Li Ke & Elon Musk Featured on TIME's 100 AI Leaders List

TIME names 100 most influential people in AI for 2026. Tech giants including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of SpaceX are among those recognized.

Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, was named to the list as one of the few honorees from the automotive and physical manufacturing sectors.

 
TIME noted that under her leadership, BYD has brought AI into the physical world.
 
BYD has scaled its God's Eye 5.0 driver-assistancesystem across budget and premiumvehicles，generate over 200 million km of driving data daily.Beyond cars, BYD is developing humanoidservice robots and envisages increasingly automated dark factories within three to fiveyears.

Li responded that this recognition extends far beyond personal honor, noting that every technology brought to market is powered by 120,000 BYD R&D engineers working behind the scenes."Technology only creates real value when it benefits people' s everyday lives. Our goal is to make advanced technologies available to all."She reaffirmed.

Now in its fourth year, the list features a notable presence of Chinese and Chinese-descended professionals, with more than ten honorees spanning chips, large language models, robotics, and physical manufacturing.