Silicon Valley – September 11, 2026 -- Meshy, the AI 3D generation company, has appointed Dr. Xin Tong, a 25-year veteran of Microsoft Research Asia, as Chief Scientist to lead its shift from single 3D asset generation toward full interactive world models.
Tong brings a research record of more than 190 papers and 21,000 citations
Dr. Tong earned his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in 1999 and joined Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) that same year, later leading its Internet Graphics Group as Partner Research Manager. His publication record includes more than 190 papers, over 60 in ACM SIGGRAPH and ACM Transactions on Graphics, with Google Scholar citing his work more than 21,000 times and an h-index of 80 as of September 2026. His prior projects include O-CNN, an octree-based deep learning architecture for high-resolution 3D shapes published at SIGGRAPH 2017, alongside more recent work on TRELLIS, a structured 3D generative model, MoGe for single-image geometry estimation, and RenderFormer for neural mesh rendering with global illumination. Research under his leadership was deployed in Microsoft's Xbox game development tools, Windows 3D printing features, and Direct3D.
Meshy expands research mandate to multimodal world models and real-time systems
As Chief Scientist, Dr. Tong will direct Meshy's long-term research strategy, focusing on next-generation 3D foundation models, multimodal world models, and real-time interactive systems. He will also build out the research team to move findings into products for creators, developers, and studios. Meshy Founder and CEO Dr. Yuanming (Ethan) Hu said Tong's appointment marks a step toward foundation models capable of generating complete interactive environments rather than individual 3D assets.
Mora 1 platform opens public access to real-time generative worlds
Meshy's new research direction is already visible in Mora, short for Multimodal Open-world Real-time Architecture, with Mora 1 now publicly accessible at mora.fun. The platform combines coding agents, Meshy's 3D generation technology, and real-time video models to let users enter, interact with, and reshape generated worlds.
Hire follows Meshy's $400 million Series B at $1.5 billion valuation
The appointment comes two months after Meshy closed a Series B round of nearly $400 million in July 2026 at a $1.5 billion valuation, the largest funding round to date in AI-driven 3D generation. Meshy currently serves more than 12 million registered users worldwide across gaming, film, and 3D printing applications.