2025 marks the 10th year of the Minhang District Youth Entrepreneurship Talent Selection Program. Today Minhang, together with the District Youth League Committee, launched the “Youth Entrepreneurship in Minhang” special report series, recording the stories of Minhang’s youth entrepreneurial talents over the years, focusing on their real struggles, decoding the innovative keys behind their projects, and feeling the thriving power of youth on this fertile land.
This issue takes us into the story of Li Wenhao, a 2016 Minhang Youth Entrepreneurship Talent.
Imagine this: when you use your phone to pay, unlock your car, or work remotely, behind the scenes there may very well be a security system independently developed by the Minhang-based company TrustKernel silently protecting you, shielding you from invisible risks. And the origin of all this traces back to over a decade of persistence from a “security architect”—the founder of TrustKernel, Li Wenhao.
The story goes back to the laboratory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. At that time, China had yet to make breakthroughs in the field of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology—the “heart” of smart terminals, essentially the built-in top-level “safe” of chips—a true bottleneck challenge. Still in graduate school, Li Wenhao had already set his sights on this technological battle.
“Operating system security is the ‘foundation’ of the entire information industry, and it must be in our own hands.” With this belief, he led his team to establish TrustKernel. After countless days and nights of coding battles, they successfully developed the fully self-developed secure operating system T6. This “security core” was quickly embedded into domestic smartphones, smart cars, and industrial control systems, providing a controllable, reliable security foundation and enabling China to leap from follower to peer in the TEE field.
In 2015, Li Wenhao founded TrustKernel, pushing lab results into industrialization. After years of effort, their secure operating system now serves billions of smart terminals, automotive systems, and industrial control devices worldwide, becoming a product with high domestic market penetration and global leadership in this field. He also co-released with Shanghai Jiao Tong University China’s first open-source TEE platform supporting the RISC-V architecture—“Penglai Enclave”, which became the security foundation for open-source operating systems such as HarmonyOS and openEuler. “The success of a company lies not only in how good its product is but also in how much it contributes to the entire industry ecosystem,” said Li.
After building a solid security foundation for the nation and the industry, Li Wenhao keenly shifted his focus to the most pressing concern for individuals—privacy. “We live in an era of ‘big data streaking,’ where data leaks and privacy invasions are pervasive. Can we truly have a digital space that belongs only to ourselves and is absolutely private?” This question gave birth to PlugOS. Though it looks like an ordinary USB stick, inside it hides a complete, independent, and high-security operating system. Once plugged into any phone or computer, a brand-new, physically isolated private digital space unfolds at your fingertips.
“Your private chats, important digital assets, and work files now have an absolutely secure home. No traces, no active networking, no cloud, and even if the device is lost, your data remains safe—always under your own control.” Li vividly described PlugOS as a “portable digital safe.” Whether it’s confidential files of corporate executives or personal photos and digital assets of ordinary users, everything can be tightly protected.
Looking back at his decade-long entrepreneurial journey, Li Wenhao is full of gratitude for Minhang. “Minhang is fertile soil, with open policies, concentrated talent, and a complete industrial ecosystem—it’s the best ground for tech companies to grow.” As an outstanding youth entrepreneurship talent selected and nurtured by Minhang District, he deeply feels the respect and strong support for technological innovation on this land. From protecting device security to safeguarding everyone’s digital sovereignty, Li Wenhao and TrustKernel will continue to write their story with “security” as their pen.
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