The founding father of Deepseek, Liang Wenfeng, is not in a hurry to take a position from outside people, WSJ (*3*)Reported Monday.
Deepseek is currently one of the hottest AI startups in the world after the Chinese company AI has conquered Silicon Valley in its latest model at the starting of this 12 months.
Unlike suppliers of AI Deepseek models, who often announce a mega round filled with outstanding investors, Liang did not announce the fundraiser, despite many VC interests. Rumors about his alleged investors even fueled (unfounded) rallies in some Chinese actions.
The founding father of Deepseek does not need to lose control
The evaluation of Chinese corporate records carried out by TechCrunch shows that Deepseek is 84% owned by Liang himself. The remainder of the startup is owned by people associated with the Hedge Fund Liang, High-Flyer.
This signifies that, unlike most startups that require external capital, and subsequently are used for at least some external impact, Deepseek is mainly a single program. And Liang does not have the highest respect for VCS opinions.
When Liang tried to gather capital in the past, he was discouraged by VCS at the quick earning of AI, unlike basic research, he said Interview with the Chinese media in 2023.
WSJ informed that one of the major the reason why Liang did not say yes is that he did not need to share control over his company, WSJ informed.
Deepseek has not yet required financing outside
Most startups need capital from investors from the very starting. But Deepseek is a unique beast. Liang was capable of finance Deepseek by high Flyer profits, reducing the need for external investments.
“Money has never been a problem for us; The problem is the delivery prohibitions of advanced systems – he said in 2023.
Investors may deepen the concerns about trust and privacy
As a Chinese company, Deepseek operates on the basis of raw Chinese regulations that provide the government with wide access to data.
This was caused by Deepek bans on the growing variety of governments, and even some private corporations.
These bans might be even worse if Deepseek accepts funds from a Chinese investor who encounters similar problems.
The US government has the history of sanctioning Chinese technology corporations, which, he claims, are near the Chinese government, comparable to the Huawei telecommunications giant and the popular DJI dronemaker.
This did not stop some Chinese state entities from approaching Deepeks about investments, information ReportedAlthough there are no suggestions that Deepseek accepted.
Why all this will change
This does not mean, nonetheless, that Deepseek won’t ever increase capital outside capital.
At the starting of this month, Deepseek announced for the first time (largely theoretical) a margin of profit, signaling the change towards monetization – something VCS, but this liang earlier earlier released.
To sustain with other heavy AI, Deepseek will probably also need access to a larger variety of AI systems – the largest bottleneck about its development, its founder Liang – he said in 2023. These chips are expensive and heavily limited in China attributable to export control in the USA.
Deepseek ability to self -finance might also disappear. While High-Flyer was doing well in the past, some of the flagship funds have achieved worse results since 2022, WSJ (*3*)Reported.
It also does not help that the Chinese government was cracking on quantitative funds comparable to High-Flyer since 2024.
While there are several specific names, Deepseek has already turn into interested in Tencent and Alibaba, in keeping with many press reports.
Deepseek did not answer immediately at the request for comment.