(Yicai Global) Aug. 16 -- Allen Lee, former head of Advanced Micro Devices’ research and development center in Shanghai, has joined Chinese semiconductor startup Biren Technology as co-chief executive.

Lee will be responsible for organization, management and product design, Biren said in a press release today. The Shanghai-based company was set up in 2019 to come up with high-end general-purpose smart computing chips.

Lee graduated from the University of Missouri Columbia in electronic engineering and has over 30 years of experience in the graphics processing field. Before joining Biren, he worked at AMD for 15 years as a global vice president and general manager of its China R&D Center, where he was responsible for R&D as well as building and managing AMD in China.

Biren will complete the R&D of its first product soon, according to its website. As of March, the firm has secured more than CNY4.7 billion (USD725.7 million) in financing from investors including Qiming Venture Partners, IDG Capital, and Hillhouse Capital.

Editor: Futura Costaglione