Jason Zhao

Jason Zhao is an entrepreneur based in San Francisco. His personal site says he grew up in Texas and lives in California. He studied philosophy and computer science at Stanford. Conference bios list a Bachelor's in Philosophy and a Master's in Computer Science, and say he was founding editor-in-chief of Stanford Rewired, a magazine on storytelling and technology.

He worked at DeepMind, where conference bios describe him as a product manager. They say he worked on bringing Google's AI models into industrial and enterprise applications. His own site says he worked on reinforcement learning there.

Zhao is a co-founder of PIP Labs, the company behind Story Protocol, a blockchain for programmable intellectual property. At Story he held the title Chief Protocol Officer. KoreaTechDesk reported that PIP Labs closed an $80 million Series B with a16z. In August 2025, CoinDesk reported that he was stepping back from his full-time role at Story to start a new AI initiative called Poseidon. He stays on as a strategic adviser. CoinDesk describes Poseidon as applying AI to frontier industries such as science, biopharma, robotics and space. Crunchbase describes his current work as a new organization focused on the AI transition.

Event bios for Zhao, including MIT Technology Review's EmTech 2024 and CoinDesk's Consensus 2025, call him an active angel investor in frontier technology startups.

Crunchbase lists 9 personal investments in 9 portfolio companies. None of them is marked as a lead investment, and Crunchbase records 1 exit, which it does not name or attribute to an IPO. The investment dates are hidden in the public view of the Crunchbase page, so this profile does not give years for individual deals. Zhao has not published a personal portfolio list that we could find.

Crunchbase shows two AI-named companies among his investments. One is a Seed round in Pantheon AI. The other is a Pre Seed round in Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute, which Crunchbase lists as his most recent investment. We could not find public details on either deal.

Zhao's own work points to the same area. His Poseidon project targets AI applications in science, biopharma, robotics and space. In a post on X about the move, he said he wanted to return to the interest in applying AI to frontier industries that he had at DeepMind.

Zhao's public bios describe him as backing frontier technology startups. Crunchbase labels the rounds he joined as Pre Seed, Seed, Series A and Series B. The Series A and B entries are Halliday and Mast Reforestation. The AI-related entries are at Pre Seed and Seed.

His portfolio on Crunchbase includes AI, climate-related and crypto-adjacent companies. In his own work he has focused on blockchain infrastructure for intellectual property, and now on AI for frontier industries.

Zhao has not publicly stated a typical check size, a fund size or a formal investment thesis that we could find. CoinDesk reports that he plans to stay close to Story through partnerships and investment.

• Pantheon AI: AI company. Crunchbase lists a Seed round with Zhao as an investor. The date is not public.
• Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute: AI organization. Crunchbase lists a Pre Seed round with Zhao as an investor. It is shown as his most recent investment, and the date is not public.
• Alt Carbon: Crunchbase lists a Seed round with Zhao as an investor.
• Stable Finance: Crunchbase lists a Seed round with Zhao as an investor.
• Halliday: Crunchbase lists a Series A with Zhao as an investor.
• Mast Reforestation: Crunchbase lists a Series B with Zhao as an investor.
• Unify: Listed on Crunchbase among his investments. Round details are not visible in the public view.
• PIP Labs (Story Protocol): Company Zhao co-founded. This is a founder role, not an angel investment.

• crunchbase.com/person/jason-zhao-8550
• jasonjinzhao.com
• coindesk.com/markets/2025/08/17/story-protocol-co-founder-jason-zhao-s
• consensus2025.coindesk.com/agenda/speaker/-jason-zhao
• event.technologyreview.com/emtech-mit-2024/speaker/1336882/jason-zhao
• koreatechdesk.com/korean-founder-lands-80-million-from-a16z-to-reinven
• dealroom.co/companies/pip-labs
• x.com/jasonjzhao/status/1880311447479345373