A young scientist who was a leader in Britain’s AI chip field has returned to China, joining Nanjing University earlier this year as an associate professor at its School of Artificial Intelligence.
Song Yuhang, whose published papers on artificial intelligence (AI) have been widely cited and reported, obtained his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2022, and is also a recipient of the coveted JP Morgan AI Research Award.
According to Song, he and his fellow Oxford PhD candidate Walter Goodwin co-founded Fractile as an entrepreneurial project in 2021. It became one of Britain’s few technology start-ups, aiming to capitalise on the growing demand for computing power by manufacturing AI chips that are faster than Nvidia’s.
In February this year, a British-based digital media outlet reported that Song left Fractile in May 2024, after questions were raised about his academic background and earlier ties to Chinese institutions.
Neither Song nor Fractile has commented on the suggestions – included in the report published by City AM – that his departure from the company was related to his links with Beihang University, where he completed his undergraduate studies.
There is no suggestion that Song was involved in any misconduct, nor any accusations that intellectual property was transferred.
Beihang is one of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence”, as the universities that play a core role in the country’s military research are known. It was sanctioned by the United States as early as 2001 and remains on Washington’s “entity list” for export controls.
While the university is not subject to any sanctions in Britain, several people close to Fractile said that Song’s connection had become difficult to reconcile with the company’s ambitions, according to City AM, which is a London-based business and financial news provider.
A Fractile representative cited by City AM said Song left the company in 2024 to “pursue other technical and business interests”, adding that founders of early-stage tech companies often moved on as projects matured.
Fractile’s website makes no reference to Song, who was briefly involved in two other AI start-ups before applying to lead Nanjing University’s Atom of Learning (AtoL) laboratory last year.
On the AtoL web page, Song said that he left Fractile “to pursue my next venture”. During his time with the company, “we raised a total of US$17.5 million from various top-tier [venture capital firms] and US$6.3 million from [Britain’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency] ARIA”, he wrote.
His LinkedIn page says: “My research inspires 100x more efficient hardware for artificial neural networks, turning into a spin-out from Oxford University: Fractile, [which] I co-founded in 2021, as the leading founder at the time, and acted as the [chief technology officer].
The business publication Fortune published an interview with Goodwin in July 2024 that described him as founder of Fractile and made no mention of Song or his previous involvement with the company.
According to the Fortune article, the company was founded in 2022, but operated for two years in “stealth mode” while working on its chip designs.
Seed investors included Nato’s innovation fund, Kindred Capital and Oxford Science Enterprises, which led the funding, according to the Fractile website.
Song’s research at Oxford focused on interpreting and extracting the learning principles of biological neural systems to reverse-engineer them into algorithms or even specialised hardware.
On his LinkedIn profile, Song wrote that this approach would “not only bring us closer to true AI but also enhance our understanding of the most complex part of the body – the brain – thereby allowing for a better understanding and treatment of learning-related diseases, as well as neurological disorders in a broader sense”.
Song published 13 academic papers during his doctoral studies, with his work published in top AI conferences and authoritative journals. In 2022, he was one of just six individuals globally to receive the JP Morgan award, established to recognise “the next generation of leading AI scientists”.
According to Nanjing University, 381 young overseas scientists took part in the 2025 selection process for the School of Artificial Intelligence, with only 80 passing the assessment.
Introducing himself on the AtoL website, Song said that he had capacity for two master’s students and one PhD student for entry in year 2026, as well as regular funding for postdoctoral positions.
“To achieve a hundredfold leap in the performance of the next generation of AI, we must rebuild from the ground up,” he wrote.
The South China Morning Post has contacted Song for comment.
Meanwhile, Fractile is reportedly seeking to raise US$200 million at a valuation of US$1 billion in its bid to challenge Nvidia in 2026.
Passionate about science? Dive deeper with the Dark Matters newsletter, a weekly in-depth analysis on China’s rise in science, technology and military that goes beneath the surface. Sign up for free now.
