In technology, many entrepreneurs only take a decisive act. Liang Wenfeng, the founder of Deepseek, is already in his second.
The engineer, described by colleagues as endoscopically, first made his mark on China’s investment world at the end of 2010, coexist a mutual risk capital that used artificial-law models to deliver strong returns and attract billions of dollars.
They were associated with profits and wary to tighten Beijing for speculative negotiation, Mr Liang revolved in 2023. He threw money into artificial intelligence, betting on AI chips and assembled a team to build the Front-R by Silicon Valley.
Now, just two years later, Deepseek has uploaded the global technological landscape. Here’s what you need to know about Liang Wenfeng.
He is a deep technical engineer. This puts him in a series of other successful Chinese technology executives.
When Chinese technologists discussed why the country’s largest investors and technology companies failed to predict the rise of genetic AI, many pointed out a single culprit: China companies were obsessed with quick returns in a strong competitive market.
Armed with these courses – and supported by his own commercial unexpected – Mr Liang has made it clear that his ambitions are far beyond commercial applications.
His focus, he said, is on what he sees as China’s unique opportunity to cover the United States. This means that you are taking bold, idealistic changes in the fundamental challenges of the c. His main ambition is to create artificial general intelligence or agi – the indefinite goal of building machines that can think and learn as humans.
When Deepseek underestimates Chinese competition last year, offering its model at bargain prices, forcing bigger opponents in their own price cuts, Mr Liang rejected the importance.
“To be honest, we don’t really care – it was something we did along the way,” he said in a widely joint interview with 36KR, a Chinese technology store. “Providing Cloud services is not our main goal. Our goal is still to achieve Agi” (Deepseek has remained silent this week and did not respond to comments for comments.)
In his beliefs that superhuman artificial intelligence is just around the corner, Mr Liang sounds very much like Openai’s CEO Sam Altman. But the similarities end there. Mr. Liang, a low -profile executive with a deep technical background on AI Engineering, fits more in the mold of Pony Ma, co -founder of China’s teisent than the charismatic visionaries of Silicon Valley.
Started as a mutual risk trader. And then returned to a clear AI research.
In many ways, Mr Liang’s career identifies the most important shifts in China’s technological landscape.
His dissertation for 2010 at Zhejiang University has faced what will soon become one of the hottest themes in Chinese AI: Improving Intelligent Monitoring Algorithms for follow -up cameras.
Later, the Risk Founding Founding Founding was buffed by regulatory pressures, eventually forcing the closure of one of its main investment products, according to Peter Alexander, Managing Director of Z-Ben Advisors, a consulting market that researching the Chinese hedge funds.
“Between 2019 and 2023, they wanted to have this side work, so that their doctorates felt they had something to do and so deeply came from it,” Alexander said.
“But he really went to overdrive when their main investment product had to close in February 2024,” he said.
In a way, it was China’s suppression in the private sector that prompted Deepseek to the long -term AI research.
He is willing to try the things that other entrepreneurs will not do. He even hired Lit Majors.
If you asked China’s AI experts about who would hand over the country’s first major AI generator, few would have chosen Mr Liang. This included the Chinese government.
Deepseek was a private company with no apparent state support, without large alliances and none of the institutional players such as Baidu, the search giant. In a system that favored the involved, Mr Liang was not one.
However, there is a previous one for that. Some of China’s most annoying technology companies – Huawei, Alibaba, Byteance – started out of the spotlight only to redefine their industries.
Mr Liang’s approach was as unusual as his company rise. It has underlined the spiritual exploration of absolute grinding. The philosophy of recruitment is equally unorthodox – Deepseek mechanical groups, who have been integrated with literary lovers to help improve AI models of the company.
“Everyone has their own unique journey and bring their own ideas with them, so there is no reason to push them,” he said in an interview 36kr.
In a technological culture determined by exhaustive hours and hierarchy, the prospect borders with Bohemian. However, Mr Liang insists that change is necessary if China wants to lead to AI Frontier innovation.
“When Chatgpt came out, the whole industry in China did not have the confidence to continue border innovation,” he said.
“Innovation begins with confidence – and we often see more than young people.”
Alexandra Stevenson He contributed a report from Hong Kong.