Meet the Nerdy Innovator Behind the $1 Trillion Shock to the US Market
Liang Wenfeng’s AI startup DeepSeek has shaken Wall Street, raising concerns about US dominance in AI.
Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek, AI, Guangdong, China, Wall Street, Stock Market
Guangdong: Have you heard about Liang Wenfeng? He’s the founder of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup. His company is making big waves, competing with giants like OpenAI. But he’s pretty low-key about it.
This week, DeepSeek shocked Wall Street. It caused a $1 trillion drop in the US stock market. People are worried that the West might not be leading in AI anymore.
Liang started DeepSeek in 2023. He was born in Guangdong and studied in Zhejiang. His journey is quite interesting.
One of his partners shared a funny story. They first met Liang and thought he was just a nerd with a bad haircut. He talked about building a huge chip cluster for AI, but they didn’t take him seriously.
In 2015, Liang set up a hedge fund called High-Flyer. It focused on automated stock trading and used machine learning to improve strategies. But like many, it faced challenges when regulations tightened last year.
Despite that, High-Flyer manages about $8 billion in assets. This funding helps DeepSeek with its AI research. Plus, they have a lot of computing power for AI projects.
By 2022, they had gathered 10,000 high-performance chips from Nvidia. These chips are crucial for building AI systems. But soon after, the US restricted chip sales to China.
Liang spends his days reading, coding, and discussing ideas with his team. It’s a typical routine for researchers.
When asked about Liang, DeepSeek mistakenly named another entrepreneur with the same English name. But Liang is focused on pushing AI forward.
He believes China shouldn’t always follow the West in AI. He said there’s a gap between originality and imitation. If things don’t change, China will remain a follower.
Liang is determined to explore new paths in AI. It’s an exciting time for him and his company!