Woofun AI reports that former Huawei 'prodigy' Li Bojie has become the center of a dual controversy involving a public dispute with AI firm DeepSeek and a severe fallout with Web3 investor ABCDE Capital regarding his startup Metagent.

The initial spark occurred on July 6 when Li Bojie publicly criticized his interview experience at DeepSeek. He described being left to wait for nearly half a month after passing a written test, only to face two rounds of coding assessments. During the second round, an interviewer repeatedly questioned his practical implementation skills regarding what Li termed 'research questions,' while simultaneously accusing him of plagiarism for looking at a secondary screen. Li Bojie stated this accusation 'severely offended' him, prompting him to terminate the interview immediately and later publicize the incident. This event contrasted sharply with his established academic pedigree; born in 1992, Li graduated from the Youth Class at the University of Science and Technology of China with a doctorate in computer science, publishing papers at top conferences such as SOSP and SIGCOMM. He received the Microsoft Research Fellowship in 2017 and was selected in 2019 as one of only 8 individuals nationwide for Huawei’s first 'Prodigy' program. At Huawei’s 2012 Lab, he held a P20 rank, progressing from assistant scientist to deputy chief expert while optimizing the Ascend AI chip and working on large-scale model distributed training. He departed Huawei in July 2023 to found Logenic AI, which later rebranded as Pine AI.

The narrative shifted dramatically on July 7 when Du Jun, co-founder of Web3 investment firm ABCDE Capital, published an article accusing Li Bojie of being 'the founder with the weakest sense of contract spirit I’ve ever worked with.' Li responded that same night, and by early July 8, Du Jun had added further comments, igniting a public debate centered on the Metagent project. The core of the dispute involved post-investment responsibilities and financial transparency. In 2024, Li founded Metagent, a Web3+AI initiative aimed at creating a token-driven no-code platform for users to create and tokenize AI agents, thereby integrating AI agents with blockchain token economies. ABCDE Capital invested $1.5 million in February 2024, with $500,000 disbursed upfront and the remaining $1 million contingent on specific milestones.

Du Jun alleged that the team’s demo in June 2024 was of extremely poor quality and that the project had posted only a dozen tweets on social media, falling far short of expectations. Starting in July 2024, Li reportedly stopped responding to investor inquiries, deleted his Telegram account, and left the group, leaving co-founder Zhuang Siyuan to handle communication. Investors subsequently requested complete financial statements but received no satisfactory responses. Du Jun stated he could accept project failure but not the disappearance of funds. Li Bojie countered that only $500,000 of the investment had actually arrived, yet the company’s equity was recorded at a value equivalent to $1.5 million. He claimed that due to insufficient funds, he and his co-founders had to cut salaries, hindering research and development hiring. In October 2024, citing family reasons that prevented him from leaving mainland China and concerns over compliance risks in Web3 projects, Li resigned from Metagent with the board’s approval. He asserted he had fulfilled his duty to provide regular updates before leaving and noted that the project later avoided areas such as Web3 and AI infrastructure as per the agreement.

Per Woofun AI, industry insiders provided additional context on Li’s fundraising tactics. HarryM, a former researcher at ABCDE Capital, wrote that during discussions in October 2024, the team still presented a rough demo while primarily focusing on when the remaining $1 million would arrive. They also inquired about issuing meme coins, displaying indifference to investor resources and suggestions throughout the year. Ye Su, partner at ArkStream Capital, revealed that Li had contacted their firm during fundraising. Initially interested due to the project’s promising background, ArkStream Capital abandoned the investment after due diligence revealed Li intended to confuse already invested firms with those that had only expressed interest. Ye Su noted that the contract terms Li sent were amateurish and that his attitude toward the token unlock plan changed frequently, oscillating between 'we’ll decide later' and 'we can set it now.'

Metagent’s operational history shows early promise followed by stagnation. In September 2023, it was selected as a potential project in the BNB Chain Hackvolution hackathon, receiving a $2,000 reward. In June 2024, it won an award in the decentralized AGI category at the BeWater AI Crypto hackathon.

However, its last social media post dates back to June 15, 2024, and it has not been updated for over a year, indicating the project is effectively stalled. With Metagent concluded, Li Bojie pivoted to Pine AI, formerly Logenic AI, a consumer-oriented autonomous AI agent platform founded at the end of 2024. The platform allows AI agents to handle digital tasks such as making calls, negotiating bills, canceling subscriptions, and applying for refunds, emphasizing privacy protection and compliance certifications. According to the project’s official website, Pine AI currently has over 150,000 users, with a negotiation success rate of 93%, saving users more than $3 million in total. It completed a $25 million Series A financing round in December 2025.

Li Bojie’s role at Pine AI evolved from advisor in June 2024 to chief scientist in February 2025. He recently left the position due to a shift in his research interests toward foundation models. He clarified that he is not the founder of Pine AI and that his departure was purely due to a change in research focus. This marks a significant pivot from his previous Web3 endeavors, highlighting a strategic retreat from token-driven models toward core AI infrastructure development.