Photo: Rico Shen / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Kai-Fu Lee is one of the few voices on AI I actually pause to listen to, precisely because he has lived on both sides of the divide he describes. Born in Taiwan, trained at Carnegie Mellon, he built Microsoft Research Asia and ran Google China before turning investor and author. That rare dual fluency in American and Chinese tech gives his predictions a credibility most pundits lack. What impresses me most is his fluid reinvention, scientist to executive to thinker, without losing intellectual seriousness. As AI reshapes everything, I trust his perspective more than the usual hype, and I keep following where his thinking goes.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Kai-Fu Lee
- Name (Japanese)
- 李開復
- Reading
- かいふ・りー
- Born
- December 3, 1961 (age 64)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Ox
- Origin
- Zhonghe District, Taiwan
- Occupation
- entrepreneur / computer scientist / engineer / businessperson / information scientist
2. Background
- High school
- Oak Ridge High School
- University
- Carnegie Mellon University
Awards & achievements
- IEEE Fellow
- 2021 Asia's Most Influential Taiwan
- John Jay Award
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Kai-Fu Lee born?
Born December 3, 1961 (age 64).
Where is Kai-Fu Lee from?
Kai-Fu Lee is from Zhonghe District, Taiwan.
What does Kai-Fu Lee do?
Kai-Fu Lee works as entrepreneur, computer scientist, engineer, businessperson, information scientist.
Entrepreneur — see all → · Computer scientist — see all → · More people from Taiwan →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.