Chinese startup DeepSeek has become a national and international sensation with its breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Founded by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, the small AI lab shook up the tech world with its groundbreaking language model called R1. Liang and his team detailed how they could build a model that could learn on its own without human intervention on a shoestring budget.
While US AI giants OpenAI and Google DeepMind are leaders in these technologies, DeepSeek’s R1 model has challenged their dominance. The breakthrough has sparked heated debate in Silicon Valley and raised concerns that DeepSeek could compete with US tech giants.
Liang Wenfeng has become a symbol of national pride in his country. Despite climate change, high-end chip technology and US export bans, Liang’s DeepSeek project has been a huge success with local resources. It uses the profits of its hedge fund High-Flyer to recruit the most talented engineers and conduct serious scientific research in the field of artificial intelligence.
One of the main reasons for DeepSeek's success is its ability to achieve maximum results with limited technological resources. The company managed to develop a model with 671 billion parameters using less powerful Nvidia H800 chips due to a US export ban. On the other hand, DeepSeek has dedicated its success to scientific research rather than commercialization, and this approach distinguishes it from its competitors.
DeepSeek's success not only demonstrates the power of Chinese engineering talent, but also proves that it can provide serious competition to US companies in this field. However, some experts note that it is still an open question whether DeepSeek will maintain its long-term competitiveness at a time when technology is rapidly developing.
