Above: Baidu COO Qi Lu speaks at the company's keynote during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2018. Y Combinator is planning to launch a startup accelerator in China. YC China will also have its own CEO: artificial intelligence champion Qi Lu. The former Baidu and Microsoft executive will also act as head of YC Research, which will open offices in Seattle. This is Y Combinator’s first international expansion. With a history or backing companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Twitch, and Reddit, Y Combinator is one of the best known startup accelerators in Silicon Valley.