DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) lab that is causing quite a stir in Silicon Valley with its new reasoning model called R1. This model is notable because it claims to require much less computing power compared to those developed by leading American AI companies. Additionally, DeepSeek has made its technology open source, meaning anyone can access and use it for free. Recently, the DeepSeek app has quickly climbed to the top of the App Store charts, even surpassing the popular ChatGPT app.
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At the helm of DeepSeek is Liang Wenfeng, a figure who has made waves in the tech industry, especially after his company’s success led to a drop in Nvidia’s stock prices. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Liang is not new to entrepreneurship. After graduating from university in 2013, he started his first company, an investment firm called Jacobi. There, he developed AI algorithms that helped in selecting stocks for investment. Just two years later, he launched another company called High-Flyer, which is an AI-driven hedge fund that supports DeepSeek and currently manages an impressive $8 billion in assets.
What sets Liang apart from many other founders in the AI space is his commitment to making his product available for free and as open source. This means that he is not trying to monetize his technology in the traditional way. Thanks to the financial backing of his hedge fund, he doesn’t seem to need to rely on income from the app, which allows him to focus on innovation rather than profit.
