Categories
Tech

Yuchen Jin: AI Systems Engineer and CTO

Profile Picture
Human Profile
Name:Yuchen Jin
Education:University of Washington (PhD), Computer Science and Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (BS), Computer Science and Engineering

Overview

Yuchen Jin is a Chinese computer scientist and entrepreneur, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Hyperbolic, recognized for his extensive contributions to the open-source AI compiler stack Apache TVM, notably leading the development of “Relax” to enable AI models across various chipsets.

Latest News (Dec 31, 2025): Yuchen Jin, CTO of AI startup Hyperbolic Labs, recently had his US green card application denied by USCIS, which cited his work's lack of impact beyond Apple, Inc., despite Jin stating he has never worked for Apple. He criticized the agency on X (formerly Twitter) for this "absurd reasoning" and appealed to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for immigration system reform.

Early Life and Education

Yuchen Jin developed an early interest in computers and artificial intelligence after receiving his first computer from his father at the age of 10. This early passion led him to learn coding. Jin pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, graduating in 2015. During his undergraduate studies, his technical skills were recognized, and at age 20, he was selected to join a research group with Ph.D. and Master’s students. He published his first research paper at the age of 22.

Following his bachelor’s degree, Jin moved to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. There, he was advised by Professor Arvind Krishnamurthy. His doctoral research focused on machine learning systems, computer networks, and distributed systems.

Career Beginnings and Research

While completing his Ph.D., Yuchen Jin gained practical experience through several commercial internships. He held research intern positions at Microsoft Research in the summers of 2017 and 2020, and at ByteDance’s AI Lab from late 2018 to early 2019. At ByteDance, he developed an automatic learning rate scheduler that significantly accelerated the training of their AI models. His work at Microsoft involved projects related to fault localization in autonomous systems and analyzing wide-area latencies for a global cloud provider. He also contributed to research groups building AI models and systems for Microsoft Azure.

Breakthrough with Apache TVM and OctoML

A significant part of Jin’s career has been his contribution to the open-source AI compiler stack, Apache TVM. While at OctoML (formerly OctoAI), where he served as a Senior Engineering Manager and Tech Lead, Jin led a team of engineers and an open-source community. This community included contributors from major tech companies and universities.

His most notable project was leading the development of “Relax,” a next-generation graph-level language and core compilation infrastructure within Apache TVM. Relax is designed to enable AI models to run on a variety of chipsets. The project was eventually merged into Apache TVM. His technical contributions to the project include work on the Relax VM codegen, shape lowering, and support for the Python array API with DLPack.

Hyperbolic and Recent Work

Yuchen Jin is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Hyperbolic, an AI startup. At Hyperbolic, he focuses on creating open-access AI compute and inference tools for developers and researchers. The company’s work is built upon the open-source principles of projects like Relax.

In late 2024, Jin’s green card application was denied by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The denial, which stated his work lacked impact “beyond that of Apple, Inc” and incorrectly identified him as Apple’s CTO, drew public attention. Jin, who has never worked for Apple, voiced his frustration with the agency’s reasoning. He subsequently appealed to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a federal initiative aimed at reforming the high-skilled immigration system.