and that the country's 512,000+ above-scale industrial enterprises represent ample room for multiple players.