Huawei 'Genius Youth' Ning Boyu Quits After 1,137 Days to Sell Corn and Pursue EU Fellowship

Ning Boyu, a member of Huawei's "Genius Youth" program, formally resigned in August 2026. He earned his PhD from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2023 and, after multiple rounds of expert assessment, was selected for the Huawei "Genius Youth" program with the highest campus-recruitment salary tier. He left the company after working there for approximately 1,137 days. Following his departure, he returned to his hometown in Hunan and helped relatives sell freshly harvested corn. He has been awarded the EU Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship and will soon join KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden for postdoctoral research, with plans to return to China for his career after completing the program.

In public interviews, Ning said his work at Huawei focused on research with a multi-year horizon, giving him considerable independence, but over time the work grew monotonous and his sense of achievement declined. Most colleagues were oriented toward delivery-type work, and this difference in working patterns left him feeling isolated. During his tenure he noticed that many emerging industry problems were scarcely studied in academia, and he found himself enjoying discussions with university faculty and students more, which planted the idea of returning to academia.

The "Genius Youth" label brought Ning both attention and pressure. He admitted that if his technology ultimately failed to generate commercial returns, he would feel he had let the company down. He describes himself as an ordinary person who felt lonely and anxious at work, with "no certainty" about the future. He eased his anxiety by self-studying artificial intelligence, posting his compiled technical notes on the company's internal network, and felt a sense of happiness whenever colleagues viewed them. At the same time, the continuous progress of AI has generated new anxieties for him.

After resigning, Ning visited his elderly relatives in his Hunan hometown and helped them sell corn. He said selling corn was an entirely new experience and gave him a real appreciation that people in every trade face their own difficulties. He does not attach a fixed identity to himself and prefers to see himself as "an actor in life." He has already secured the Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship and will soon take up his position at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, after which he plans to return to China to develop his career.