Meet Liang Wenfeng, The Brain Behind DeepSeek, China’s Rival To OpenAI

Chinese AI research lab DeepSeek rose to prominence after releasing its open-source AI model, DeepSeek-R1.

Founder Liang launched DeepSeek out of scientific curiosity in 2023. After graduating, he moved to Chengdu, Sichuan, to explore AI applications across various fields.

Liang’s background is in finance. A Zhejiang University graduate, he co-founded the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer in 2015, integrating AI into its trading strategies to forecast market trends and guide investments.

He describes DeepSeek as a flexible, bottom-up organisation with no fixed roles or strict hierarchy, encouraging free collaboration. However, once an idea shows promise, management steps in to allocate resources top-down.

In a July 2024 interview, Liang emphasised DeepSeek’s focus on advancing technology over quick profits, aiming to shift China from relying on foreign innovations to driving its own AI ecosystem growth.