Beyang Liu

Liu studied computer science at StanfordStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry, where he did machine learning research in probabilistic graphical models and computer vision.⁠[1]

In 2010 Liu was an engineering intern on Google Apps’ backend team, where he was inspired by his use of Google Code Search. He said: “The centerpiece of that experience was this Code Search engine that indexed all of the codes at GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry.”⁠[2]

Liu’s first job out of school was at Palantir TechnologiesPalantirPalantir is a U.S. enterprise software company founded in 2003 that provides data and artificial intelligence platforms including Gotham, Foundry, Palantir Apollo, and AIP, serving government and commercial organizations. The company went public through a direct listing in 2020 and now trades on Nasdaq under the ticker PLTR.Open the full entry, where he worked on data analysis software for large companies and banks. He was placed in a large, complex codebase that had been through multiple owners, and after about a month realized he had spent most of his time trying to understand existing code rather than writing new code.⁠[2][1]

Conversations with his Palantir colleague Quinn Slack about building a universal code search tool became the project that grew into Sourcegraph, which Liu co-founded and where he served as chief technology officer.⁠[2]

On May 18, 2023, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) published the video “The Secret to Building AI-Powered Tools” on its YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel, in which Liu, then co-founder and CTO of Sourcegraph, explained the challenges of large language models and discussed code-building tools amid the spread of AI integration. Topics included large language models and hallucinations, providing context to models, models and security and privacy, the cost of models and pricing schemes, and the Bing price update.⁠[3]

On April 1, 2025, the Software Engineering Daily podcast published “Sourcegraph and the Frontier of AI in Software Engineering with Beyang Liu,” hosted by Sean Falconer, which introduces Liu as CTO and co-founder of Sourcegraph, where he had worked for the past twelve years.⁠[4]

On January 20, 2026, a16z released the episode “From Code Search to AI Agents: Inside Sourcegraph's Transformation with CTO Beyang Liu” on The a16z Show, in which Liu spoke with Martin CasadoMartin CasadoMartin Casado is a computer scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist who is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads infrastructure investing. A major proponent of software-defined networking, he co-founded Nicira and served as its chief technology officer, and after VMware acquired the company he ran its networking and security business; he also co-founded the nonprofit MuralNet.Open the full entry, the Andreessen Horowitz general partner who leads its infrastructure practice, and a16z investor Guido Appenzeller about Sourcegraph’s shift from code search to AI agents. Liu said that about 90% of his own code now comes from agents; the episode also covers the argument that leading competitive open-source coding models trace back to Chinese labs, that US companies went quiet after releasing Llama 3, and the effect of regulatory fear on American open-source development.⁠[5]

Liu is a co-founder of Amp, which describes itself as “an independent agent research lab” and builds the coding agent and development environment Amp; investors listed on its website include a16z, Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, investing from the seed stage through the growth stage. Its historical investments include Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, Airbnb, and Stripe; in 2021 it introduced the Sequoia Capital Fund structure, which can continue to hold public securities, and in 2023 its regional businesses became independent brands and partnerships.Open the full entry, FelicisFelicisFelicis (whose funds and earlier brand use the name Felicis Ventures) is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California, founded in 2006 by former Google product manager Aydin Senkut; it has invested in companies including Shopify, Canva and Adyen.Open the full entry, Redpoint, Craft Ventures and Goldcrest. Liu was previously chief technology officer of Sourcegraph and remains on its board of directors, where his affiliation is listed as Amp.⁠[1][6][7]

Amp: Official website: https://ampcode.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

Sourcegraph: Official website: https://sourcegraph.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

X: Public account: https://x.com/beyang (opens in a new window).⁠[4][1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beyang-liu (opens in a new window).⁠[1]