DeepSeek Founder Liang Wenfeng Resurfaces with Long-term Research Insights

Hello China Tech · 1 month ago · 24

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng discussed the company's strategy in a leaked 4-hour investor meeting transcript, framing the performance gap with US AI labs as primarily a compute resource constraint rather than a talent or fundamental capability difference. Liang stated DeepSeek spent roughly 20 billion yuan in 2026 and operates with about one-twentieth of the compute available to major US competitors, with a goal of narrowing the timeline gap from two years to six months or less. The company plans to rely more on domestic Chinese chips (particularly Huawei's 950), maintain aggressive low-cost API pricing that recovers equipment costs in 10 months, and prioritize team retention through equity grants as critical to reaching AGI.