Topic: 2025 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference & First Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo The 2025 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference is taking place from October 16 to 18 in the Expo Park of Huangpu District, Shanghai. Liang Yu, a partner at Founders Partners Venture Capital, attended and delivered a speech.
In his speech, Liang Yu interpreted the impact of technological transformation based on his personal experiences. In 2000, he joined China Mobile as his first job, and three months into his tenure, he sent his first text message. Today, 25 years later, he admitted that he could not have imagined such dramatic changes brought by technology—just as the advent of texting revolutionized communication in 2000, AI is now at the core of current transformations, with large language models and OpenAI-related technologies frequently making headlines.
He believes that the current exploration of AI is at a critical stage of “from nothing to something,” with various parties projecting the development of AI over the next decade based on existing knowledge. As a venture capital firm, Founders Partners Venture Capital aims to provide support to early-stage tech innovation companies in the backend. While not all attempts will be successful, facilitating early exploration is significant for the industry's development.
Discussing thoughts on AI development, Liang posed a key question: Will the current tech giants maintain their dominant status over the next decade? Drawing from history, he noted that 50 years ago, when great companies like Amazon and Google were starting, few could foresee their eventual influence—when Google was newly founded, nobody expected it to replace Yahoo, and Amazon was once viewed as a “joke” by Walmart.
He emphasized that technological competition is relentless, with “today's winners possibly becoming tomorrow's losers.” There may be unknown teams in the background developing breakthrough technologies that could achieve capabilities similar to the human brain with relatively lesser functions or energy. Additionally, he reflected on the phenomenon of “high investment” in AI development: Is it necessary to invest massive computational power and energy to create models with parameters akin to “the number of stars in a galaxy” in pursuit of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)? In his view, AGI is not the only path for AI development.
Regarding investment strategies, Liang shared Founders Partners Venture Capital's “choice logic.” He clearly stated that the team will avoid overly optimistic tech projects, especially in areas with safety hazards or commercialization bottlenecks. Taking autonomous driving as an example, despite the technology having a certain foundation and some arguing that it could be safer than human driving, it still faces immense challenges in commercialization, regulatory adaptation, and user habit cultivation—people are generally hesitant about overly entrusting machines. Therefore, the team has not continued investing in that sector. He further cautioned that excessive trust in non-human technologies might lead to chaos, potentially resulting in scenarios akin to “The Matrix” where AGI goes out of control: "We still don't know what AI is thinking, and there are many risks we need to be wary of."
On promising investment directions, Liang mentioned fields related to the virtual world, such as gaming, entertainment, music, and online dating, but he also acknowledged that “achieving great endeavors and accomplishments is not easy.” He stressed that investments should draw lessons from history, understand the patterns of technological development and human needs, and maintain a reverence for risk while fostering innovation.
Finally, Liang reiterated his optimistic outlook for the future. He believes that the collective intelligence of professors, research institutions, governments, and other entities will help create a more convenient and prosperous future, and the mission of venture capital firms is to support promising early tech innovation companies and accompany them as they navigate through the waves of technological transformation.
The 2025 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference is co-hosted by the World Green Design Organization (WGDO) and SINA Corp, with the Beijing office of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation) as a co-organizer. SINA Finance and the Beijing representative office of the World Green Design Organization are responsible for hosting, with support from the People's Government of Huangpu District, Shanghai.
SINA Statement: All conference transcripts are compiled from real-time shorthand and have not been reviewed by the speakers. This article is published by SINA for the purpose of conveying more information and does not imply endorsement of its views or confirmation of its descriptions.
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