US mentor’s viral post reignites debate on why Yang Zhilin built Kimi in China

A single congratulatory post on X has reignited a long-running debate about America’s ability to retain top AI talent, after Russ Salakhutdinov, former Carnegie Mellon University supervisor to Moonshot AI co-founder Yang Zhilin, praised his former student’s latest achievement.

Salakhutdinov’s post came after Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, a new AI model the company says performs almost as well as Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol. ‘It feels like just yesterday Zhilin was graduating from my lab at CMU, jointly co-advised with William Cohen,’ Salakhutdinov wrote, noting that Zhilin finished his PhD in just four years and made ‘truly fundamental contributions to ML’ during his time there.

Zhilin, who worked at Google Brain and Meta Platforms while completing his doctorate, chose to return to China after his PhD rather than pursue postdoctoral positions reportedly open to him at Stanford University or MIT. Apple had also tried to recruit him, according to reports.

The post drew wide attention on social media, with many users asking why a researcher trained inside the American system ended up building a Chinese AI company instead of a US one. Indian-origin entrepreneur Ankit Gupta was among the most vocal, calling America’s ‘moronic visa policy’ a likely factor.

‘The fact that we don’t staple a green card to every AI PhD completed in America is stupid,’ Gupta wrote, adding that it ‘would be more logical to seize their passports and force them to stay.’ Other commenters pointed to the structure of the F-1 student visa itself, arguing it is built around employment rather than entrepreneurship and is ‘broken for founders.’

The debate lands as US authorities tighten F-1 visa rules further, now capping stays at four years before holders must apply through the USCIS for an extension.

Wikimedia Commons/by Dllu