DeepSeek
Open-source AGI Company
About DeepSeek
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI startup founded in May 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the founder of quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer. The company gained global recognition after releasing DeepSeek-V3 in December 2024 and DeepSeek-R1 in January 2025.
Its open-source models rival leading proprietary systems while using a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture with 671 billion total parameters and only 37 billion active per token for greater efficiency. DeepSeek reported training V3 for under $6 million in compute costs, challenging assumptions about the capital required to build frontier AI models.
The company’s open-source strategy has made DeepSeek one of the most influential AI labs outside the United States. Its releases triggered industry-wide discussion about AI economics, contributed to major market reactions in early 2025, and established DeepSeek as a leading force in open-source AGI research.
Founders
Funding History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company focused on developing large language models, reasoning models, and open-source AI systems.
Who founded DeepSeek?
DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng, who is also the founder of quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management.
When was DeepSeek founded?
DeepSeek was founded in May 2023 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
What is DeepSeek best known for?
DeepSeek is best known for its open-source AI models including DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, which gained global attention for delivering strong performance at significantly lower training costs.
Is DeepSeek open source?
Yes. DeepSeek has open-sourced several of its flagship models and research, making them available to developers and researchers worldwide.
How is DeepSeek funded?
Initially, DeepSeek was self-funded by founder Liang Wenfeng and High-Flyer. On 16th June 2026, it completed its first external funding round, raising over $7.4 billion.
Where is DeepSeek headquartered?
DeepSeek is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
What products does DeepSeek offer?
DeepSeek offers AI foundation models, reasoning models, coding models, chat assistants, APIs, and open-source model releases for research and commercial use.
