Founded in
July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a prominent figure in the hedge fund and AI industries, DeepSeek operates independently and is primarily funded by his hedge fund,
High-Flyer, which has around
$8 billion in assets. The company first entered the market with its open-source tool,
DeepSeek Coder, launched in November 2023, before moving onto advanced AI models like DeepSeek-V2, and most recently, DeepSeek-R1, which rivals the AI already offered by established giants.
DeepSeek’s R1 model is noteworthy as it boasts capabilities comparable to those of {OpenAI’s](
https://openai.com/) ChatGPT, but costs significantly less to develop and implement—reportedly just
$6 million compared to hundreds of millions spent by its competitors. The ability to create high-quality AI models at a lower cost could disrupt traditional AI investment paradigms, as pointed out by industry experts:
> “DeepSeek has taken the market by storm by doing less.” -
Giuseppe Sette