Who is the founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek? Know all about Liang Wenfeng

In just a few weeks, Liang Wenfeng, the 39-year-old founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, has become a defining figure in China’s tech landscape. His company’s breakthrough AI model has not only challenged Western dominance in artificial intelligence but also sparked a global selloff in tech stocks following its launch last week.

DeepSeek’s rapid ascent underscores Beijing’s determination to close the AI gap with the U.S., with Liang now seen as a key player in the country’s next-generation tech ambitions. His low-profile approach shifted dramatically when he was invited to a closed-door symposium hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on January 20, alongside top officials and business leaders.

Liang Wenfeng: The New Face of China’s AI Push

While other Chinese tech giants like Baidu have focused on commercial AI applications, DeepSeek has taken a bold, research-driven approach, aiming to match or surpass OpenAI’s capabilities. The company’s recently launched DeepSeek-R1 model has made waves with its efficiency and cost-effectiveness, significantly undercutting competitors like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

Liang’s rise comes at a time when U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips have tightened, limiting China’s access to crucial hardware. His vision for original AI research, rather than just scaling foreign innovations, has resonated within China’s technology circles.

“China’s AI can’t be in the position of following forever. We often say that there is a gap of one or two years between China’s AI and the United States, but the real gap is the difference between originality and imitation,” Liang said in a rare interview with Chinese media outlet Waves last year.

From Hedge Funds to AI Leadership

Liang’s academic and entrepreneurial journey has been anything but conventional. Born in Guangdong, China’s business hub, he pursued electronics and communication engineering at Zhejiang University, before completing a master’s degree in Information and Communication Engineering in 2010.

He initially co-founded a quantitative hedge fund in 2015, which managed over 100 billion yuan ($13.79 billion) by 2021. However, in April 2023, the fund announced it would shift focus from finance to AI research, laying the foundation for DeepSeek’s creation a month later.

DeepSeek’s team is composed of graduates and PhD students from China’s top universities, drawn by the challenge of solving AI’s hardest problems. “What attracts the best talent is obviously the solving of the world’s hardest problems,” Liang stated.

Open-Source Strategy: A Challenge to OpenAI’s Closed Model

Unlike OpenAI’s proprietary approach, DeepSeek has committed to an open-source model, allowing developers worldwide to use and modify its AI technology. “Even if OpenAI is closed-source, it cannot stop others from catching up… Open-source is like a cultural practice, rather than a business practice… a company that does this will have soft power,” Liang said in an older interview according to Reuters.