Ep 96 | Talent Didn’t Save Me, Consistency Did (w/ Steve Xie)

Steve Xie is the founder and CEO of Lightwheel AI, building the simulation and synthetic data layer powering the next generation of embodied AI and humanoid robotics.

In this episode, Steve shares a rare founder journey that starts far from robotics. From studying physics at Peking University, struggling to stand out, and rebuilding confidence through sheer consistency, to a PhD at Columbia and an early failed startup built out of love for his dog. A detour that taught him the cost of building without a business model.

We talk about his path through Cruise, NVIDIA, and NIO, where he led large-scale simulation efforts for autonomous driving. Steve explains how those years shaped his conviction that simulation, data quality, and evaluation are the real bottlenecks in physical AI.

He then breaks down how Lightwheel AI came to life. Why sim-ready assets matter more than solvers. How synthetic data actually closes the sim-to-real gap. And why robotics teams hit a ceiling without proper evaluation and scaling infrastructure.

A deep conversation about resilience, delayed gratification, and why the hardest part of building is often unlearning what made you successful before.