TIME has released its 2026 TIME100 AI list, the fourth edition of its annual ranking of 100 notable figures in artificial intelligence. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, both listed under the "Leaders" category last year, were absent from this year’s selection. Kimi developer Moonshot AI’s Yang Zhilin appeared for the first time, landing in the "Innovators" group.
TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs specifically highlighted Yang, saying Moonshot AI’s models drew "extraordinary attention" over the past year and at times even outpaced the attention received by the most advanced U.S. competitors. In the "Leaders" category, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Mark Chen and Greg Brockman were listed together, while Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei were also selected.
The list also included representatives from several Chinese companies, including ByteDance, Alibaba, Huawei, SMIC, Moonshot AI, Zhipu, Manus, AgiBot and BYD. Among the newer names, founders building AI agents and tools featured prominently, including Cursor CEO Michael Truell, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger and Manus founder Xiao Hong. Actor Ben Affleck was another unexpected inclusion in the "Innovators" group after founding InterPositive, an AI-powered film post-production company acquired by Netflix in March for about $587 million in cash, after which Affleck joined Netflix as a senior adviser.
TIME has released its 2026 TIME100 AI list, the fourth edition of the publication’s annual ranking of 100 figures in artificial intelligence.
Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, and Liang Wenfeng, chief executive of DeepSeek, were both left off this year’s list after appearing in the "Leaders" category last year.
Yang Zhilin of Moonshot AI made the ranking for the first time, entering the "Innovators" category. TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs singled him out and said Moonshot AI’s models drew "extraordinary attention" over the past year, at times even exceeding the attention received by the most advanced competitors in the United States.
In this year’s "Leaders" group, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Mark Chen and Greg Brockman were named together. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei were also selected.
On the China side, the list included people from ByteDance, Alibaba, Huawei, SMIC, Moonshot AI, Zhipu, Manus, AgiBot and BYD.
Many of the new faces this year came from startups building AI agents and AI tools. Cursor CEO Michael Truell, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger and Manus founder Xiao Hong were all named in the "Innovators" category.
One of the more surprising picks was Ben Affleck. The Hollywood actor, known for playing Batman, was also included among the "Innovators." His company, InterPositive, uses AI for film post-production. Netflix acquired the company in March. A later disclosure put the all-cash purchase price at about $587 million, and Affleck then joined Netflix as a senior adviser.
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