Z Finance again reports that ByteDance Seed's Zhou Chang has left to start a company focused on Physical AI

AT A GLANCE

Reports said that Zhou Chang had left ByteDance to start a company focused on Physical AI, but media outlets had previously said that he had not left.

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4 Just days ago, his departure was still being denied; ByteDance Seed’s Zhou Chang is again reported to be starting a company to develop Physical AI Dongcha Beating AI breaking news: Z Finance exclusively reports that Zhou Chang, the core head of ByteDance’s Seed, has left to start a company focused on Physical AI(physical AI), backed by leading USD funds.

Just October 26 ago, several media outlets, including The Paper and Jiemian News, had also received a response from people close to ByteDance saying that “Zhou Chang has not resigned.”

Zhou Chang was previously the technical head of Alibaba’s Tongyi large model. He joined ByteDance in year and initially oversaw multimodal interaction and world models. 2024 year, as Yang Jianchao went on leave and Feng Jiashi resigned, visual-generation businesses including Seedream and Seedance were gradually placed under his management. This year, 2025 the Seed Robotics team, previously led by Li Hang, also began reporting to Zhou Chang. ByteDance was at the time recruiting an embodied-intelligence head who would report directly to him.

However, Z Finance says that Zhou Chang’s management scope began to narrow in the second half of this year, with more work transferred to Zeng Yan. Zeng Yan is the core R&D head of Seedance June and joined ByteDance through campus recruitment in year. She had insisted on attempting to train a video model with at least 2.0 parameters, and advocated internally for computing resources, ultimately receiving support from Wu Yonghui and Zhou Chang. 2021’s goal is to enable 200000000000 to move beyond understanding and generating digital content toward perceiving, predicting, and acting on the physical world. The world-model, multimodal, and robotics businesses previously overseen by Zhou Chang were all related to this. However, it has not yet been disclosed whether the new company will focus primarily on foundation models, simulation platforms, or robotics hardware.

Original link Physical AI AI https://m.theblockbeats.info/flash/374725

Key points

Beating AI flash report relaying Z Finance's exclusive report that Zhou Chang, the core head of ByteDance Seed, has left to start a company focused on Physical AI, with support from a leading USD fund.
The original article stated that October 26 The Paper, Jiemian News, and other media outlets received responses from people close to ByteDance saying that “Zhou Chang had not left.”
The original article stated that Zhou Chang was formerly the technical head of Alibaba's Tongyi large model and joined ByteDance in 2024, initially overseeing multimodal interaction and world models.
The original article stated that 2025, visual generation businesses including Seedream and Seedance were successively placed under Zhou Chang's management.
The original article stated that this year,June the Seed Robotics team began reporting to Zhou Chang.
Z Finance said that Zhou Chang's management scope began to contract in the second half of this year, with more work transferred to Zeng Yan.
The original article stated that it has not yet been disclosed whether the new company will focus primarily on foundational models, simulation platforms, or robotics hardware.

AI-assisted interpretation

The following is analysis, separate from reported facts. Verify important claims independently.

The core of this report is that Z Finance said Zhou Chang had left ByteDance Seed and started a company intended to work on Physical AI related to interaction with the physical world. However, multiple media outlets had previously cited people close to ByteDance denying his departure, so the two accounts conflict.

Why it matters to readers

Zhou Chang was described as a core executive who had overseen businesses related to world models, multimodality, visual generation, and robotics; if the departure report is accurate, the leadership and reporting relationships for Seed-related businesses may change.

Beginners should treat this as an employment and startup report that remains subject to confirmation, and should not regard “left to start a company,” “received support from a fund,” or the specific product direction as formally confirmed facts.

Risks and unknowns

The original article contains conflicting accounts of whether Zhou Chang has left and whether he has already started a company.
“Received support from a leading USD fund” appears only in the report's retelling; the original article did not provide the fund's name or a formal announcement.
The new company's name, establishment status, financing details, and product direction have not been disclosed.
The original article did not provide formal responses from ByteDance, Zhou Chang, or the new company.
Relative time expressions such as “this year” and “the second half of this year” should be understood in light of the report's publication date.

Z Finance again reports that ByteDance Seed's Zhou Chang has left to start a company focused on Physical AI

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