
Founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng and headquartered in Hangzhou, China, DeepSeek has quickly become a significant player in the global AI landscape. Emerging from the High-Flyer hedge fund, the company focuses on developing open-source large language models (LLMs), challenging industry giants like OpenAI and Google.
In January 2025, DeepSeek released DeepSeek-R1, an AI model that has impressed experts with its efficiency in mathematics, coding, and reasoning tasks. The model employs “pure reinforcement learning,” a method similar to AlphaZero by Google DeepMind, allowing it to achieve advanced capabilities without relying on supervised data. Notably, DeepSeek-R1 is open-sourced under the MIT license, providing high-level AI capabilities for free and disrupting the traditionally proprietary AI market.
The impact of DeepSeek’s innovations has been felt across industries. Tech stocks, including NVIDIA and Microsoft, have experienced notable declines as analysts predict DeepSeek could drastically lower the costs of AI development. Despite its technical achievements, the company faces criticism for integrating censorship mechanisms into its models. Topics sensitive to the Chinese government, such as the Tiananmen Square protests and the political status of Taiwan, are avoided by its AI.
DeepSeek exemplifies China’s rapid progress in artificial intelligence, offering a glimpse into the potential of open-source AI models to democratize access to cutting-edge technology. As the company continues to grow, it will likely shape the future direction of the global AI industry.