In technology, many entrepreneurs get only one defining act. Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, is already on his second. The engineer, described by colleagues as introspective, first made his mark in China’s investment world in the late 2010s, cofounding a hedge fund that used artificial-intelligence models to deliver strong returns and attracted billions of dollars in capital.
“Between 2019 and 2023, they wanted to have this side project so that their Ph.D.s felt like they had something to do and so DeepSeek originated from that,” Mr. Alexander said. “But it really went into overdrive when their primary investment product had to shut down in February of 2024,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/business/deepseek-china-liang-wenfeng.html