DeepSeek’s ‘Genius Developer’ Luo Fuli Chooses Xiaomi After All

The move is now official: Luo Fuli, the young engineer who has become an iconic figure in China’s AI industry, has left DeepSeek and joined Xiaomi. On the 12th, Chinese media including The Paper reported that Luo personally confirmed her transition to Xiaomi through a post on her social media.

Rumors about her departure had been circulating non-stop since DeepSeek’s explosive rise. With China’s AI talent war intensifying among major tech companies, the fact that a core DeepSeek developer is heading to Xiaomi is drawing significant attention across the industry.

“Intelligence will move from language to the physical world” — AGI ambitions at Xiaomi’s MiMo

In her announcement, Luo wrote, “Intelligence will advance from language to the realm of physics,” adding that she will work toward AGI together with “creative and capable researchers at Xiaomi MiMo.”

Xiaomi’s MiMo project is the company’s first open-source AI inference model and represents its next-generation AI strategy. The company, which has already expanded its AIoT, robotics, and smart device ecosystem through its own LLMs, is now seen as strengthening its roadmap toward “AI that extends into the physical world.”

From Alibaba to DeepSeek to Xiaomi — All eyes on a rising 1995-born engineer

Born in 1995, Luo Fuli studied electronics at Beijing Normal University before completing a master’s degree in computational linguistics at Peking University. She later led LLM development projects at Alibaba’s DAMO Academy, quickly becoming a talent watched closely by China’s major tech giants.

Her name gained nationwide recognition at DeepSeek. As DeepSeek’s open-source models shook up China’s big-tech landscape, Luo became widely known as a “DeepSeek core developer” and “AI prodigy,” emerging as one of the symbolic faces of China’s young AI talent.

Chinese media had also reported speculation that Xiaomi founder Lei Jun offered her an annual salary of 10 million yuan (approx. USD 1.4 million) to recruit her — a rumor that now seems to have become reality.

DeepSeek talent outflow, or Xiaomi’s major AI pivot?

Industry analysts say Luo’s move signals more than a simple personnel shift — it reflects a structural change in China’s AI competition.

While DeepSeek disrupted the global LLM market with its open-source strategy, Xiaomi has been integrating AI into consumer ecosystems, robotics, and IoT. Luo’s statement about expanding “from language to the physical world” aligns squarely with Xiaomi’s focus on robotics and edge AI.

Experts interpret the move as a sign that “the power dynamics between big tech and startups in China’s AI sector are entering a new phase.”

“The next stage of AGI competition is hardware”

With Luo on board, Xiaomi appears ready to move beyond the software-centric LLM race and expand into AI that operates in the physical world. This matches a broader global trend in AGI strategies among major tech companies.

If DeepSeek’s innovations elevated China’s position in the LLM field, Xiaomi is now betting on that talent to pursue a new AGI experiment across AI robots, smart devices, and edge computing.

Luo’s jump is not merely about “the relocation of a single developer.” It signals that China’s AI competition is shifting from an LLM-driven software era toward an era of physical AI.

By Shin Jubackㅣjbshin@kmjournal.net