That’s a sea change from years past, when it was challenging to hire engineers even from Chinese universities, said Victor Huang, co-founder and chairman of Manycore Tech Inc. 

The fortune of the startup took a turn for the better after it was labeled as one of the “Six Dragons” of the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou together with DeepSeek, whose lower cost AI model stunned the global AI industry in January, and Manycore has found it easier to attract candidates since, according to Huang.

“It’s totally changed” in the past two months, Huang told Bloomberg Television. “Many top talents from likes of Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Beijing University, even from Stanford, Harvard, they send resumes to us, and some of them already joined us.”

Huang’s spatial software startup, which helps users design interior space, is keen to grow its global presence, despite geopolitical tensions presenting difficulties to Chinese companies marketing products abroad. 

But a shortage of global AI talent is becoming a bottleneck as industries and enterprises speed up adoption of artificial intelligence. Demand is outstripping supply in areas like machine learning and robotics.

The company, which has filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering, plans to add nearly 100 engineers who specialize in the latest AI technologies to keep pace with rapid advances, Huang said.

Many applying to join China-based startups such as Manycore are likely Chinese students who, given an increasingly uncertain U.S. immigration situation, are choosing to work at home instead of Silicon Valley. The returnees include seasoned engineers who gave up jobs at Silicon Valley names for positions back home. Huang himself has a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and previously worked for Nvidia Corp. in the U.S.

Being designated one of the “Six Dragons” helps, Huang said. “It’s made it easier to get in touch with potential customers,” he said. “They are more willing to try our solutions.”