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People · The Autonomous-Driving Turncoats
Gao Jiyang (高继扬)
The former Waymo and Momenta executive who founded Galaxea AI in 2023 and reached unicorn status in 18 months.
Who he is
Gao Jiyang (高继扬, born 1992) is the founder and CEO of Galaxea AI (星海图), a Beijing-based embodied AI foundation model company founded in September 2023. A physics Olympiad product, he entered Tsinghua's Department of Electronic Engineering and went on to earn a PhD in computer vision from USC in a record 3.5 years.
He joined Waymo as a senior engineer (working on perception and the VectorNet project) and later returned to China to become executive director at autonomous-driving startup Momenta. In 2023 he co-founded Galaxea with Tsinghua cross-institute faculty Zhao Xing and Xu Huazhe.
Why he matters
Galaxea is part of the wave of ex-autonomous-driving talent that moved into humanoids in 2023–2024. The company raised four rounds in its first 18 months — a roughly tenfold valuation increase — and positions itself as an "embodied foundation model" play: a general "brain" that can drive wheeled, legged and dual-arm form factors. Its flagship Nexo wheeled-humanoid, launched at the 2026 World Robot Conference, has 30 degrees of freedom and 20 kg dual-arm payload.
Key facts
- 1992: Born.
- Tsinghua: BEng, Electronic Engineering (physics Olympiad).
- PhD: USC computer vision, 3.5 years (lab record).
- Waymo: Senior engineer, perception / VectorNet.
- Momenta: Executive director.
- 2023: Founded Galaxea AI.
- 18 months: Four funding rounds, ~10x valuation growth.
Keep exploring
Related reading
Galaxea AI — Company Profile
The embodied foundation-model company Gao built.
Cutting-edge Products
See the Nexo wheeled-humanoid.