Bridging Wuxi and Silicon Valley through global robotics research

While building the community in the San Francisco Bay Area, Zhu found a surprisingly large group of Wuxi‑born professionals working in AI and robotics. He is launching a volunteer‑run nonprofit network for these overseas talents to share research and startup experiences.

For Zhu, the initiative offers a way to connect the expertise accumulated overseas with opportunities in Wuxi, where manufacturing capabilities and a growing robotics industry could provide a foundation for turning research into practical applications.

Wang Huaitian, one of Zhu's high-school classmates, exemplifies these cross-border ties. While working in AI in Silicon Valley, he founded Novalink, a software and IT services startup back in Wuxi, this May.

Wuxi's local AI sector is seeing robust growth. Its core AI industry reached 43.84 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) in the first half of 2026, marking a 33.4 percent year‑on‑year rise. Intelligent robotics ranks among its priority sectors.

The city's robotics ecosystem is also gaining momentum, with four leading Chinese robotics companies — UBTech, Agibot, Unitree and Galbot — establishing R&D and production bases in Wuxi.

For Zhu, connecting overseas talent with this local ecosystem is a way to bring research, entrepreneurship and manufacturing into closer contact.

The cross-border network is also creating more connections among entrepreneurs. Feng Yue, another Wuxi native, is a longtime co-host of the Saturday robotics club and heads robotics startup Neural Motion.

She assembled her company's founding team through club interactions. The community is scheduled to co‑host a robotics hardware hackathon in San Francisco on Oct 24, extending its activities beyond research discussions toward hands-on development.