Sharon Zhou
About Sharon Zhou
Sharon Zhou is VP of AI at AMD, where she leads AI research and education. Before that she was founder and CEO of Lamini, an AI post-training startup that won a VentureBeat Generative AI Startup Award and was named a Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Star.
She earned a PhD at Stanford, advised by Andrew Ng and co-advised by Stefano Ermon. She was previously a Stanford adjunct faculty member and led a 50-person AI research group there. Earlier she worked as an AI product manager at Google. Her bachelor's degree from Harvard is in Classics and computer science.
Zhou teaches AI courses on Coursera and DeepLearning.AI, including Intro to Post-Training, and is writing a book called AI Post-training. She was named to MIT Technology Review's 35 Under 35 list in 2022. Her X profile lists "Angel investor" in its bio.
Zhou describes herself as an angel investor on X, and a TheOrg profile says she invests in a variety of AI companies. We did not find a public list of her angel checks, a fund, or an investing entity. We have left out any portfolio details that no source confirms.
The Lounge deals desk lists one AI round for Zhou: the Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute Seed, $15M, dated 2026-01 on the desk.
Infinity (Infinity.inc) is a San Francisco company building software that makes new AI chips ready for inference. Its company announcement describes the round as $15M at a $100M post-money valuation, with significant participation from Touring Capital and Principal VC. The announcement also names chip-company executives, researchers from OpenAI and Anthropic, and other angel investors. The sources we found do not name Zhou, so her participation rests on the Lounge desk listing.
Her only listed round is a seed round in AI infrastructure, and her own work centers on LLM post-training, fine-tuning and AI hardware software. She has not publicly stated a check size, stage preference or geographic focus that we could find. Founders should treat those as unconfirmed and ask directly.
- Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute: builds software that makes AI chips inference-ready. Seed round of $15M, listed on the Lounge deals desk as 2026-01.
Investing activity
Sharon Zhou appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $15M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $15M. The most recent is Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute (Seed, $15M, Jan 2026).
Sharon Zhou most often invests alongside Inception Studio, Jason Zhao, Sahin Boydas and Brett Goldstein, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Sharon Zhou
Who is Sharon Zhou?
Sharon Zhou is VP of AI at AMD and the former founder and CEO of Lamini, an AI post-training startup. She has a Stanford PhD and is an angel investor in AI companies.
What AI startups has Sharon Zhou invested in?
The Lounge deals desk lists the Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute $15M Seed. We found no other portfolio companies confirmed in public sources.
What is Sharon Zhou's angel check size?
No check size is public. Ask her directly rather than assuming a range.
What stage and sectors does Sharon Zhou back?
Her listed round is a seed investment in AI infrastructure. She has not published a formal investment thesis, but her background is in LLM post-training, generative AI and AI hardware software.
How can founders contact Sharon Zhou?
Her public channels are X at @realSharonZhou and LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/zhousharon. We did not find a personal website.
Is Sharon Zhou an angel investor?
Yes. Sharon Zhou invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Sharon Zhou invested in?
Sharon Zhou's AI investments include Infinity Artificial Intelligence Institute. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Sharon Zhou invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Sharon Zhou has invested at Seed, with a median round of $15M.
Who does Sharon Zhou co-invest with?
Sharon Zhou's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Inception Studio (1 deal), Jason Zhao (1 deal), Sahin Boydas (1 deal), Brett Goldstein (1 deal) and Touring Capital (1 deal).
How can founders reach Sharon Zhou?
Founders on Lounge can see Sharon Zhou's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Sharon Zhou to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.