Li is reported to have left the University of Alabama in 1999 to found the company AC Gravity LLC. AC Gravity was awarded a United States Department of Defense grant for $448,970 in 2001 to continue anti-gravity research. The grant period ended in 2002 but no results from this research were ever made public.[9] No evidence exists that the company performed any other work, although as of 2021, AC Gravity still remains listed as an extant business.[10]
A 2023 article published by the Huntsville Business Journal cited an interview with Li's son, Dr. George Men. According to Dr. Men, Li continued anti-gravity research for the Department of Defense until suffering an auto-related injury in 2014. She stopped publishing or discussing her research findings upon attaining a TOP SECRET security clearance.[when?] Dr. Men also stated that members of the Chinese Communist Party approached her in 2008 regarding returning to China to continue her research. Li rejected their offer, which resulted in her being barred from entering China to attend her mother's funeral. [11]
In 2014, Ning Li was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus. Li’s husband, seeing the accident, suffered a heart attack and died a year later in 2015. For Li, this accident caused permanent brain damage that resulted in Alzheimer’s disease shortly after.[1] On July 27, 2021, Ning Li died at the age of 78.[12]
