Liang Wenfeng, the founder of a company called DeepSeek, is being celebrated as a local hero in Guangdong, a province in southern China where he grew up. He recently returned to his hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and he was accompanied by bodyguards.
At just 40 years old, Wenfeng has already become a billionaire thanks to his successful hedge fund called High-Flyer. People in his hometown admire him even more now because of DeepSeek’s recent groundbreaking research. This research showed that it is possible to create powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models using fewer and less advanced computer chips made by Nvidia. This is particularly important in China, where getting access to the top-of-the-line chips has become more difficult.
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Residents of Wenfeng’s hometown shared with the Financial Times that he was an exceptional student who enjoyed reading comic books and excelled in math. He comes from a family of teachers, and according to one local, he even played some football when he was younger. One resident expressed pride in Wenfeng’s achievements, saying, “We all grew up in this village. We’re very proud of him.”
Even with his growing fame and success, Wenfeng has mostly kept a low profile, which has left many people curious about him. This is somewhat understandable, especially considering the experiences of other well-known Chinese business leaders like Jack Ma and Pony Ma, who faced government scrutiny after becoming too visible. Given this context, it’s likely that Wenfeng will continue to stay out of the public eye.
