Ben Wu is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of multiple ventures in the artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain sectors. He is the co-founder of Pin AI, a company that develops personal AI solutions and user-controlled data wallets. His earlier work includes co-founding Raven Tech, a voice AI company that participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program and was later acquired by Baidu. ^[1]

Education

Wu completed his undergraduate studies at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), obtaining a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. His graduate coursework at MIT included subjects such as entrepreneurship, innovation, product design, manufacturing systems, supply chains, and management in engineering. Wu also holds a graduate certificate in the management of technology from the National University of Singapore and participated in a leadership enrichment and regional networking exchange program at Nanyang Technological University. In 2015, he took part in the Winter batch of the Y Combinator accelerator program with his company, Raven Tech. ^[3]

Career

Wu began his career in 2012 as a founding team member at DevTech Hub, an organization that worked on applying Israeli technology to challenges in developing regions. During the same year, he interned as an operations management consultant at Applied Materials, where he focused on production planning methods to shorten lead times and improve manufacturing capacity. From 2012 to 2014, Wu worked as a software engineer at Oracle, where he contributed to the development and enhancement of Network File System (NFS) products and related industry standards.

In 2014, Wu co-founded Raven Tech, a voice AI company. The company was accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch. Raven Tech was acquired by the Chinese technology firm Baidu in 2017. Following his work with Raven Tech, Wu shifted his focus to the financial technology sector. In 2015, he co-founded S Financial, an enterprise fintech solutions provider, and served as its CEO until 2017. From 2018 to 2020, he continued with the company in the role of chairman and co-founder, overseeing its operations in China. Between 2020 and 2022, Wu co-founded Prisma Technology Limited, a studio focused on blockchain technology. He then co-founded GAlpha.ai, where he worked from 2023 until early 2024. In 2024, he co-founded EdgeAI Technology Limited, a venture concentrated on developing personal and privacy-oriented AI systems, which serves as the entity behind his current initiative, Pin AI. ^{[2] [4]}

Pin AI

Wu is the co-founder of Pin AI, a company building a network for personal AI. The project's stated mission is to address the problem of fragmented personal data by enabling users to aggregate information from various digital platforms into a secure "data wallet" that they control. The platform is designed to power on-device and privacy-preserving AI systems, placing users at the center of the AI economy. The founding team includes individuals with backgrounds from organizations such as Ethereum, Google Brain, Stanford, and MIT.

In September 2024, Pin AI announced it had raised $10 million in a funding round. Key investors included Hack VC and a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), with participation from angel investors and firms such as Big Brain Holdings, Symbolic Capital, Foresight Ventures, and G20 Ventures. By May 2025, Wu reported that the platform had grown to several million users and was handling millions of daily agent interactions.

The company's products include a mobile application for data aggregation and real-time transcription, as well as a Telegram-based mini-app called "Hi PIN," which launched in October 2024. Pin AI's technical architecture utilizes a hybrid computation model, dynamically shifting inference tasks between a user's device (edge) and the cloud to balance performance and privacy. The system also incorporates hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments and cryptographic proofs to secure user data. ^{[1] [6]}

Interviews

AI Productivity

In an interview with Ian Khan at Consensus in May 2025, Wu discussed the development of Pin AI and its focus on addressing fragmented personal data by aggregating information from multiple digital platforms to support personal AI systems. He explained that the project had reached several million users and daily agent interactions at the time, and that he was overseeing ongoing product development alongside plans for an updated version of the data wallet. Wu compared the state of artificial intelligence to the early stages of the internet, noting parallels in uncertainty and adjustment, and outlined his view of agentic AI as task-specific software designed to reduce repetitive work. He also described expectations that personal AI systems would evolve beyond reactive tools into proactive assistants capable of offering contextual recommendations across areas such as work, travel, and decision-making. ^[5]

Presentations

Personal AI

In a presentation delivered by Wu and Regan Peng at BASSLite Devcon in February 2025, Wu examined whether personal AI development would remain centralized within large technology firms or shift toward more decentralized models, referencing recent personal AI initiatives by companies such as Apple and Microsoft. The discussion addressed expectations that future personal assistants would hold a broader contextual understanding of users, while also noting that large technology platforms faced structural and regulatory constraints due to data silos and limited interoperability. Wu outlined an approach centered on user control over personal data and locally deployed models, and discussed the rollout of a mobile application that aggregated multiple data sources and had attracted a substantial user base at the time. Peng then described the underlying ecosystem architecture, explaining how user data, connectors, and intent-matching mechanisms interact through defined protocols to enable task execution. The presentation concluded with a discussion of planned support for additional AI agents, developer participation, and broader applications across different industries. ^[7]