DeepSeek: The Chinese AI Startup Challenging Silicon Valley's Dominance

DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app | TechCrunch

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek's AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts -- and technologists -- to question whether the U.S. can maintain its lead in the AI race and whether the demand for AI chips will sustain. But where did DeepSeek come from, and how did it rise to international fame so quickly? DeepSeek is backed by High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund that uses AI to inform its trading decisions. AI enthusiast Liang Wenfeng co-founded High-Flyer in 2015. Wenfeng, who reportedly began dabbling in trading while a student at Zhejiang University, launched High-Flyer Capital Management as a hedge fund in 2019 focused on developing and deploying AI algorithms. In 2023, High-Flyer started DeepSeek as a lab dedicated to researching AI tools separate from its financial business. With High-Flyer as one of its investors, the lab spun off into its own company, also called DeepSeek. From day one, DeepSeek built its own data center clusters for model training. But like other AI companies in China, DeepSeek has been affected by U.S. export bans on hardware. To train one of its more recent models, the company was forced to use Nvidia H800 chips, a less-powerful version of a chip, the H100, available to U.S. companies. DeepSeek's technical team is said to skew young. The company reportedly aggressively recruits doctorate AI researchers from top Chinese universities. DeepSeek also hires people without any computer science background to help its tech better understand a wide range of subjects, per The New York Times. DeepSeek unveiled its first set of models -- DeepSeek Coder, DeepSeek LLM, and DeepSeek Chat -- in November 2023. But it wasn't until last spring, when the startup released its next-gen DeepSeek-V2 family of models, that the AI industry started to take notice. DeepSeek-V2, a general-purpose text- and image-analyzing system, performed well in various AI benchmarks -- and was far cheaper to run than comparable models at the time. It forced DeepSeek's domestic competition, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to cut the usage prices for some of their models, and make others completely free. DeepSeek-V3, launched in December 2024, only added to DeepSeek's notoriety. According to DeepSeek's internal benchmark testing, DeepSeek V3 outperforms both downloadable, openly available models like Meta's Llama and "closed" models that can only be accessed through an API, like OpenAI's GPT-4o. Equally impressive is DeepSeek's R1 "reasoning" model. Released in January, DeepSeek claims R1 performs as well as OpenAI's o1 model on key benchmarks. Being a reasoning model, R1 effectively fact-checks itself, which helps it to avoid some of the pitfalls that normally trip up models. Reasoning models take a little longer -- usually seconds to minutes longer -- to arrive at solutions compared to a typical non-reasoning model. The upside is that they tend to be more reliable in domains such as physics, science, and math. There is a downside to R1, DeepSeek V3, and DeepSeek's other models, however. Being Chinese-developed AI, they're subject to benchmarking by China's internet regulator to ensure that its responses "embody core socialist values." In DeepSeek's chatbot app, for example, R1 won't answer questions about Tiananmen Square or Taiwan's autonomy. If DeepSeek has a business model, it's not clear what that model is, exactly. The company prices its products and services well below market value -- and gives others away for free. It's also not taking investor money, despite a ton of VC interest. The way DeepSeek tells it, efficiency breakthroughs have enabled it to maintain extreme cost competitiveness. Some experts dispute the figures the company has supplied, however. Whatever the case may be, developers have taken to DeepSeek's models, which aren't open source as the phrase is commonly understood but are available under permissive licenses that allow for commercial use. According to Clem Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, one of the platforms hosting DeepSeek's models, developers on Hugging Face have created over 500 "derivative" models of R1 that have racked up 2.5 million downloads combined. DeepSeek's success against larger and more established rivals has been described as "upending AI" and "over-hyped." The company's success was at least in part responsible for causing Nvidia's stock price to drop by 18% in January, and for eliciting a public response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Microsoft announced that DeepSeek is available on its Azure AI Foundry service, Microsoft's platform that brings together AI services for enterprises under a single banner. When asked about DeepSeek's impact on Meta's AI spending during its first-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said spending on AI infrastructure will continue to be a "strategic advantage" for Meta. In March, OpenAI called DeepSeek "state-subsidized" and "state-controlled," and recommends that the U.S. government consider banning models from DeepSeek. During Nvidia's fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang emphasized DeepSeek's "excellent innovation," saying that it and other "reasoning" models are great for Nvidia because they need so much more compute. At the same time, some companies are banning DeepSeek, and so are entire countries and governments, including South Korea. New York state also banned DeepSeek from being used on government devices. As for what DeepSeek's future might hold, it's not clear. Improved models are a given. But the U.S. government appears to be growing wary of what it perceives as harmful foreign influence. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. will likely ban DeepSeek on government devices.

China is reportedly keeping DeepSeek under close watch | TechCrunch

China appears to think homegrown AI startup DeepSeek could become a notable tech success story for the country. After DeepSeek's sudden rise to fame in January with the release of its open "reasoning" model, R1, the company is now operating under new, tighter government-influenced restrictions, according to The Information. Some of the company's employees have been prevented from traveling abroad freely, and the Chinese government is now playing a role in screening potential investors, according to The Information. DeepSeek is enforcing the travel restrictions by having its parent company, quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, hold onto certain staff's passports. The developments come a few weeks after it was reported that the Chinese government was instructing AI researchers and entrepreneurs to avoid traveling to the U.S., fearing the loss of trade secrets. TechCrunch has reached out to DeepSeek for comment.

Deepseek 'clearly not interested' in scaling up -- 160-person team focused on developing new models

China-based AI company Deepseek is reportedly focusing on development and research, instead of chasing revenue, unlike many of its western AI rivals like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. According to the Financial Times, the Hangzhou-based company is focused on developing two new models, R2 and V4, with the intention to hit their goal of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Deepseek garnered significant attention in January 2025, triggering a stock market shakeup that resulted in Nvidia losing $589 billion in market cap in a single day, following the launch of Deepseek R1. Despite the newfound attention, the billionaire founder and CEO of Deepseek, Liang Wenfeng, is allegedly taking a different approach when compared to the company's western competitors. Speaking to the Financial Times, sources close to Deepseek said that there is "little intention to capitalize on Deepseek's sudden fame to commercialize its technology in the near term". Instead, the company is instead focusing on "model development" and developing towards AGI. Deepseek's revenues are also reported to be covering ongoing costs, likely thanks to interest garnered thanks to the release of the Deepseek R1 model in January. Wenfeng is also notoriously difficult to contact, with the Deepseek CEO outright declining interest in any further investment from "venture and state-backed funds", the report continues. But, Wenfeng clearly has enough resources to fund further development. He's also the founder of one of China's leading hedge-funds, High Flyer. According to sources speaking to the Financial Times, he purchased 10,000 Nvidia H800 GPUs, and 10,000 A100s. Though, the chips were purchased before they were banned for sale in China. Deepseek has already incurred over $1.6 billion in hardware costs, and has total fleet of over 50,000 Nvidia GPUs. However, the company might find it difficult to access more advanced Nvidia chips in the future, and could "consider future partnerships" to resolve the issue. In late February, a Singapore-based smuggling ring was busted for alleged illegal re-export of high-performance GPUs, destined for Deepseek, bypassing trade restrictions. It's also alleged that if Deepseek's future demand exceeds their current data center capacity, that the company will rely on "third-party providers", instead of procuring more for themselves. The Chinese government has also thrown support behind Deepseek, with the company gaining access to state-funded datacenters. Deepseek has also invested over $500 million into its technology, and will remain self-funded. "They clearly are not interested in scaling up right now. It's a rare situation where the founder is wealthy and committed enough to keep it lean in a Navy Seal-style for his pursuit of AGI", one industry insider told the Financial Times. Deepseek has "about 160" employees, which is significantly fewer than OpenAI's gargantuan headcount of around 2000 employees (as of December 2024), according to sources speaking to the Financial Times. This makes the company much leaner than many of its rivals. The team is focused on development of the next-generation R2 and V4 models, which are currently slated for release in May. However development "may be accelerated to keep its momentum going" according to Financial Times sources. With Deepseek's next move just a short few months away, another Chinese AI company named Manus AI, which is developing autonomous AI agents, has enjoyed heightened interest. But, it has yet to come within spitting distance of the impact that Deepseek has had on the AI industry. Whether Deepseek's next release can trigger another shock moment for stock markets is also yet to be seen, as the company hones in its focuses on rapid development of advanced AI technologies.

DeepSeek focuses on research over revenue in contrast to Silicon Valley

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over chasing revenues, as its billionaire founder decides not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales. The Hangzhou-based company, led by hedge fund billionaire Liang Wenfeng, has seen a surge for its services through its free website and app, but also from paid business clients. Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, according to two people with knowledge of its development. Interest in DeepSeek has grown since January after the release of its low-cost R1 reasoning model which has comparable performance to US and Chinese competitors but built on a much smaller budget. Customers, mainly from sectors such as healthcare and finance, bought application programming interface, or API, access to DeepSeek's R1 and V3 models, with demand so strong that the start-up had to suspend such services temporarily due to lack of resources it allocated to non-research purposes, according to the people. Industry insiders said Liang has shown little intention to capitalise on DeepSeek's sudden fame to further commercialise its technology in the near term. The company is instead focusing the majority of its resources on model development and the quest to build artificial general intelligence -- machines with humanlike cognitive capabilities. These people added the independently wealthy founder has also declined to entertain interest from China's tech giants as well as venture and state-backed funds to invest in the group for the time being. Many have found it difficult to even arrange a meeting with the secluded founder. "We pulled top-level government connections and only got to sit down with someone from their finance department, who said 'sorry we are not raising'," said one investor at a multibillion-dollar Chinese tech fund. "They clearly are not interested in scaling up right now. It's a rare situation where the founder is wealthy and committed enough to keep it lean in a Navy Seal-style for his pursuit of AGI." DeepSeek's emergence upset markets over doubts whether US tech groups such as Google and OpenAI could maintain their technical edge, as well as the wisdom of huge AI infrastructure spending plans of Big Tech groups. Its approach is also in significant contrast to many Silicon Valley start-ups. OpenAI has taken advantage of its early lead in AI model development to build a formidable consumer business around ChatGPT, generating significant revenues from selling its API. The San Francisco-based company has raised around $20bn in multiple rounds of financing since 2019, and is in talks with investors led by SoftBank to raise $40bn more at a valuation of $260bn. The company burned $5bn last year, much of that on training new models, and made about $4bn of revenue. It charges both corporate customers and individual consumers who use its various closed models. DeepSeek currently has about 160 employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. OpenAI has just over 2,000. "DeepSeek has been super focused from the beginning on the direction it's going," said Yusen Dai, a partner at venture capital Zhen Fund, who has invested in several Chinese AI start-ups. "It didn't even have any consumer product until the launch of R1 [the company's reasoning large language model]" said Dai in a Chinese podcast this week. DeepSeek's lack of commercial ambition has helped tech companies such as Alibaba and Tencent to win over corporate clients in China with their more mature infrastructure and services, raising questions about whether the start-up's revenue streams are sustainable. Apple, for example, chose Alibaba's Qwen over DeepSeek to roll out AI functions on its iPhones in China later this year. Tencent saw its API sales multiply after it started to embrace DeepSeek's open-sourced models, according to another person with direct knowledge of the matter. About half of its cloud clients, mainly from government and finance, have tried to use DeepSeek's models and 20 per cent of them are requesting to customise their localised versions with Tencent's support, they added. DeepSeek's lack of focus on promoting its own mass-market product like OpenAI's ChatGPT contributed to Tencent's decision to embrace the start-up's models, not only on its cloud platform but also on its popular consumer-facing applications, according to the person. Tencent declined to comment. Liang, a billionaire who founded one of China's leading quants funds High Flyer, bought about 10,000 H800 and 10,000 A100 chips in the past few years, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Both are Nvidia's watered-down version of its bestselling AI chips and designed to meet US export controls on sales to China. Liang obtained the H800 chips before they were later banned for China. Nvidia declined to comment. DeepSeek will rely mainly on third-party providers for future demand exceeding their existing capacity, said the person with knowledge of the plans. DeepSeek has won support from Beijing, where the government is counting on AI to spur growth in its slowing economy. The start up has gained access to state-funded data centres, easing its computing constraints. In the long run, DeepSeek may find limited access to Nvidia's new generation of more advanced chips a potential bottleneck and consider future partnerships that can help solve this issue, according to industry insiders. It may also have to be open to state-backed funds at some point, to win further political support, they said. Engineers at the start-up are working full steam towards the release of their R2 and V4 models, which was initially scheduled for May but may be accelerated to keep its momentum going, said a person with knowledge of the move. "We are at the early stage of a revolution where the technology improvement curve is steep," said Zhen Fund's Dai. He added that companies should focus on breakthroughs instead of monetisation because "a high school student can't make much money, while if you train him to become PhD, he can make a lot more." DeepSeek did not respond to requests for comment.

DeepSeek to focus on research over revenue in contrast to Silicon Valley, FT reports

March 13 (Reuters) - Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over revenue, as its billionaire founder has decided not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of its development. Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

DeepSeek AI cranks open the spigots on Chinese venture capital

BEIJING -- DeepSeek's artificial intelligence breakthrough is stirring up China's venture capital world after three straight years of decline. As DeepSeek released its OpenAI rival in late January, AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine was finalizing a $110 million series E financing round led by Hong Kong-based Value Partners, the startup's CEO and founder Alex Zhavoronkov told CNBC in an exclusive interview. The deal closed last month. But so many Chinese funds wanted to participate at the last minute -- "like an avalanche" -- that Insilico is planning a series "E2" raise, Zhavoronkov said. "We have never seen this level of interest before." Qiming Ventures-backed Insilico uses AI from DeepSeek and other companies to create models for developing drugs. Ten of the startup's drugs have already received approval for clinical tests, according to Insilico, which lists research labs in China, the U.S. and the Middle East. Zhavoronkov added that during his U.S. travels in the last few weeks, many U.S. and other global investors have asked him about ways to invest in Chinese AI companies. "It looks like the DeepSeek moment, it created a lot of interest from global investors to invest in China," he said Monday. "I think the funding is going to come back."

DeepSeek's founder isn't interested in investors for now

Artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek rattled the industry earlier this year -- but its founder is reportedly not interested in bringing in outside capital just yet. DeepSeek's founder Liang Wenfeng isn't rushing to find investors who would interfere with his control and the company's decisions, the Wall Street Journal (NWSA-0.91%) reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Liang reportedly also is wary of stakeholders involved with the government due to fears that it could hamper DeepSeek's global efforts. Since its AI models sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street in January, DeepSeek has received interest from China's tech giants, including Tencent (TCEHY+1.94%) and Alibaba (BABA+4.08%), over potential collaborations, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has also reportedly been offered a low-interest loan from the state-owned Bank of China (BACHY+0.76%). After DeepSeek released results in January demonstrating that its open-source reasoning models, DeepSeek-R1, can perform comparably to those from OpenAI on several industry benchmarks, it sparked a global sell-off of tech stocks. In December, the company released its DeepSeek-V3 models, which it said cost just $5.6 million to train and develop on Nvidia (NVDA+1.56%) H800 chips -- a reduced-capability version of the more powerful chips that U.S. firms have touted spending tens of billions of dollars on. Amid the hype over R1, the mobile app for DeepSeek's AI chatbot, also called DeepSeek, surged to the top of Apple's (AAPL-2.88%) App Store downloads. The DeepSeek site experienced outages due to the influx of new users, and the company had to issue a temporary limit on registrations after "large-scale malicious attacks." Since then, DeepSeek has continued to experience service outages from an overabundance of users, and has come under scrutiny by the U.S. and other countries over data security risks. Last month, DeepSeek published its techniques for training its AI models with the H800 chips, and is planning an April release for its next reasoning model, the Wall Street Journal reported. DeepSeek's AI models are currently mostly available for free. Before its success, DeepSeek had sought venture capital funding, but was turned down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Now, the company is reportedly looking to work with larger tech firms to develop commercial AI applications.

Why DeepSeek's CEO is turning down millions in funding

DeepSeek's founder Liang Wenfeng is delaying outside investment as the AI startup navigates its rapid growth and the complexities of funding, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Liang Wenfeng maintains 84% ownership of DeepSeek, with the remaining shares held by individuals tied to his hedge fund, High-Flyer, making it a largely self-funded operation. Unlike many startups dependent on outside capital and investor influence, Liang's strong control over the company limits external pressure. Previously, Liang expressed discomfort with venture capitalists' focus on quick monetization, which contrasts with his commitment to fundamental research in AI. In a 2023 interview with Chinese media, he stated, "I don't want to share control of my company," highlighting his reluctance to engage with investors pushing for rapid returns. DeepSeek has successfully funded its initiatives through profits generated by High-Flyer, alleviating financial constraints. Liang emphasized the importance of technological limitations rather than funding, stating, "Money has never been the problem for us; bans on shipments of advanced chips are the problem," underscoring the challenges posed by U.S. export controls. As a Chinese company, DeepSeek faces increasing scrutiny due to data privacy concerns, resulting in bans from several governments and companies. Accepting funding from Chinese investors could exacerbate these issues, as such investors may share similar worries regarding government access to data. The U.S. government has historically sanctioned Chinese tech firms perceived as closely aligned with Beijing, exemplified by actions against Huawei and DJI. While state entities have approached DeepSeek for potential investment, there is no indication that these offers have been accepted. DeepSeek rocked the market once and here's why it could happen again Despite Liang's current stance, circumstances may evolve. Recently, DeepSeek reported a profit margin, marking its first indication of moving towards monetization, an area typically favored by investors. Moreover, to remain competitive with other leading AI developers, DeepSeek may require more advanced AI chips, which are heavily restricted in China. DeepSeek may also be facing diminishing self-sustainability as High-Flyer's performance has declined, with several of its flagship funds underperforming since 2022. Additionally, the Chinese government has tightened regulations on quantitative funds like High-Flyer since 2024. Reports indicate interest from major tech players like Tencent and Alibaba, although Liang's focus remains on maintaining a science project ethos rather than pursuing immediate financial gains. DeepSeek's chatbot has attracted millions of users but often experiences service interruptions. This high usage has led the company to offer discounts during off-peak hours to alleviate server strain. Some major Chinese tech firms are testing DeepSeek's capabilities to enhance their platforms without direct cost, using the free code provided by DeepSeek. Liang has approached various venture capital firms, including international entities, but has faced challenges in securing investment, primarily due to concerns over the lack of a clear monetization strategy. Despite this, increasing interest remains, yet Liang continues to prioritize a long-term vision, stating, "We don't do applications, we just do research and exploration," reinforcing his desire to uphold the foundational integrity of DeepSeek's operations.

DeepSeek to focus on research over revenue in contrast to Silicon Valley: Reports

Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is prioritising research over profits, despite a recent revenue surge. Its billionaire founder is resisting the Silicon Valley trend of capitalising on booming sales. For the first time last month, revenue covered ongoing costs, insiders told the Financial Times, highlighting a long-term commitment to innovation over earnings.Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over revenue, as its billionaire founder has decided not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of its development.

China's DeepSeek is asking employees not to travel abroad freely, claim reports

AI chatbot firm DeepSeek of China has reportedly issued travelling notice to its employees.Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek has reportedly asked some of the company's staff to avoid venturing overseas. DeepSeek forbids some employees from traveling abroad freely, Reuters reported quoting The Information. The development came even as the local government in eastern China's Zhejiang province is screening potential investors before DeepSeek company meetings, the report says. DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over revenue, as its billionaire founder has decided not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of its development. Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer's use of artificial intelligence in trading markets has spurred an AI arms race among mainland asset managers that could shake up the country's $10 trillion fund management industry, Reuters. Quant fund High-Flyer not only deployed AI in its multi-billion dollar portfolio, it also built China's most notable AI start-up DeepSeek whose cost-effective large language model stunned Silicon Valley and undermined Western dominance of the AI sector. In its wake, aspiring Chinese hedge fund managers such as Baiont Quant, Wizard Quant and Mingshi Investment Management are stepping up AI research, while dozens of mutual fund companies are rushing to incorporate DeepSeek into their investment workflow. Q1. What is DeepSeek? A1. DeepSeek is Chinese AI chatbot. Q2. What is AI? A1. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence.

Chinese Investors 'Rushing To Find The Next DeepSeek,' Says VC, As AI Boom Fuels Investment Surge After Nvidia Selloff - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

DeepSeek AI's recent breakthrough has sparked renewed interest in Chinese tech investments, potentially reversing three consecutive years of venture capital declines in the region. "People are rushing just to find the next DeepSeek," said Annabelle Yu Long, founding partner of BAI Capital, according to CNBC. This surge follows VC investment in China-based companies falling to a record low of $48.86 billion in 2024, according to Pitchbook data. AI drug discovery firm Insilico Medicine recently closed a $110 million financing round led by Hong Kong's Value Partners, with CEO Alex Zhavoronkov stating that the last-minute interest from Chinese funds was "like an avalanche." The company, which uses DeepSeek's AI to develop drugs, is now planning an additional "E2" raise. Chinese government support is amplifying the trend. The government announced plans for a fund expected to mobilize 1 trillion yuan ($137.7 billion) for tech investment. Despite this momentum, U.S.-China tensions remain a significant hurdle for international investors considering Chinese AI opportunities. DeepSeek's AI breakthrough in late January led to a significant selloff in U.S. tech stocks, with NVIDIA Corp.'s NVDA market value dropping by $593 billion, as investors feared increased competition. Read Next: Jamie Dimon Cashed Out $234 Million In JPMorgan Stock, Warren Buffett Stockpiled $334 Billion In Cash -- Weeks Later, Markets Crashed. Coincidence? Image Via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. NVDANVIDIA Corp$109.432.29%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum81.26Growth88.72Quality97.69Value7.47Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

DeepSeek Reportedly Rejects Milking The AI "Cash Cow", As The Firm Prioritizes Innovation Over Revenue Unlike Its Silicon Valley Counterparts

DeepSeek, one of China's most prominent AI firms, has reportedly rejected the idea of commercializing its technology, defying the norms that we have seen from Silicon Valley. Well, AI is indeed one of the biggest technologies of this decade, and it has seen massive development over the past few years, with firms like OpenAI igniting the race. However, AI innovation has come with the exchange of high financial resources, or at least this is the narrative presented to the market. However, DeepSeek apparently aims to defy this, as, according to a report by The Financial Times, the firm has rejected VC funding and state-backed collaboration, all to focus on building up artificial intelligence to new heights. DeepSeek's approach to AI is somewhat different from that of its counterparts in Silicon Valley since, instead of chasing to achieve higher revenue targets, the Chinese firm is heavily invested in R&D efforts. The FT claims that DeepSeek's founder, the billionaire Liang Wenfeng, has rejected collaborations with mainstream tech giants like Tencent and ByteDance and hasn't even entertained investments from the government, as the company isn't interested in scaling up for now. They clearly are not interested in scaling up right now. It's a rare situation where the founder is wealthy and committed enough to keep it lean in a Navy Seal-style for his pursuit of AGI. - Chinese Investor via FT When you look at what the West is interested in, firms like OpenAI have managed to capitalize on their early lead in AI, which has helped them raise billions over the past few years, scaling at an unprecedented rate. OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $40 billion from investors like SoftBank, showing that the firm isn't compromising on its revenue stream, milking the best out of the AI hype. But, DeepSeek's approach shows us that AI doesn't require "hundreds of billions" but rather a few talented minds and a dream. However, there's still a downside to DeepSeek's "non-collaborative" approach since it has provided competitors like Alibaba the opportunity to promote its AI services to the industry. Given that these firms have a more robust infrastructure compared to DeepSeek, this makes it ideal for large-scale companies to adopt their services, putting DeepSeek's sustainability at a compromise. However, the use of DeepSeek's models, both locally and over the internet, has seen a gigantic rise since its release, showing that the firm is here to stay for now. The industry's adoption of DeepSeek will grow much further once the firm releases its newer R2 and V4 models, which are expected to drop later this year. Given that they want to continue this momentum, DeepSeek will definitely require more computing resources, which will ultimately prompt them to explore revenue segments.

DeepSeek Wants To Stay Free As Of Now, Founder Rejects Monetization - Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

The new Benzinga Rankings show you exactly how stocks stack up -- scoring them across five key factors that matter most to investors. Every day, one stock rises to the top. Which one is leading today? DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has rejected investor proposals to monetize his programs. Liang did not want to charge for DeepSeek's core AI models, which the company has open-sourced, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. DeepSeek aims to release its next reasoning, designed for solving complex problems by April, the report said. Also Read: Alibaba Unveils New AI Chip To Power China's Open-Source Tech Push, Challenge US Chip Giants Liang joined Chinese executives who met leader Xi Jinping on February 17. According to sources, the state-owned Bank of China has offered to grant the company a low-interest loan. The sources indicated that executives from China's Tencent Holding TCEHY and Alibaba Group Holding BABA have recently met Liang to discuss potential cooperation. The Chinese artificial intelligence startup founder snubbed prospective investors, citing his preference for retaining the science project ethos. Sources familiar with the matter say Wenfeng feared that outsiders would interfere in DeepSeek's decisions. He noted that Beijing's connection could make winning the global adoption of DeepSeek's AI models harder. DeepSeek chatbot's popularity caused frequent service hiccups and drew global sanctions due to data security concerns. The Trump administration is considering restricting the Chinese artificial intelligence DeepSeek, including banning their chatbot from government devices. Several U.S. allies, including Italy, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and Taiwan, have limited the use of DeepSeek. DeepSeek's handling of user data has sparked national security concerns. When DeepSeek claimed that its AI model was built at a fraction of the cost of its U.S. rivals, it led to Nvidia Corp NVDA losing $600 billion in market cap in a single day. DeepSeek's AI model fueled a $1 trillion market wipeout. Reportedly, the U.S. is probing DeepSeek for possible Nvidia chip embargo violations. Also Read: Supermicro's AI Boom, Liquid Cooling Edge Spark Analyst Confidence In Growth Potential Photo by Erlin Diah via Shutterstock BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd$138.064.16%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum96.47Growth65.09Quality63.89Value77.38Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewNVDANVIDIA Corp$108.741.65%TCEHYTencent Holdings Ltd$66.802.06%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs