Chipmaking expert Xu Zhenpeng leaves OpenAI-funded start-up for Shanghai role

Advanced chipmaking engineer Xu Zhenpeng has left the United States to take up a full-time position at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence hardware research.

Before his return to China, Xu led a team at the California-based manufacturing start-up Atomic Semi, developing 3D printing techniques aimed at making chip production faster and cheaper than conventional methods that used bulky, multimillion-dollar machines.

Investors in the company, founded in 2023, have included ChatGPT creator OpenAI’s start-up fund, former CEO of GitHub Nat Friedman and co-founder of crypto investment firm Paradigm Fred Ehrsam, according to reports.

Xu, who earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2023, is a rising talent in large-area, micron-precision 3D printing – a technology increasingly used in electronics manufacturing.

While pursuing his master’s degree in Florida in 2016, he co-founded a company that built and sold compact, high-resolution 3D printers using liquid plastic.

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At UCLA, Xu’s research included printing tiny robots that could respond to their surroundings without external controls, using metamaterials engineered to convert mechanical motion into electrical signals.

South China Morning Post