Moonshot AI 17-year-old researcher Chen Guangyu resigns, rumored to join US AI company Discovery Loop

On October 21, according to Yonhap News Agency, Chen Guangyu, a 17-year-old researcher who contributed to the development of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model, has left the company. A social media account tracking US AI talent flows, “Aper Grok,” stated that he has joined Discovery Loop. Chen Guangyu has not yet publicly confirmed his next stop, and Discovery Loop stated it does not comment on personal matters.

In November 2025, Chen Guangyu began working as a machine learning researcher on the Kimi team, playing a central role in the development of the Kimi K3 underlying architecture. He posted on social media thanking the company for hiring him at age 16 and announced his plans to move to the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. Although rumors suggested he had joined Anthropic, he has since denied them.

Discovery Loop was founded in August this year by Jeff Dean and three other former Google researchers, dedicating itself to automating scientific research with AI. The company has not yet launched any products.