# Meet the Chinese AI star who splashed a reported US$70m on a California mansion > Source: > Published: 2026-08-18 14:00:05+00:00 Advertisement # Meet the Chinese AI star who splashed a reported US$70m on a California mansion Tony Wu Yuhuai, co-founder of Elon Musk’s AI lab, reportedly buys 12-acre estate, putting a spotlight on China’s Silicon Valley talent 2-MIN READ2-MIN [Iris Deng](/author/iris-deng)in Shenzhen Tony Wu Yuhuai, the China-born co-founder of Elon Musk’s [artificial intelligence](https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article)lab, sparked discussions across Chinese social media after reportedly spending US$70 million on a six-bedroom Californian mega-mansion.The property deal, the largest so far this year in the Bay Area, pushed the thirty-something AI star under the spotlight, alongside other Silicon Valley-based Chinese talent that has contributed to frontier AI labs from [OpenAI to Meta Platforms](https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3363638/meta-challenge-chinas-open-weight-ai-dominance-amid-us-regulatory-fears?module=inline&pgtype=article).Wu appeared to be the buyer of a 12-acre (4.8 hectare) estate in Hillsborough, an affluent area in California close to Silicon Valley, according to a report by The San Francisco Standard last week. The luxury estate features a private nine-hole golf course, a 150-seat outdoor amphitheatre and a 2,100-gallon saltwater aquarium among other amenities, according to the report. Wu, who left xAI earlier this year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. In 2023, Wu co-founded xAI, now renamed as [SpaceXAI](https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3356375/spacex-ipo-set-lift-industry-push-space-based-ai-computing-solar-power-report?module=inline&pgtype=article)**after his stint at Google as a research scientist from 2021. Before that, Wu interned at OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind team as a research scientist.***,*During his time at xAI, Wu was one of the 12 members of the founding team alongside Musk, and a core developer of the chatbot Grok, with a focus on [AI mathematics](https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3363966/chinese-doctor-stuns-maths-world-cracking-decades-old-problem-using-chatgpt?module=inline&pgtype=article)and building machines that can reason. He previously grabbed media attention in 2025 when he sat next to Musk during a live-streamed launch of the firm’s chatbot Grok 3.Advertisement Select Voice Select Speed 1.00x