Visionary Leaders
They measure the business empire from the commanding heights of the era.
Peng Lei
“The future of brain-computer interface is to allow everyone to equally embrace the intelligent era.”
At the forefront of the intersection of technology and life, Peng Lei has taken a completely different path. He was once a successful person on the Internet track. From building a benchmark for catering SaaS to being integrated into the Alibaba system, he gained glory and stability in a mature business field. However, at the peak of his career, he turned around and said goodbye to the logic of traffic and quick money, and plunged into the brain-computer world considered "crazy" by top scientists...
Peng Lei
ACF Cover Figure | Peng Lei: From Alibaba Internet Veteran to Brain-Computer Interface Pioneer — Illuminating Life's Dignity with Technology
Asia "Cover Figure" · Perspective · Issue No. 039 — ACF-GJ-2026
At the frontier where technology meets life, Peng Lei has carved a distinctly different path. He was once a successful player in the internet arena — building a benchmark enterprise in restaurant SaaS, integrating it into the Alibaba ecosystem, and achieving glory and stability in a mature commercial domain. Yet at the peak of his career, he resolutely turned away, abandoning the logic of traffic and quick money, diving into the uncharted territory of brain-computer interfaces — a field that top scientists consider "madness." Grounded in clinical needs and guided by the sanctity of life, he led his team to achieve critical 0-to-1 breakthroughs in hardcore technology, developing original Chinese technology that opens windows of freedom and hope for countless souls trapped within their own bodies. From business elite to life-technology pioneer, Peng Lei's choices embody the rarest vision and conviction of a technology entrepreneur.
I. Turning at the Summit: Leaving Internet Prosperity for Uncharted Territory
Peng Lei's first entrepreneurial chapter reads like a standard elite success story. He worked deeply in the local life sector, building Keruyun into a benchmark enterprise in restaurant SaaS. He led the company through steady growth and scaling, ultimately achieving a full acquisition by Alibaba. As a core Alibaba manager, he stood on the mature high ground of the internet industry, with a stable career, clear growth trajectory, and ample resources — a textbook winner by external standards.
Yet a smooth life and readily available achievements did not satisfy him. In an industry dominated by "traffic is king" and quick money, he grew increasingly aware that technology's value should not rest solely on commercial growth and capital myths, but on real human suffering, urgent life-and-death pain points, and the desperate hopes of the helpless. When commercial success reached its peak, his inner voice yearned for a warmer, weightier, more life-centered endeavor.
A close encounter with a critically ill patient transformed this uncertainty into resolute conviction. He had seen those with high-level spinal cord injuries — fully conscious yet unable to move an inch; ALS patients with thousands of words inside yet unable to speak; countless aware souls imprisoned in bodies that had lost all function. That silent desperation, that yearning for freedom and dignity, struck him deeply. In that moment he knew with absolute certainty: technology's ultimate mission is to restore dignity, restart lives, and protect hope.
Abandoning stability, relinquishing accumulated achievements, departing a familiar track — all required immense courage. In October 2021, Peng Lei invested his entire personal fortune and co-founded NeuroXess with scientist Tao Hu, plunging headfirst into the extremely challenging domain of invasive brain-computer interfaces. No mature models existed, no ready experience, no gentle capital — only protracted battles, extreme risk, and endless unknowns. Those around him didn't understand; the industry questioned. Everyone believed an internet veteran crossing into hardcore medical technology was nearly impossible. Yet he chose the hardest, most valuable road.
II. Perseverance Through Desperation: A Hundred Rejections Without Retreat
The BCI entrepreneurial path was thorny from the start. Musk's Neuralink drew global attention, but capital remained extremely cautious toward clinically-oriented medical-grade BCI projects. In the first year, Peng Lei visited over a hundred investment institutions, meeting near-universal rejection. At the company's most difficult stage, account funds covered only three months of operations. Lab lights burned through the night. Before him were chaotic, fluctuating brainwave signals; behind him, seemingly endless funding pressure and technical barriers.
Through countless sleepless nights, he questioned himself — but whenever he recalled the longing for hope in patients' eyes, he gritted his teeth and pressed on. He didn't chase trends, hype concepts, or create short-term gimmicks. He insisted on one thing: technology that truly works, truly enters clinical use, and truly helps patients. This almost stubborn persistence enabled the team to carve a path through uncharted territory step by step. They did not compromise with difficulty, bow to capital, or sacrifice safety for speed. Peng Lei led the team in deep R&D, tackling hard problems, obsessing over details — making every technology solid, every breakthrough reliable. That dark period, without applause or attention, ultimately forged NeuroXess's hardest technical foundation, and made Peng Lei more certain that what he was building was not a business, but a lifelong mission oriented toward life.
III. Hardcore Breakthroughs: Chinese Technology Breaks Global Monopoly
Four years of deep cultivation produced a report card that shocked the world. Not following or imitating, they insisted on a Chinese original path — minimally invasive, safe, clinically viable — achieving multiple milestone breakthroughs, filling domestic technology gaps and breaking long-standing foreign monopolies.
In February 2023, the team completed 256-channel flexible deep electrode implantation, achieving China's first corporate single-neuron Spike signal recording — a critical 0-to-1 leap in invasive BCI.
In May 2023, NeuroXess secured the world's first commercial-grade real-time Mandarin speech decoding and synthesis technology, enabling mute patients to produce clear voices through thought alone, restoring the right of expression to a silent world.
In June 2023, the team developed a precision brain function area navigation system, providing millimeter-level positioning for epilepsy surgery, significantly improving surgical safety and cure rates, directly benefiting clinical patients.
In 2024, Peng Lei led the enterprise to become one of the world's extremely rare invasive BCI companies achieving dual motor+language decoding, establishing a firm position in the global BCI arena with hardcore capability.
These breakthroughs are not pretty lab data — they are tangible hope in hospital wards: a paraplegic patient bedridden for 8 years can now control a wheelchair with thought; an ALS patient who lost the ability to speak can communicate fluently with family; epilepsy patients, guided by precision technology, are freed from suffering and return to normal life. Peng Lei has always been clear: Neuralink focuses on frontier exploration, while NeuroXess is rooted in clinical practice. What he builds is never about showing off technology, but about genuinely serving life and protecting dignity.
IV. Vision Reaching Far: From Pioneer to Deep Cultivation
After successive breakthroughs, Peng Lei did not stop. He co-founded GATEWAY with Chen Tianqiao, continuing to cultivate the ultrasonic BCI track, laying out whole-brain signal read-write technology, and pushing BCI toward even less invasive, safer, and more practical directions. In his vision, BCI is not a cold research concept or an isolated operating room device, but accessible technology that can enter daily life, becoming humanity's "extended organ." In the future, it will expand from critical care rehabilitation to cognitive assistance, human-machine collaboration, health management, and beyond — shedding its mystique, entering thousands of homes.
He always emphasizes: everything the team does is not about creating commercial myths, but about enabling every trapped life to regain control, every helpless family to see hope, and technology to become warm, powerful, and responsible. From the internet summit to life-technology's uncharted frontier, from business success to life-dignity guardian, Peng Lei abandoned the easiest path and chose the hardest yet most valuable one. Through wind and rain, unbowed, he has never once regretted it.
V. Lessons for the Era: The Truly Strong Move Toward Difficulty, Toward Light
Peng Lei's story offers profound lessons for all entrepreneurs: true vision means daring to turn away at the summit, not clinging to vested interests; true courage means holding fast to one's original aspiration in desperation, not charging forward in favorable conditions; true technology means healing suffering and illuminating hope, not creating noise and bubbles. This era never lacks people chasing trends; what it lacks are those willing to settle down, tackle hard problems, walk the long road, and carry the weight of life forward. Peng Lei has proven through action that technology's highest realm is gentleness, and entrepreneurship's ultimate destination is responsibility.
What is greatness? It is persisting where no one asks, walking the hardest road, lighting a lamp for imprisoned souls, and sheltering suffering lives. The road ahead remains long, but he will walk it firmly — until BCI truly enters daily life, until every life can flourish freely, with dignity and warmth.
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